Windows refuses to start.

[Guest sumchic]

Hello everyone. First post, lol.

 

Anyway here's my problem, hopefully someone out there can help w/o me having to pay a dime,:

 

Over a week ago, I was browsing on my DELL Inspiron 15 laptop I had several tabs open in Google Chrome, and also Photoshop CS6, Notepad, Paint.net, and some software for creating GIF's - all opened at once and running simultaneously. Let me just mention now that I had just downloaded and installed this GIF creating software before I had issues with my computer - whether the two are related I'm still not sure of. The GIF software is called Unfreez.)

 

Okay, so I had all these applications open, switched back to Photoshop for a minute and then my computer suddenly froze but the sound from a video I was watching was still playing. It continued that way for about 2-3 minutes and I got frustrated and slammed down on the keys, loool. I know I shouldn't have, and I hope this has nothing to do with my laptop refusing to start Windows.

 

Onwards.

 

I turned off the laptop, rebooted, but Windows refused to begin. All it could do was load files and  then start System Repair (which continued to run all night - yes I left it open overnight out of desperation.) Turned it off in the morning and continued this pattern for the next few days.

 

I called DELL and they told me they could fix the issue but because I no longer have a warranty on my laptop (which I bought used, by the way) I would have to pay $129 to fix everything.

 

I have not set a restore point or anything on my laptop - so that worries me even more. If it will ever work again?

 

 

Please help me any way you can. I need my laptop for school. ( >__>)

Thank you, all.

[daledoc1]

Hi, sumchic:

 

 

Sounds bad.

It will require expertise from the staff and forum members above my pay grade.

 

But for starters, please provide the following information to begin troubleshooting:

1. You mention Dell Inspiron 15 -- do you have the exact model number and approximate age of the computer (we might need the "Service Tag" number, too, but don't post that publicly at this time)?
2. Do you have the Windows OS disks from Dell that would have come with it at the time it was purchased?
3. Do you have access to another computer, that you can use to burn recovery disks?
4. What version of Windows (XP, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1) and what "architecture" (32-bit or 64-bit) is it running?
5. Can you get into Windows safe mode (by pressing the power button and then gently tapping F8 and selecting "Safe Mode")?
6. Have you tried any of built-in diagnostics that Dell usually includes on their computers?

The more expert folks will probably need more info, but this ought to help, for starters....

Please be patient, as it is the weekend.

We'll need to wait for the gurus and pros to stop by.

 

daledoc1

 

[Guest sumchic]

Hi, sumchic:

 

 

Sounds bad.

It will require expertise from the staff and forum members above my pay grade.

 

But for starters, please provide the following information to begin troubleshooting:

1. You mention Dell Inspiron 15 -- do you have the exact model number and approximate age of the computer (we might need the "Service Tag" number, too, but don't post that publicly at this time)?
2. Do you have the Windows OS disks from Dell that would have come with it at the time it was purchased?
3. Do you have access to another computer, that you can use to burn recovery disks?
4. What version of Windows (XP, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1) and what "architecture" (32-bit or 64-bit) is it running?
5. Can you get into Windows safe mode (by pressing the power button and then gently tapping F8 and selecting "Safe Mode")?
6. Have you tried any of built-in diagnostics that Dell usually includes on their computers?

The more expert folks will probably need more info, but this ought to help, for starters....

Please be patient, as it is the weekend.

We'll need to wait for the gurus and pros to stop by.

 

daledoc1

My laptop is a DELL Inspiron 15, the model # is N5050. It is a windows 7 home premium and I think 64 bit 

 

Ummm, no my laptop was purchased used but had never been turned on until I recieved the computer.

 

No, safe mode wont start for me at all... just stays on the "loading files" page and then the computer shuts off completely

 

 

I do have access to another computer yes and it can burn discs i believe.... would doing this erase my files though???

 

thank you...

[daledoc1]

Hi:

Thanks for the info.

 

You could have a failing hard drive.

Dell computers typically have some built-in diagnostics.

You might want to try that:

How to Start PSA Diagnostics?
1.Turn the computer off.
2.Turn the computer back on.
3.Immediately at the Dell logo screen, starting tapping the <F12> key once a second until the One Time Boot menu appears (if the computer boots to Windows turn the computer off and try again)
4.At the One Time Boot menu, press the <Down> arrow key to highlight Diagnostics, PSA+ or Enter ePSA, then press <Enter> to begin the PSA.
5.Write down any Error Codes and Validation codes listed.

 

ALSO: Do you have the SERVICE TAG or EXPRESS SERVICE CODE for the computer.  The service tag number for a Dell laptop is usually on a sticker on the bottom of the computer.

 

Beyond this, we'll need to wait for the more expert members to advise you.  If it's not catastrophic hardware failure, they may be able to assist you with at least recovering some of your data.

 

Thanks,

 

daledoc1

[Firefox]

Best course of action with this computer, being that it was bought used and you have no control of what was installed on it, is to contact Dell and have them ship you a restore/OS CD and reload the system from scratch.

 

In other words, it needs to be wiped and reloaded so you have only your installed software on it.

[daledoc1]

Great idea, Firefox!

 

Question for sumchic: When you say "used" did you really mean "refurbished"?

IOW did you purchase this system already refurbished, from Dell?

Or did you buy it "used" from a third-party seller (in which case Firefox's advice would be all the more critical).

 

We can try to help you as best as possible, but you may have to invest a few $ in order to regain a safe, stable, working system.

 

ALSO, @sumchic: Your user account was inadvertently deleted the other night by the Admin team during a system cleanup.

Please create a new account and post back and someone will assist you further as needed

Sorry for the trouble.

 

daledoc1

[sumchic2]

Hi, I'm back you guys - gonna go answer your questions now 

[sumchic2]

Best course of action with this computer, being that it was bought used and you have no control of what was installed on it, is to contact Dell and have them ship you a restore/OS CD and reload the system from scratch.

 

In other words, it needs to be wiped and reloaded so you have only your installed software on it.

 

 

Ok so it actually WAS refurbished (im sorry not good with these terms im not techy) so does that change anything?

 

i have already contacted DELL and they said that they can fix it without me sending anything in, but i just have to pay....

 

my main thing is that i am afraid files will be DELETED or it will mess up again because the REAL issue was not addressed 

 

thnx 

 

and i think the restore windows CD erases ALL my stuff right? yeah, i cant do that... i would die 

[sumchic2]

Hi:

Thanks for the info.

 

You could have a failing hard drive.

Dell computers typically have some built-in diagnostics.

You might want to try that:

How to Start PSA Diagnostics?

1.Turn the computer off.

2.Turn the computer back on.

3.Immediately at the Dell logo screen, starting tapping the <F12> key once a second until the One Time Boot menu appears (if the computer boots to Windows turn the computer off and try again)

4.At the One Time Boot menu, press the <Down> arrow key to highlight Diagnostics, PSA+ or Enter ePSA, then press <Enter> to begin the PSA.

5.Write down any Error Codes and Validation codes listed.

 

ALSO: Do you have the SERVICE TAG or EXPRESS SERVICE CODE for the computer.  The service tag number for a Dell laptop is usually on a sticker on the bottom of the computer.

 

Beyond this, we'll need to wait for the more expert members to advise you.  If it's not catastrophic hardware failure, they may be able to assist you with at least recovering some of your data.

 

Thanks,

 

daledoc1

 thnx so much daledoc1 but im kinda scared to run that scan as i dont wanna screw anything up further,,,,,,,,,,

 

so maybe DELL could just fix it on their own? 

[sumchic2]

Great idea, Firefox!

 

Question for sumchic: When you say "used" did you really mean "refurbished"?

IOW did you purchase this system already refurbished, from Dell?

Or did you buy it "used" from a third-party seller (in which case Firefox's advice would be all the more critical).

 

We can try to help you as best as possible, but you may have to invest a few $ in order to regain a safe, stable, working system.

 

ALSO, @sumchic: Your user account was inadvertently deleted the other night by the Admin team during a system cleanup.

Please create a new account and post back and someone will assist you further as needed

Sorry for the trouble.

 

daledoc1

yes it is refurbished - im sorry

 

i bought it off amazon from a seller and they said it was refurbished and had never before been booted

[CWB]

how long ago did you purchase the laptop from the "refurbisher" ?

was it a "dell certified" refurbisher (aka : factory refurbished) or "private refurbisher" ?

in either case , if the machine is out of the warranty period of either one ... you are on your own .

 

if the boys at dell can fix the machine (with you typing in the stuff that is needed) a 129 bucks may be cheap , relatively speaking .

however , i question the hard drive integrity (see below) . if the hard drive is bad ... a "fix" may not be possible or fail after a short period of time .

 

 

hopefully , someone here can come up with a fast and relatively simple solution , but barring that :

 

 

some thoughts as to what might be or happened :

 

as for why your machine *froze* in the first place ... and you may have two separate issues happening ...

it actually did not "freeze" ... as the audio was still running but the video itself ceased to function .

this is indicative of the video processor overheating and "shutting down" ... this may have been caused by the number of programs you had opened (whether minimized or not) and marginal cooling (clogged fan/air path) . there are cases where the heat pipe and/or contact to the GPU and CPU starts failing .

too much stuff running and the other items sort of pushed it over the edge .

 

whacking a laptop while it is running is a good way to damage the hard drive ... and you may have indeed done this when you beat on the keyboard .

 

if you want to retrieve your files ...

about the best thing i can think of is to pull the hard drive and connect it to another comp and pull your files off .

as you seem to be lacking in the technical department , i would suggest finding someone with a good knowledge of comps .

 

personally , i would hook it up to a linux based machine and pull the files that way .

it is also possible to burn a linux disk and "live run" it on the laptop in order to recover your files ...

this is involved and requires some technical background .

(you can also run tests on the HD via the linux live installation to see if it is failing)

i would also minimize the running of the hard drive until the files are being extracted ...

a damaged drive will only get worse by running it .

 

after the files are pulled off , the drive should be replaced with a new one , the OS and drivers reloaded , etc .

if you received no recovery/system disks when you bought the machine , you will have to purchase them from dell .

 

(could someone here link to the thread that MT16 had with her desktop machine ... this will show the OP some of what is involved technically ... especially the linux part)

[daledoc1]

As just a home user, I would heartily agree with CWB and Firefox.

 

I certainly understand the trepidation - this sort of computer catastrophe would flummox most of us "home users", myself included.

However, if you don't have backups and want to at least recover your data, you're going to have to do something???

Paying the $ to Dell or to a reputable, local "mom and pop" computer repair shop is probably the best bet, if you are uncomfortable walking through any of the recovery options that folks have suggested.

This would be even more the case if you want to be able to get back to a working computer (though it remains to be seen if that's even possible).

 

The PSA Diagnostics using F12 would be one thing to try -- if the hardware is bad, then you or *someone* will need to go to Plan B to get your data back, as CWB & Firefox suggested.

 

The expert (myself NOT included) help here is certainly free, but we (read: the expert members) can only walk you through steps & point you to instructions resources, as we (read: they) don't have physical possession of the computer to do the work.

 

Ennywho, please take a look at Firefox's and CWB's advice -- they will do the best they can to get you going again.

 

I hope you get it sorted.

 

 

daledoc1

[sumchic2]

how long ago did you purchase the laptop from the "refurbisher" ?

was it a "dell certified" refurbisher (aka : factory refurbished) or "private refurbisher" ?

in either case , if the machine is out of the warranty period of either one ... you are on your own .

 

if the boys at dell can fix the machine (with you typing in the stuff that is needed) a 129 bucks may be cheap , relatively speaking .

however , i question the hard drive integrity (see below) . if the hard drive is bad ... a "fix" may not be possible or fail after a short period of time .

 

 

hopefully , someone here can come up with a fast and relatively simple solution , but barring that :

 

 

some thoughts as to what might be or happened :

 

as for why your machine *froze* in the first place ... and you may have two separate issues happening ...

it actually did not "freeze" ... as the audio was still running but the video itself ceased to function .

this is indicative of the video processor overheating and "shutting down" ... this may have been caused by the number of programs you had opened (whether minimized or not) and marginal cooling (clogged fan/air path) . there are cases where the heat pipe and/or contact to the GPU and CPU starts failing .

too much stuff running and the other items sort of pushed it over the edge .

 

whacking a laptop while it is running is a good way to damage the hard drive ... and you may have indeed done this when you beat on the keyboard .

 

if you want to retrieve your files ...

about the best thing i can think of is to pull the hard drive and connect it to another comp and pull your files off .

as you seem to be lacking in the technical department , i would suggest finding someone with a good knowledge of comps .

 

personally , i would hook it up to a linux based machine and pull the files that way .

it is also possible to burn a linux disk and "live run" it on the laptop in order to recover your files ...

this is involved and requires some technical background .

(you can also run tests on the HD via the linux live installation to see if it is failing)

i would also minimize the running of the hard drive until the files are being extracted ...

a damaged drive will only get worse by running it .

 

after the files are pulled off , the drive should be replaced with a new one , the OS and drivers reloaded , etc .

if you received no recovery/system disks when you bought the machine , you will have to purchase them from dell .

 

(could someone here link to the thread that MT16 had with her desktop machine ... this will show the OP some of what is involved technically ... especially the linux part)

thnx for ur reply 

 

OK the laptop is factory refurbished

 

and the steps your listed are fine but i dont have a linux computer so would another dell be OK? anyway it seems too complicated to do by myself... so i think i will leave it up to dell to at least FIGURE OUT what is actually wrong with it

 

and teh steps u listed... are they not implying that the issue with the laptop is a hardware issue and not a software one?

i really hope it is just a software issue because that seems liek it could be solved easier..... dont u think? 

 

and do u mean physically taking out the hard drive and putting it INTO another computer???   i didnt even know that was possible

how can a computer hold 2 hard drives though???

plz give me more information on that if you can...thnx again 

[sumchic2]

As just a home user, I would heartily agree with CWB and Firefox.

 

I certainly understand the trepidation - this sort of computer catastrophe would flummox most of us "home users", myself included.

However, if you don't have backups and want to at least recover your data, you're going to have to do something???

Paying the $ to Dell or to a reputable, local "mom and pop" computer repair shop is probably the best bet, if you are uncomfortable walking through any of the recovery options that folks have suggested.

This would be even more the case if you want to be able to get back to a working computer (though it remains to be seen if that's even possible).

 

The PSA Diagnostics using F12 would be one thing to try -- if the hardware is bad, then you or *someone* will need to go to Plan B to get your data back, as CWB & Firefox suggested.

 

The expert (myself NOT included) help here is certainly free, but we (read: the expert members) can only walk you through steps & point you to instructions resources, as we (read: they) don't have physical possession of the computer to do the work.

 

Ennywho, please take a look at Firefox's and CWB's advice -- they will do the best they can to get you going again.

 

I hope you get it sorted.

 

 

daledoc1

okay so the psa diagnostics run should tell me whether the problem is a hardware one or  something else?? right?

 

but if teh problem is a virus or another software issue - then i may e able to get keep my data on my compter?? but i guess you wouldnt know 

 

 

i will try that diagnostics test tomorrow and let you know what happened... thanks all

[sumchic2]

As just a home user, I would heartily agree with CWB and Firefox.

 

I certainly understand the trepidation - this sort of computer catastrophe would flummox most of us "home users", myself included.

However, if you don't have backups and want to at least recover your data, you're going to have to do something???

Paying the $ to Dell or to a reputable, local "mom and pop" computer repair shop is probably the best bet, if you are uncomfortable walking through any of the recovery options that folks have suggested.

This would be even more the case if you want to be able to get back to a working computer (though it remains to be seen if that's even possible).

 

The PSA Diagnostics using F12 would be one thing to try -- if the hardware is bad, then you or *someone* will need to go to Plan B to get your data back, as CWB & Firefox suggested.

 

The expert (myself NOT included) help here is certainly free, but we (read: the expert members) can only walk you through steps & point you to instructions resources, as we (read: they) don't have physical possession of the computer to do the work.

 

Ennywho, please take a look at Firefox's and CWB's advice -- they will do the best they can to get you going again.

 

I hope you get it sorted.

 

 

daledoc1

oh yh and i guess i should be asking dell this but do you think that when they (dell) work on it they would be able to "scrape" out all the issues w/o missing anything?? i only ask because i dont want whatever messed it up in the first place to re-occur

 

and yh the files are reeeaalllllyyyyy important to me, need them for school 

[CWB]

"i dont have a linux computer so would another dell be OK?"

virtually any computer will do the job as long as it is capable of "hooking up to" the questionable HDD .

this involves some technical stuff that does not need to be elaborated on at this point .

 

"are they not implying that the issue with the laptop is a hardware issue and not a software one?"

from your description of the facts and events as they unfolded you may (now) have two problems .

this is where more thorough diagnostics are needed in order to pinpoint the problems .

for example , let's say you have a car that won't start ... this can be caused by several different issues ; ya gotta raise the hood and get yer hands dirty .

yes , the original symptom and cause of that may still exist but you do not know this as you cannot/have not been able to get the machine fully booted , loaded up and "under load" .

the original problem may have existed as a separate issue , this became secondary after you whacked the keyboard and things started "goin' south" .

by virtue of not being able to "boot up" properly this points to a corrupted and/or failing hard drive (which came first , the chicken or the egg ?)

this is why it is important to ensure that the hard drive is either ok or about to join the choir invisible .

it would do no good to "fix" a system with a bad/failing hard drive .

 

"how can a computer hold 2 hard drives though?"

a laptop generally can only hold one physical hard drive internally (there aint much room in there) .

the hard drive can be partitioned and made to "act" like multiple hard drives ... sort of like cutting up a cake in a pan and isolating the sections with a thin line of icing .

this allows data and files to be "stashed" that are not needed all the time (think of stashing money in different sections of a wallet) .

one or more of these "partitions can be "hidden" ... this is usually or can be where the manufacturer of the laptop/desktop places the "recovery stuff" .

as for two (or more) actual physical drives , the number depends on the parameters of the motherboard ...

for example , the machine i am writing this on can "address" (aka : work/talk with) six hard drives if i desire to install that many (currently the number is three) .

think of it like cupboards in the kitchen ... i can have a number of cupboards of the same or different sizes and i can "address" them ... place things in them and pull stuff out .

there are also ways of externally hooking up (even more !) Hard drives via the USB port(s) .

 

"i really hope it is just a software issue because that seems liek it could be solved easier..... dont u think?"

(your keyboard appears to be dropping a "y" and an "o" occasionally)

one can hazard at guesses and that is all it is or ever will be ...

knowing what the problems are requires some effort and diagnostics .

"you can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs ..."

or as my brother-in-law said to me when i was nine years old about "i think" and "i thought" :

"i went to the bathroom and i thought my pants were down ... and that is where "i think" and "i thought" will get me every time" .

and it is this type of "making certain" that helps ensure a job well done .

 

as DD1 mentioned , it may be best to find someone who is hip on/with comps , as your data is evidently valuable , it would be worth the investment .

to be rigorously honest with you (i do not want to see your data lost) , there is more to data retrieval than simply hooking up the hard drive to another machine .

you can wind up making the situation worse very quickly by doing the wrong thing .

 

firefox works with dell stuff , perhaps he can shed some more specific light on the subject .