Laptop Booting Problem

FirmSkater

Dell Inspiron 1420 - Windows Vista

Basically the problem is that, lets say 50%-75% of the time this computer boots "Windows Fails to Start" and it has to run Startup Repair, which doesn't work, and ultimately has to System restore.

This started happening a few weeks ago, and I have reinstalled Windows once, and it worked for, say, a day before doing it again.

I have a feeling the hard-drive is dieing because this has been coupled with lots of blue screens and other programs crashing because they can't load a file.

I am fully prepared to buy a new hard-drive, but I only want to if the problem is with the hard-drive. Can anyone confirm or deny that this is could be the problem? Does anyone have any suggestions to fix it otherwise?

Arecibo

The full error would be best, because that might help narrow down the issue. That kind of problem can definitely be caused by faulty hardware, though it could also just be called by loose hardware or cabling, or even solveable through some changes in software as well.

FirmSkater

Next time this happens I will post the error message that appears when Startup Reapir doesn't work but there really is no "error message" when booting except that "Windows Has Failed to Start"

theclam

Start, Right click on Computer, click Manage. Go to Event Viewer, Custom Views, Administrative Events. Scroll down through that. See anything there that says 'disk'? If so, you've got hard disk issues. If not, then probably not. You can treat (i.e. not cure) hard disk issues by using chkdsk. Reboot, hit f8 rapidly when starting up. Go to repair your computer from the screen that pops up. Select command prompt. When that pops up, type this:

chkdsk c: /r

That should fix any sort of software errors that happen because of hard disk problems, as well as make it so that your computer stops using any damaged areas of the disk.

Also, on Dells, you can tap f12 rapidly when starting and select Diagnostics. If you run through all those (which can take about 3 hours), it will give you an error if you have any hardware problems (the CD/DVD test will always error if you have no disc in your drive, so don't be alarmed if that test fails), as well as an error code you can give to Dell tech support.

Also, at work (I fix student laptops at my university), we have gotten a few laptops in with some of your problems. When Windows Fails to Start pops up and System Restore fixes it, but it keeps on happening again, we've found that there is one Windows Update that causes serious problems. Blue screens suggest hardware problems, but you may have multiple things going on at once.

FirmSkater

theclam wrote: »

Start, Right click on Computer, click Manage. Go to Event Viewer, Custom Views, Administrative Events. Scroll down through that. See anything there that says 'disk'? If so, you've got hard disk issues. If not, then probably not. You can treat (i.e. not cure) hard disk issues by using chkdsk. Reboot, hit f8 rapidly when starting up. Go to repair your computer from the screen that pops up. Select command prompt. When that pops up, type this:

chkdsk c: /r

That should fix any sort of software errors that happen because of hard disk problems, as well as make it so that your computer stops using any damaged areas of the disk.

Also, on Dells, you can tap f12 rapidly when starting and select Diagnostics. If you run through all those (which can take about 3 hours), it will give you an error if you have any hardware problems (the CD/DVD test will always error if you have no disc in your drive, so don't be alarmed if that test fails), as well as an error code you can give to Dell tech support.

Also, at work (I fix student laptops at my university), we have gotten a few laptops in with some of your problems. When Windows Fails to Start pops up and System Restore fixes it, but it keeps on happening again, we've found that there is one Windows Update that causes serious problems. Blue screens suggest hardware problems, but you may have multiple things going on at once.

This is very interesting because after I reinstalled Winodws I purposefully did not install updates. But because of stupid Windows Vista every time I turn the computer on it starts updating and eventually the problem returned.

I have tried the Diagnostic thing before and nothing showed up as a problem.

If these updates are the problem what can i do to solve it?

theclam

The problem is that you do want to keep Windows updated, for security reasons. If it is, in fact, an update that is screwing up your computer, you'll want to keep automatic updating enabled, but go into the settings for it and tell it to let you choose when to manually install updates. That way you can install everything except the update that is breaking your computer.

It's also possible that an update got corrupted somehow and you can re-download a good version by doing this:
http://forums.techarena.in/windows-update/658683.htm

This probably isn't the source for your blue screen though. Blue screens will often create a log in the event viewer that will tell you why it crashed, but it can be hard to find if you don't know what you're looking for. Next time it blue screens, remember any error codes that pop up and write them down. You are looking for something like this:

STOP 0x00000007F: blah blah blah

Plug those numbers into Google or the Microsoft Knowledge Base and it will tell you why it's crashing.

FirmSkater

Is there a good way to figure out which update might be causing the problem?

theclam

FirmSkater wrote: »

Is there a good way to figure out which update might be causing the problem?

Install one, reboot, repeat until the computer doesn't boot, then system restore back. So no, there's not a good way.