Scenario 1

[Nano3]

A fellow co-worker grabs me and tells me that her computer crashed last night while performing basic computer functions. I ask her to elaborate. She mentions that this happened while writing a document for school using Microsoft Word, her computer suddenly froze and voila! BSOD. She says that after restarting the PC she was given the option to either boot windows in safe mode... Or to start Normally. She says that she has tried both startup functions and gets past the Windows loading screen but as soon as that screen goes off, it gets to a black screen with the mouse cursor. She is able to move the mouse cursor. She is running Windows Vista on a Dell laptop.

I have not checked the laptop myself (I am on vacation till tuesday)

I am studying to get A+ Certified. This is the type of stuff i should be able to troubleshoot and diagnose. Before going to work on the laptop - I want to get as much help as possible. Figured, Why not ask the pros

Any input would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Blackhawk7188]

Try the Vista Startup Repair option. When booting press F8 I do believe and it should give you the boot options screen. Choose "start Vista startup repair". This might be you into Windows. If it crashed during basic operations then either she had a drive failure or a virus. Try testing the HDD in the BIOS for a possible drive. If the test is fail then the drive may be bad causing a crash and failure to reboot.

From there I dont really have much more ideas except for a reinstall, but all data may be lost.

Hope this helps.

 

[Nano3]

I just received the laptop. When booting i pressed f8 and entered the "Repair Your Computer" screen. When this screen pops up. I try logging in as Administrator, and a window pops up saying "Your account has been disabled. Please see your system administrator" I hit the drop down on the User Name box and i see that there is another user created. I am able to log in with that credentials. When i received the laptop i asked if there was a password on the computer. was told no.

Now in this screen, I see a system Recovery Option window with many recovery tools... Startup Repair, System Restore, Windows complete pc restore, Windows memory diadnostic tool, Command prompt, and Dell factory image restore.

I want to avoid losing personal information, so i go with system restore first but of course when click - There are no system restore points created on the PCs system disk.

It is a start up issue... SO i then decide to hit on startup repair. I runthe application and after a quick 10 second scan, Startup repair could not detect a problem.

I go back...

Oh well... before i try the Dell Factory Image Restore function... Is there anything else i should try?

 

[Nano3]

UPDATE:

- Opened the command prompt from the repair options, ran sfc/scannow. command tells me "There is a system repair pending which requires reboot to complete. Restart Windows and run sfc again" I exit and restart. Go through the same process... I get the same message

- Ran CHKDSK - No probs found

 

[Blackhawk7188]

Did you check the drive in the BIOS? I do believe you have to press F1 when it says Dell on the screen to go into it. Go through the menus to find hard drive test. Run a Short Test for now...or Long if you prefer to determine if the drive is ok. Windows can only determine it so much...the BIOS should be the final decision.

If it turns out good and its not letting your do any more regarding boot ups...you might have to do the factory reset. Im sorry but I have no more ideas.

 

[Nano3]

Am i allowed to bump once?

 

[junk]

VISTA - Black Screen white mouse pointer

Is a relatively common issue

The thing with the logs should fix it