Vista - System hanging and unable to start in "safe" mode - FUBAR

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)

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:
--
DellCA
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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
(http://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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