PC won't load Vista

[ryanbatc]

One of my coworkers is using a Dell laptop with Vista home premium (x86). She was telling about this weird problem where the computer would sometimes load Vista all the way to the desktop. But other times you'd see the DELL logo startup and then the Vista "loading bar" would appear like its going to actually load the OS but then you just get a blank screen after that. It essentially hangs somewhere when trying to load the OS.

At work me and another PC guru tried to reproduce the problem but it was very random.

The woman who owns the PC took it to Best Buy and had the Geek Squad look at it earlier. They said it was free of spyware/viruses/spam etc. I inspected the PC myself both in the BIOS settings and the few times it loaded into the desktop. There were no anomalies that I noticed.

So, what could this be? Bad PSU? Vista needs to be reinstalled? ???

Opinions welcome!

[Ghost_Rain]

Vista needs to be reinstalled I had the Same problem a while back with my Laptop.

[ryanbatc]

Do you happen to know what caused it? She said she hadn't installed anything at all before it happened. I run vista x64 and have not had that problem yet

[{CLR}geneSW]

Ok, lets run through this logically before just jumping in and maybe messing things up more.

1.) Can you get the computer to load into any form of Safe Mode 100% of the time? If so then you've most likely got a conflict in a user setting somewhere hidden away in Vista

2.) Are there any other account loaded onto the laptop aside from the backdoor admin, her account, and the guest account? Doesn't matter if they are turned on or not, windows could be trying to load up the wrong account part-way through.

3.) Have you tried to load up off of a live C.D. yet to see if it is a hardware problem? This would eliminate the RAM, CPU, GPU, PSU, MoBo, and a few other devices that can go bad in laptops quick due to their lack of heating solutions.

4.) Have you tried to pull the Harddrive yet and hook it up to a known working computer, then running chkdsk on it? You know, make sure the HD is clean of bad sectors and what not?

5.) Have you tried to run Memtest on it? Perhaps just one stick of ram is bad.


Those are just a few places I would start. Good luck!

[mapes]

+1 to Genes post....I like the bootable cd option....good idea.

[ryanbatc]

Ok, lets run through this logically before just jumping in and maybe messing things up more.

1.) Can you get the computer to load into any form of Safe Mode 100% of the time? If so then you've most likely got a conflict in a user setting somewhere hidden away in Vista

It will run in safe mode, but again, sometime it will not boot into Vista, even in SM

2.) Are there any other account loaded onto the laptop aside from the backdoor admin, her account, and the guest account? Doesn't matter if they are turned on or not, windows could be trying to load up the wrong account part-way through.

Yes, they have 4 accounts for each family member

3.) Have you tried to load up off of a live C.D. yet to see if it is a hardware problem? This would eliminate the RAM, CPU, GPU, PSU, MoBo, and a few other devices that can go bad in laptops quick due to their lack of heating solutions.

You mean insert the disc in the drive so it will boot off it? What would I do after that?

4.) Have you tried to pull the Harddrive yet and hook it up to a known working computer, then running chkdsk on it? You know, make sure the HD is clean of bad sectors and what not?

I don't think I'll be able to do that..... I will run chkdsk on it though

5.) Have you tried to run Memtest on it? Perhaps just one stick of ram is bad.

Not yet, I think I'll grab my jump drive and run memtest on it

Those are just a few places I would start. Good luck!

thanks

[{CLR}geneSW]

thanks

Any time, and please keep us posted! I actually like trying to figure out computer problems like these! A challenge is a bit fun.