r2champion

I hope someone can help me with this problem. I was working on my Dell laptop and suddenly it turned off, as if someone just pulled the plug, not a regular shutting down. After frowning for a moment, I tried to boot it back up and it started into the XP boot screen. I was watching the XP status bar and it was to about 75% loaded, then it just started all over again. All it does now is start to load, then just continues this cycle without completely loading. I took it apart looking for the motherbaord battery to replace thinking this was the cause, but couldn't find one. Please help!!!!

I just ordered a new desktop and have access to a laptop hard drive device to transfer files (not sure of the correct name) to my new computer if necassary.

Thanks ahead of time!

BarracudaHockey

My Feedback: (11)

Press F5 as soon as it starts to boot, it should give you a menu, select safe mode and see if it will boot up.

r2champion

I'll give it a try! I do know that once it enters the boot screen it will not allow me to select F2 or F12 for whatever those functions are for...I forget! Thanks

Dorsal

My Feedback: (17)

When you reboot your computer, about the time you see the C: prompt, start pressing the F8 key (oops, F5 - it's a Dell) numerous times. If you started soon enough, the computer will bring up a start-up "options" screen and wait for your input. Press whatever arrow or key is necessary to tell it to start in the SAFE mode, which will bypass most of your normal programs but should allow the computer to start. You might be able to find the problem from that point, if you understand directory and file structure.
Do you have an active AntiVirus program? (I hate Norton, McAfee is okay but I really like The Shield Deluxe) If so, get to it and run it, to completely check your computer. If it needs a couple hours to do that, let it. Most of the antiviral websites have the ability to scan your machine online, usually for free.

If you cannot get into the SAFE bootup mode, I hope you have a good antiviral program AND made an Emergency Startup Disc, because that is your next option. Find that Emergency Startup Disc and boot up your machine with it in the floppy drive (or CD drive if that's the kind you have.) Run the diagnostics and cure the problem.

After all that, you may need to do a REPAIR of your WinXP installation if the machine will not boot up properly still. Boot up your machine with the XP installation disc in the drive and tell it to repair your installation.

The WinXP disc also has a Repair function on it that might work. Just boot to the disc and you should see that option. If "Repair" doesn't work, you may need to completely re-install the Operating System (WinXP) which will force you to reinstall all your other programs also. This should be considered as a last resort.

If that doesn't fix it, you are hosed. I would NOT suggest you transfer ANY files to your new machine unless and until you have an Active AntiViral program running on the new machine. That includes the use of any floppy disc or any re-writable CD disc, as they may already be infected (if it's a virus).

r2champion

Thanks a bunch Dorsal, that will give me something to dig into this weekend. The only reason that I mentioned transfering files is that I have several hundred pics of family, baby being born, birthdays and such that I had not yet saved to disk or printed ( yeah I know [:@] ). I am really scared of losing these, so I thought transferring them first would be best in case all my information was lost during repair. Once again, thanks a bunch!

3dd

My Feedback: (6)

even if the comp takes a complete dump aq good comp shop can retreive your files aqnd save them to disk for you,then before you install them put the disk and run antiviruse on it then open and transfer the files you want

js3

My Feedback: (3)

Uh, this may be stating the obvious, but were you plugged in or running on battery?

r2champion

Since I haven't posted over the weekend it might be obvious, but no luck so far. It will not boot in safe mode, nor will it prompt me after pressing F5 at startup. I haven't been able to find a recovery CD either. I'm quite unsure about what to do next. I actually feel pretty confident with anything to do with PC's, however this recovery stuff just makes me crazy.

So far, I have removed/rearranged the RAM sticks with no change. I also tried to boot without the optical drive and wireless card installed still with no luck. I think I can pretty much rule these out as being defective. The only thing left that I can suspect is the motherboard or the hardrive...is this sensible?

Js3, actually I was plugged in with the AC, but the battery was still in place.

js3

My Feedback: (3)

r2,

Can you boot from the WinXP CD? If so, you could try the recovery console, or go further into setup and try system restore. However, since you have important data on that drive, first I would try to remove it and set it up as a slave drive on another machine. Or you could buy (or maybe you have) one of those nifty drive enclosures that connect via the USP port. Then copy your files to two different locations i.e. master drive on the working machine, and also burn them to CD or DVD. After you are sure your data is recovered, replace the drive in the notebook and go from there either with the restore or by doing a fresh rebuild of the OS. Even though it's a lot of work and time, I most often will rebuild from the ground up as this ensures that the OS is loaded correctly.

Obviously, this assumes that your problem is SW related and not actually a dead hard drive.

I hope you find this helpful. Good luck!

r2champion

I have accesss to a drive enclosure that you speak of to transfer the files someplace safe. I have not tried booting from the XP cd, but might give it a try once the files are transferred. I agree with a complete reinstall of XP, I have done this a few times before on some of my older computers. The only thing that really worries me is that when it is trying to load, I cannot hear the hardrive kick in. I am not sure if it is because is simply hasn't loaded enough to "prompt" it to start turning, or if it is malfunctioned. If the hardrive has gone caput, what are the chances of saving the files?

Would a BIOS update be worth a try if I can do so?

Thanks for your help once again.

js3

My Feedback: (3)

The hard drive should start to spin as soon as power is supplied to it, that is, as soon as the machine is turned on. It may well be that your drive is dead in which case, the chances for you to recover your data are just about nil. That said, there are places that will recover data from dead drives but their service is usually very expensive.

I wouldn't think a BIOS update would help, but I have seen stranger things happen.

Sorry for your troubles.

Deadeye

F8 is the magic key to get into the safe mode menu options, not F5 (just tap F8 every second upon boot up). It is a Windows function, not a Dell or any other manufacturer function. A BIOS update will do you no good, and could make things worse. More than likely you are experiencing a faulty hard drive. When you get your hard drive connected to the device to transfer files, do the following:
1) find out the drive letter it is (I'll use F for my example)
2) go to Start>Run and type in cmd and click OK
3) once the command prompt is open, type F:
4) type chkdsk /f /r
5) when it asks you if you want to dismount the drive, type y
6) let checkdisk run, and post back the results. If you have any kb in bad sectors, transfer your files ASAP

If you 0 kb in bad sectors, put the drive back in the laptop, and try booting up again. Most times this works.

r2champion

Thanks Deadeye. I thought it was F8 as well, but I tried both with no change. Your info will come in very handy.

Deadeye

I should add that if you do show a small amount of bad sectors, you could get away with running it in the laptop, and do a FAST (Files and Settings Transfer) Wizard. This not only saves your important files, but also everything in Oulook Express, Favorites, some program settings, and more. I usually use an external drive to save the FAST folder to, or in a pinch you can save it to your desktop - just make sure you transfer that folder to another drive before formatting that old drive! Windows already knows you have bad sections on that hard drive and it will avoid storing anything there. But be aware: once a hard drive starts going bad, it is not unlike sifting sand onto a record player playing a record. You will have debris (from the bad sectors) on the surface, and it is a chain reaction. I have seen hard drives go bad in as little as an hour with 4 kb of bad sectors and run as long as 2 months with 4kb of the same. I clone my hard drives to new ones every 2 years.

#1 failure in computers is the hard drive. The storage facility. Everything you do on a computer is copied from the hard drive into RAM memory. If you have too much stuff opened up, or too much stuff running in the background (starting with Windows), and you don't have enough RAM to accept it all, it becomes a constant battle between the RAM and the Hard Drive. This can also contribute to early hard drive failure because it is always running and writing. It's like leaving your car idling in the garage instead of shutting it off

#2 falure is power supplies. Those are easy and cheap to replace and have no effect on hard drives and the place where all your important stuff is stored.

I could go on and on about how computers work if you want to hear more. I've just scratched the surface.