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Laptop Not Booting

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cadoangelus

Registered
Joined
May 1, 2009
Location
Hampshire, UK
Hi guys

Thought i'd ask if people if they could help identify the problem i'm having.

Recently my gf came to me with her laptop saying it wouldn't boot. When the power button is pressed it will power up and all the fans will start, then no load screen will show and the laptop will reboot itself. It continues to do this for a while but eventually (if i'm lucky) it decides to boot to log in screen.

I've tried doing a standard restore and a start up restore. I'm seriously considering reinstalling Windows, but if anyone can give any suggestions that'd be ace.

Also a little side question: If I do decide to reinstall Windows, if i insert my version of vista home edition into the laptop and just use the laptops given serial key, will Windows still install or will it throw a ****storm? (she didn't get a vista disk with the laptop for some reason, i thought when you bought pre-installed vista on a new laptop/pc it was standard to get a disk...)
 
is that in command prompt or somewhere else?

You can do it inside Vista from the command prompt(requires reboot), from the GUI right click Properties on the drive, Tools, Error-checking, check off Automatically fix file system errors(also requires reboot), or boot to the Vista DVD. I'm not sure what to look for in this last option, but you want something like Repair console, or something worded similarly.
 
If it were a desktop I would say open it up and make sure no connections were loose. Try Johnz's suggestion.

If you do go the reinstall route, it will only work if your vista DVD is from the same manufacturer as her laptop. As in: the DVD came with your Dell laptop and she also has a Dell.
 
If it were a desktop I would say open it up and make sure no connections were loose. Try Johnz's suggestion.

If you do go the reinstall route, it will only work if your vista DVD is from the same manufacturer as her laptop. As in: the DVD came with your Dell laptop and she also has a Dell.

so my disk i got with my Dell desktop won't work on her HP Compaq laptop?
 
so my disk i got with my Dell desktop won't work on her HP Compaq laptop?

You'd have to try it. You'll certainly fail online activation, but a MS rep /should/ be able to get you straight. I'm not completely clear on all the rules, but in the past I've used generic oem Windows to install on branded oems, and only had to phone in to get it working. Maybe one of your peers has a copy you could borrow....
 
I followed the route to get to the check disk through drive properties. I waited (after rebooting) for the laptop to check all files and repair them and it seemed to work (for a while). But the problems not gone away.

My dad (whose an electrical engineer) seems to think it could be the charger cable - the original one was broken through ware of use so my gf bought a new one. I guess i'll see where that takes me.
 
Ok, this problem is getting kind of confusing.

I've run diagnostics of hardware and software and everything says it's fine.

I've taken the battery out of the laptop and run it from the mains and - though it did restart quite a few times - it loaded fine, so that eliminates the battery being a problem.

I'm starting to think there could be a problem with the connection to the hard-drive, stopping it from reading it properly during boot.
 
Does it BSOD at all once you get into Windows? If so, you might want to run Memtest86+ overnight to look for errors. Flaky memory can cause intermittent rough starts, but I would also expect the occasional BSOD once in Windows.
 
Hugely significant update on the situation guys. Turns out - should've really pointed this out earlier - my girlfriends laptop was a 2 and a half year old HP Compaq Presario F500 series.

Apparently, HP knew these notebooks had a problem with the motherboard connections - apparently they dry soldered all connections to the motherboard and they became brittle and fragile - but HP still released the series to the public and months later it bit them in a the arse as they had to recall the entire unsold series back. Unfortunately, HP decided to keep this a secret from everyone that didn't want/need to know.

I read through a couple of other forums on the problem, and apparently the network wireless goes first - which it did on this notebook - then the boot problems occur not long after. Which is majorly frustrating, as - despite the fact HP still have a "free" customer service for this particular model alone still - they're likely to send my girlfriend away disappointed...

Cheers for the help though guys.
 
Reinstalling sounds like a big sacrifice. I was able in a similar situation, to just continue booting and rebooting until the system healed itself. After I got it to the level of running windows explorer, I went to tools (right click on the disk name, click properties), then check disk, and scheduled disk checks, for both of my disks. Seemed to have worked without reinstalling windows. More details: http://annoyances-resolved.blogspot.com/2009/09/laptop-wont-boot-and-shows-blank-screen.html
 
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