Boot failure for about 1 in 5 starts

[Qu0ll]

On my brand new Dell Precision laptop with Vista Business x64, I find that
about 1 in 5 starts gets as far as the green progress/activity indicator bar
then brings up a completely black screen but never progresses to the giant
orb so that I can log in. Rebooting then brings up the suggestion to enter
startup repair which I do and which has always (so far at least) solved the
problem. The machine then boots normally.

Any idea what is causing these intermittent boot failures? Any way to fix
them? It's very counter productive to have to wait 15-20 minutes for
startup repair to do its thing every so often.

--
And loving it,

-Q
_________________________________________________
(e-mail address removed)
(Replace the "SixFour" with numbers to email me)

 

[Malke]

On my brand new Dell Precision laptop with Vista Business x64, I find that
about 1 in 5 starts gets as far as the green progress/activity indicator
bar then brings up a completely black screen but never progresses to the
giant
orb so that I can log in. Rebooting then brings up the suggestion to
enter startup repair which I do and which has always (so far at least)
solved the
problem. The machine then boots normally.

Any idea what is causing these intermittent boot failures? Any way to fix
them? It's very counter productive to have to wait 15-20 minutes for
startup repair to do its thing every so often.

Brand new as in right out of the box? If yes, return it immediately. It
sounds like a power supply problem or other hardware component failure.
Since when you call Dell their bottom-tier techs will tell you to restore
to factory condition, do this - if in fact "brand new" does mean right out
of the box - and if you still get the problem insist on replacement.

Malke

 

[Qu0ll]

Brand new as in right out of the box? If yes, return it immediately. It
sounds like a power supply problem or other hardware component failure.
Since when you call Dell their bottom-tier techs will tell you to restore
to factory condition, do this - if in fact "brand new" does mean right out
of the box - and if you still get the problem insist on replacement.

Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
Don't Panic!

Thanks for replying. Yes, it's right out of the box. But why do you think
it's a hardware problem? Why would a power supply problem cause this?

--
And loving it,

-Q
_________________________________________________
(e-mail address removed)
(Replace the "SixFour" with numbers to email me)

 

[Malke]

Thanks for replying. Yes, it's right out of the box. But why do you
think
it's a hardware problem? Why would a power supply problem cause this?

It's a classic power supply problem symptom; your computer doesn't start up
all the way the first time (or even a number of subsequent times) because
the power supply is failing. There isn't enough "juice" to get the hard
drive all the way up. After a few tries, there is enough momentum on the
drive to get into Windows. Eventually this won't work any more.

In any case, a computer should never exhibit this sort of behavior right out
of the box. Because the problem occurs before the operating system is fully
loaded, the culprit is probably *not* software like the antivirus or other
pre-installed OEM crapware. Since almost everything that makes a laptop
work is on the motherboard, you can't easily swap out the power supply to
fix. Besides, you paid for a working machine and you should have gotten
one.

Malke

 

[Qu0ll]

It's a classic power supply problem symptom; your computer doesn't start
up
all the way the first time (or even a number of subsequent times) because
the power supply is failing. There isn't enough "juice" to get the hard
drive all the way up. After a few tries, there is enough momentum on the
drive to get into Windows. Eventually this won't work any more.

In any case, a computer should never exhibit this sort of behavior right
out
of the box. Because the problem occurs before the operating system is
fully
loaded, the culprit is probably *not* software like the antivirus or other
pre-installed OEM crapware. Since almost everything that makes a laptop
work is on the motherboard, you can't easily swap out the power supply to
fix. Besides, you paid for a working machine and you should have gotten
one.

OK, that makes sense. But why would Startup Repair fix the problem?

I am a little hesitant to call Dell because I have spent days installing all
the software I need and getting the settings just right. I would hate to
have to reinstall Windows and start again.

--
And loving it,

-Q
_________________________________________________
(e-mail address removed)
(Replace the "SixFour" with numbers to email me)

 

[Malke]

Qu0ll wrote:

OK, that makes sense. But why would Startup Repair fix the problem?

I am a little hesitant to call Dell because I have spent days installing
all
the software I need and getting the settings just right. I would hate to
have to reinstall Windows and start again.

Well, I understand but a hardware issue won't heal itself. Go out and buy
yourself an external hard drive and Acronis True Image. Make an image of
the hard drive and save it on the external hard drive. Then when the
computer gets back from being repaired/replaced, you can use the image to
quickly restore your computer to where it is now (except working!).

Malke