Board index » Windows Vista » System hanging and unable to start in "safe" mode - FUBAR

Windows Vista23
Hi,



Running Vista Home Premium on a Dell laptoop. When I turned on yesterday

evening, Windows looked like it was starting up ok ("Resuming Windows")

except that instead of the normal screen where you pick your user to login,

the screen just had my son's background picture. The mouse worked ok but

there was no icons or anyway of progressing. I thought maybe my kids had left

too many sessions logged in - which I have noticed almost hangs the PC

before. Tried "ctrl alt del" to log out users but no reaction. In fact no

matter what I did, the stupid Ferrari picture remained.



Assuming some download may have caused this, I thought I would start in safe

mode and look to either uninstall or restore to a previous backup point. When

I manually turned off and on and held F8 on reboot, I just came back to the

same screen. I was however able to use the F2 and F12 keys on reboot to

access system setup etc. I also tried rebooting with the system disk in the

drive - but again got the stupid picture (sensing my frustration here? Gone

right off Ferraris)



The last thing I am aware of that was downloaded was an adobe flash update.

However the PC was rebooted once after that and worked.



If anyone has any sort of suggestion I would be most grateful. The only

thing I can think of now is to put my sons fingers in a vice but not sure

that will solve my PC issue (though it may reduce my frustration level)


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1. Right when you power on the computer start tapping the F8 Key to get to

list including Safe Mode; don't hold F8 down, tap it!



Start>Programs>Accessories>System Tools>System Restore.



Also, look on your keyboard and make sure there is not an F Lock Key in use!



You have the proper Vista DVD, not Dell recovery disks?



If 1 does not work, alter your boot order to make the CD/DVD drive 1st in

the boot order; put disk in drive, reboot, and do a startup repair and/or a

system restore



Cheers!

--

Mick Murphy - Qld - Australia





"Morgan" wrote:

OK



Had been holding down F8 - will try. Yes I do have the proper Vista DVD but

just realised about the boot order - stupid but by the time I was trying that

I may have lost reason and logic :-)



Appreciate the suggestions



Morgan





"Mick Murphy" wrote:

I would also suggest either System Restore or taking the "diagnose

common problems" option when you boot from the Vista CD.



Holding the F8 key doesn't work because it takes it as a single

keystroke, which gets dumped from the buffer right before it goes to

check for the F8 key being pressed. If you tap it one every second or

so, starting at the Dell splash screen, you are almost sure to get into

it. Unfortunately, it only gives you about 2 seconds to hit the key

from the time it asks before it moves on and tries to boot normally.



By the way, Dell operating system disks are always "full" Windows disks

and not recovery CDs. We do have Software Recovery CD (SRCD) sets, but

they are special built to reinstall the factory image for a specific

individual system and are not an option when ordering the computer.

Normally, SRCDs are sent out when tech support determines the OS needs

to be reinstalled but the PC Restore (aka Image Restore) partition

doesn't work for whatever reason, but the hard drive itself is not the

problem. If a customer does not have the Windows CD itself, tech

support can easily send it out, assuming we still have the correct

version in stock (e.g., we can't send out WinME CDs any more because we

literally don't have them).



Larry

Dell Customer Advocate



Morgan;3562292 Wrote:



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Mick,



You are a gentleman - I hope something good happens to you in this life....

can you tell your suggestion worked :-)



Appreciate the help.



Many thanks

Morgan



"Mick Murphy" wrote:

Thanks DellCA



Actually while I have a dell person - I have an inspiron with problems as

well - seperate laptop (yep - really having a good time). It shuts down at

random intervals and after chasing my tail on software, ran a program

monitoring chip temperature. They were regularly getting into the mid 50's C

and then the PC would fall over.



You don't happen to know where the temp should be (think it is in 40-50

range). Looks like I have a hardware problem.



Thanks

Morgan



"DellCA" wrote:

Morgan;3563400 Wrote:

Without knowing what model Dell you have, and what CPU and chipset you

are using I can't list any specifics. However, if it is shutting down

due to heat then the first things I would check are:



1) Are the fans spinning?

2) Is air coming out of the air vents?

3) Is there anything in or on the air vents that could be blocking

airflow?



Checking those three things will usually fix most overheating problems.

You can check the fans using the Dell Diagnostics program, or the i8k

fan utility (not a Dell application, but useful for checking the

fans).



If you wish to be really thorough, you can open up the system to make

sure there isn't any dust on the heatsink assembly for the CPU as that

could also be preventing proper heat transfer away. The service manual

for all of the Dell computers is available from the support website

(support.dell.com)" >support.dell.com) and has instructions for opening up the

computer and removing parts. That would show you what is needed to get

to the fans and/or heatsink on your Inspiron to clean them.



If you have other questions on the system I'll be happy to help.



Larry

Dell Customer Advocate





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