GAH! Vista boot-up issues. Anyone available to help?

IntoxicatingToxin

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I just sent this email to a friend, I'm trying to get as much advice as fast as possible because I really need my laptop for tonight. lol. If you can help, that would be fabulous!

I'm having serious laptop issues and was hoping you could possibly help? It runs Vista. I haven't had it on for a couple days, so I went in my room, plugged it in (it died from not being plugged in) and turned it on. I get an error saying, "Windows has failed to start." and gives me two booting options. I can run a repair thing, or start windows normally. When I run the repair, it goes to another screen that says, "Windows is loading files". It loads the files, then tries to load, but it doesn't. It just goes to a blue screen, and I have my cursor, and that's it. (Not a BSOD type of blue screen, just like... the background on my desktop type blue.) So I turn it off and try again. I tried hitting F11 which is supposed to let me reinstall Windows (I did it once before) but it did nothing. So I hit F8 which gave me a bunch of boot options. I tried Safe Mode, it didn't work. It loaded, made some noise, then I got a BSOD that flashed so quick, I barely noticed it was there before it was gone again, and the computer automatically restarted itself. I tried something else, too, but I can't remember what it's called. Last Known something? Basically the last known place where the computer was working fine. That didn't work either.

A few months ago, I put new ram in. Went from 1g to 2g. So I took my new ram out and threw in my old ram, thinking that was the problem, and it won't work either. But I get a black screen with my cursor instead of a blue screen. *sigh* I have no system restore discs or anything. F11 won't work. I can't afford the $60+ dollars it'll cost me to take it somewhere. So I was going to see if you had any ideas? Thanks in advance.
 

Mr. Snakey

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Do it again and start windows normally. That's it. Upon futher read of the information you provided something else is going on there. Be very careful installing or uninstalling memory. Make sure you are grounded. If not it can damage the computer. Memory has to be installed in a stacked way. The least amount going first. If not your computer (may make noise) and not even start. So check the memory is installed as i said and try starting windows normally.
 
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HellsKitchenmanNYC

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This sort of happened to me a few months ago. I started a thread. Lots of responses but nothing did the trick. Then I noticed at the bottom right of the dcreen was a small prompt asking me to upload an update. I went nuts for 2 days and when I uploaded the update my Vista laptop worked again. I soooooo miss XP.
 

IntoxicatingToxin

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This sort of happened to me a few months ago. I started a thread. Lots of responses but nothing did the trick. Then I noticed at the bottom right of the dcreen was a small prompt asking me to upload an update. I went nuts for 2 days and when I uploaded the update my Vista laptop worked again. I soooooo miss XP.

I can't download any updates because I can't get to my desktop. The computer doesn't get that far.

If The Normal start does not Work Hit the F8 key ( allot ) until another menu shows up, with allot more choices. Pick "LAST KNOWN GOOD CONFIGURATION" and then You laptop should boot up normaly :smile:

Best of Luck

I tried that about 8 times with both sets of RAM in, never worked.
 

IntoxicatingToxin

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Just an update. I got bored with the same thing happening over and over and over when I tried to fix my laptop, so I said fuck it and installed XP. Guess what? Does the same fucking thing. So now I have XP on my laptop instead of Vista, but I can't get Windows to load now. Giving me the same shit. So I'm guessing now that it's a hardware issue! Now I just have to figure out what.
 

AllHazzardi

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What you might be experiencing is a hard-drive head failure. The read/write head of a hard-drive is one of the most sensitive pieces, if the stabilizer went bad or the laptop was jostled strongly while the hard-drive was operating, it can cause the read/write head to become damaged.

More often than not, the "symptoms" of head failure are data corruption(write head failure), excessive fragmentation(write failure with partial read failure), and in severe cases, failure to boot(read failure).

You can run a hard-drive test if you hook it into another computer, but if that option is unavailable, replacement hard-drives aren't that expensive these days. If there's important data on the drive that you need to salvage, you can take it to any tech support business that offers data recovery, but it does run a pretty penny.

Hope this helps, there's no way to be 100% positive that this is the cause, but it'll at least give you other possible directions to pursue to figure out exactly what's wrong.
 

HellsKitchenmanNYC

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Just an update. I got bored with the same thing happening over and over and over when I tried to fix my laptop, so I said fuck it and installed XP. Guess what? Does the same fucking thing. So now I have XP on my laptop instead of Vista, but I can't get Windows to load now. Giving me the same shit. So I'm guessing now that it's a hardware issue! Now I just have to figure out what.


How did you put XP on a Vista system? I was told this would never work as Vista is too different to work w/XP layed on top of it. I wish you luck and COMPLETELY understand your frustration!
 

Mem

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Do yo have the boot up disk that came with the computer? or system recovery disk? If not see if a friend can download a Vista or XP recovery disk from your computer manufacturer via a Torrent site.
 

B_dxjnorto

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You can buy Vista Home from Newegg for $89 free shipping last time I checked. You can try wiping the hard drive and starting fresh. Assuming the hard drive or motherboard is not bricked, this will wipe the slate clean, just like having a new machine.
 

HazelGod

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Windoze... :rolleyes:

OK, kids, here's how you determine if the problem is hardware related or not.

Download the Ubuntu Linux Live CD.

If the computer boots and runs from that CD, it's unlikely a hardware issue. My recommendation at that point is to click the icon on the desktop to install the OS to your hard drive, let it import your previous Windows settings, and then be done with microshit once and for all.
 
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IntoxicatingToxin

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What you might be experiencing is a hard-drive head failure. The read/write head of a hard-drive is one of the most sensitive pieces, if the stabilizer went bad or the laptop was jostled strongly while the hard-drive was operating, it can cause the read/write head to become damaged.

More often than not, the "symptoms" of head failure are data corruption(write head failure), excessive fragmentation(write failure with partial read failure), and in severe cases, failure to boot(read failure).

You can run a hard-drive test if you hook it into another computer, but if that option is unavailable, replacement hard-drives aren't that expensive these days. If there's important data on the drive that you need to salvage, you can take it to any tech support business that offers data recovery, but it does run a pretty penny.

Hope this helps, there's no way to be 100% positive that this is the cause, but it'll at least give you other possible directions to pursue to figure out exactly what's wrong.

This seems to be what we've figured out, I think. Got some "live" help from a computer nerd friend of mine, he said he thinks it's the hard drive. Can't get it to work for shit.

How did you put XP on a Vista system? I was told this would never work as Vista is too different to work w/XP layed on top of it. I wish you luck and COMPLETELY understand your frustration!

Put the XP disc in, deleted the partitions, then created a new one, then completely reformatted and installed XP. lol

Do yo have the boot up disk that came with the computer? or system recovery disk? If not see if a friend can download a Vista or XP recovery disk from your computer manufacturer via a Torrent site.

It didn't come with a boot disk or system recovery disk.

You can buy Vista Home from Newegg for $89 free shipping last time I checked. You can try wiping the hard drive and starting fresh. Assuming the hard drive or motherboard is not bricked, this will wipe the slate clean, just like having a new machine.

I tried that twice, no luck.

How is she reading this? :biggrin1:

On my desktop computer. :wink:
 

IntoxicatingToxin

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Windoze... :rolleyes:

OK, kids, here's how you determine if the problem is hardware related or not.

Download the Ubuntu Linux Live CD.

If the computer boots and runs from that CD, it's unlikely a hardware issue. My recommendation at that point is to click the icon on the desktop to install the OS to your hard drive, let it import your previous Windows settings, and then be done with microshit once and for all.

Ya know. I was just talking to a friend last night about installing Ubuntu. *sigh* But, if it is in fact my hard drive like it honestly seems to be, then that won't help. :frown1:
 

HazelGod

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Ya know. I was just talking to a friend last night about installing Ubuntu. *sigh* But, if it is in fact my hard drive like it honestly seems to be, then that won't help. :frown1:
If it is your hard drive, then booting and running from the CD will allow you to run fsck against the HD to determine if the problem lies there...and if it does, whether the problem is with the existing filesystem (corruption, etc) or if there an underlying physical defect.

EDIT:
It will also give you the ability to backup/copy all your data files from the drive without having to load Windows.
 
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HellsKitchenmanNYC

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Windoze... :rolleyes:

OK, kids, here's how you determine if the problem is hardware related or not.

Download the Ubuntu Linux Live CD.

If the computer boots and runs from that CD, it's unlikely a hardware issue. My recommendation at that point is to click the icon on the desktop to install the OS to your hard drive, let it import your previous Windows settings, and then be done with microshit once and for all.


I d/l this for future problems and all it did was give me an ISO kinda picture thing that you are somehow supposed to be able to burn to a disc but I can't seem to find out how. Hmm anyone know what this is all about? It's an 'image' or such.
Thx in advance.
 

vince

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I d/l this for future problems and all it did was give me an ISO kinda picture thing that you are somehow supposed to be able to burn to a disc but I can't seem to find out how. Hmm anyone know what this is all about? It's an 'image' or such.
Thx in advance.
If you are using vista there may be a program called Magic Disk or Magic ISO. There was on my Sony vista system. Anyways, you need a program like that to burn the ISO image to a cd or (better) DVD disk. Then you install the program from that disk. There are many programs out there and some are freeware. Google "ISO Burner"

I did it to install Windows 7 RC beta on my Sony laptop. What an improvement from vista! I've been using it for 7 weeks now and have had NO issues. No crashes, no lockups, it boots and shuts down crazy fast. It's like getting an all new high powered computer. AutoCad runs like a dream on Win7. AutoCad is the reason I don't use a Mac and I've never had such is good AutoCad experience before. Microshit may have finally got something right.
 

HazelGod

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