Dell lap top problem

[M107]

My lap top seem to have given up the will to live.

On boot up I get the Dell logo with the load bar across the bottom of the screen & F2 & F12 option at the top right, from here it should go to the windows desktop but all I get is a black screen with a flashing cursor in the top left of the screen.

I cant get into safe mode or sod all else. Any ideas I need to do some certs on easycert.

 

[NozSpark]

Is it going into POST do you know?

 

[M107]

Now your talking double dutch Noz, I am a computer biff mate.

It'll be going into effing orbit soon let alone the post

 

[NozSpark]

POST.... Power On Self Test

That's usually a splash screen where it shows fan speeds, chip temperatures etc....

Are you getting and splash screens at all,,,, even the memory count one?

---------- Post Auto-Merged at 00:26 ---------- Previous post was made at 00:21 ----------

Just re read your OP and it sounds like it's doing everything but loading up windows??

You need to get into the BIOS to see if it's recognising the HDD and if that is in the boot order options,, it might not be first as it's usually set to boot from CDROM first (if there's a disk in of course)

 

[SPECIAL LOCATION]

How old is it?

Is the Battery knackered?

Is there a small "reset button" hidden on the bottom somewhere..

(one that you poke with a paper clip)?

Have you tried it with the Battery removed just the mains adapter?

Sometimes a really bad battery can cause funnies to occur..

If you are putting it into orbit give us all a shout and we can get our binoculars out and look out for it passing over..

(Its a clear night up here so I should get a good view)!!

 

[NozSpark]

I have heard that you remove the battery and hold in the ON button for 60 seconds and then put the battery back in... To reset them that is

 

[M107]

I shall have a play with it in the morning, as I've just come in from work (the fire is out) & am off to bed for some badly needed shut eye. So will drop in tomorrow for more help from you comp experts, but you could be onto something with the knackered battery specs as the battery indicator flashes amber when turned on.

Night all.

 

[SPECIAL LOCATION]

Some of my kids have got Dell inspiron laptops.. (needed when they went off to Uni)..

IIRC my sons laptop had some of that batch of dodgy battery packs made by.....

(was it Sony or HP????)

anyway ..

I a sure the DELL laptop would work without a battery being in place!

(some makes won't switch on unless a battery is in the holder...)

It can at least remove the possibility of bad batts dragging the PSU down to low to work the PC.

 

[NozSpark]

Glad the fires out mate,,, now go and get some kip, you deserve it!

 

[Badger]

Now your talking double dutch Noz, I am a computer biff mate.It'll be going into effing orbit soon let alone the post

where abouts are ya based M?

 

[M107]

The laptop is with the IT geek (my brother) as we speak.

Specs my Dell is some 6-7 years old & was also of the type that had a recall on the batteries & yes the pc does power on without a battery.

Badge I'm in the Newbury area mate...I thought you knew that.

Word from the geek is............................a bug has corrupted the system file & the recovery dics will load but when the system files clear out & re-install, the recovery crashes.

As a last ditch thing he has tried to put ubuntu on, that gets further but then pops up with "unable to remove old damaged/seperated system file" or words to that effect.

The last thing to down load was an AVG update.

New laptop time I think

 

[Sidewinder]

M,

Ubuntu has a very good file recovery system available, trust me I found that out the hard way!

I took th disc out of mine and ran it on a seperate machine with Ubuntu on, and it found and deciphered the faulty file system.

However, I did this before I tried anything else or before installing anything else!

Once the disc has been written to then the chances of getting anything back are very remote.

 

[Badger]

The laptop is with the IT geek (my brother) as we speak.Specs my Dell is some 6-7 years old & was also of the type that had a recall on the batteries & yes the pc does power on without a battery.

Badge I'm in the Newbury area mate...I thought you knew that.

Word from the geek is............................a bug has corrupted the system file & the recovery dics will load but when the system files clear out & re-install, the recovery crashes.

As a last ditch thing he has tried to put ubuntu on, that gets further but then pops up with "unable to remove old damaged/seperated system file" or words to that effect.

The last thing to down load was an AVG update.

New laptop time I think

could you not just reformat the complete hard drive and start from scratch like i had to when i downloaded a virus

 

[M107]

I'm back on the desk top for now.

 

[Badger]

i gathered you wernt using your laptop :slap

 

[steptoe]

can he run the ubuntu from the CD,

ie, not installing it, just run it LIVE,

it will be able to sort out your HDD then as its not mounted, and ubuntu is in the RAM, a bit slow, but it should be able to reformatt your HDD and tell you if you have any bad sectors,

unfortunately at this point its not looking too brill for getting a lot of your data back..... but you never know.

do you need the DATA? if not then run the LIVE CD, ubuntu can run off a disc without installing, then wipe your HDD,

Im not sure how a recovery disc will work in this situation though when you try to re-install windows.