Strange laptop boot issue...

D

dvicknair

New Member
I'm new to this forum and have been searching to find a solution to my problem, with no success. I'm trying to help a friend get his laptop back working as it should. It's a Dell Vostro with Windows Vista Basic. I have reinstalled vista and now when it boots it gets past the BIOS screen to the windows progress bar but before it gets half way across, the computer crashes and restarts on it's own. It will repeat this for as long as I let it or until the battery runs dead. I have reinstalled vista again and experience the same thing. Here's the strange part, if during this failing boot sequence I turn the computer off by holding down the power button, the computer will boot properly when I turn it back on. At this point, I have to repeat pressing the power button during the failing boot sequence, if I shut it down or restart it.

Sorry for the long post, but I have racked my brain on this thing and really need your help! Thanks in advance.
 
Hmm, sounds like one of the following:
Hard drive
Memory
or maybe a problem with Vista and the driver it autodetected for ACPI.

Try to boot in to safe mode by rebooting and Press F8 before the windows vista boot screen comes up.
 
Deamos said:
Hmm, sounds like one of the following:
Hard drive
Memory
or maybe a problem with Vista and the driver it autodetected for ACPI.

Try to boot in to safe mode by rebooting and Press F8 before the windows vista boot screen comes up.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the help.... I have already tried to boot into safe mode, I get the same result.
 
Well, to narrow it down. Download yourself a copy of Memtest86 and burn it to a cd. http://www.memtest.org/

Once you have it burnt, boot the problem machine to the cd and let it run for a couple hours. If you even get a single error at the bottom, one of your RAM sticks are dead and need to be replaced. To narrow it down after you get an error, try to boot the CD with each of the sticks and perform the test again.

Hope this helps.
 
most likely a ram error. like someone said use memtest to test the ram. if you rather not do this then use 1 ram at a time. also, i'd use direct power incase a blackout occurs.

is the cd you're using from the factory? if it was self burnt then perhaps ther's an error. try cloning it and if it can't then that's the problem.
 
Well, I ran Memtest86+ twice. The first time for 3 hours, no errors, the second time for 5 hours, no errors. I also ran chkdsk and that also found no errors. Does anyone have any other ideas, this is really starting to aggrevate me! Hope someone out there has the answer!
 
I would guess maybe HDD though that is far fetched. Try to run an Ubuntu Linux live cd or try to install XP. See if maybe its limited only to Vista
 
Have you tried to check and see if the computer was capable for handling vista? like DEAMOS said try running linux live or install xp. If the problem persists try deleting the partition and starting a new one for vista, there could be several problems.
 
The computer was built with vista basic and before reinstalling vista, the computer did not have this problem... Prior to reinstalling vista, I installed Ubuntu and the computer did not have this boot issue. No one thinks this could be an issue with the motherboard, considering pressing the power button leads to a successful boot.
 
So wait. You:

  • Bought laptop with Vista Basic
  • Reinstalled Vista Basic
  • Installed Ubuntu
  • Reinstalled Vista Basic

That would have been a much easier way of putting it :)

I would run a test on the hard drive next, see if there's anything wrong with it. You can use SeaTools by burning it to a CD and running it the same way as memtest.

http://www.cagedwarfare.co.nr/admin/seatools_2.13_en.zip

Download it from there, and it means you don't have to take the time registering. When it opens, accept the agreement, and in top left go to basic tests and then select long test. If there are any errors, see if you can return the laptop to the manufacturer for repair, or swap it out for a different HDD.
 
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