Can't Boot Laptop

[Neil]

I have a friend who has a Dell laptop that will not boot. When she boots it
with the power cord plugged in, it starts to boot and then shuts off. With
the battery removed, it seems to work better, but still shuts off. Sometimes
she can get it to boot a little into Windows, but then gives her an error
message (see below), and then shuts down.

Though it seems to me to be a hardware issue, someone told her to reinstall
Windows (XP Home). So she put in the Windows disk, and it began the
reinstall. It actually got much further than it had in the past when just
trying to boot. So that made me think that maybe it was something related to
Windows.

She said she got to a part asking if she wanted to create a FAT partition or
something to that effect (she doesn't remember the actual prompt), and,
after that, the system shut down. Here's her actual message to me:

"I got a CD from Dell, to reload my Windows XP. I got my laptop to boot
from the CD. It loaded lots of files. Drivers and such. And now it wants
to put a FAT partition or something like that on. In order to do that it
will erase what I have on the hard drive. (I think) But then, when I clicked
ENTER the whole thing just went blank which makes me think - yes - the power
cord needs to be replaced. But I'm wondering do you think the hard drive is
okay if it's working this far, loading stuff on and giving me options?

"AS before, when it starts without the CD booting it, which I can get it to
do if I have patience, it gives me the same error message of it shut down to
prevent damage to my computer and its a unbootable volume error (I'm not
sure of these words, it's something like that)."

My instinct at this point would be to reformat the C drive, then reinstall
Windows. Perhaps the hard drive just got corrupted and needs to be
reformatted.

Any ideas/thoughts/suggestions?

Also, is it possible to just boot from the Windows XP CD, without loading
Windows from the hard drive? Perhaps that might show whether it's a hard
drive or Windows problem or none of the above.

Thanks!

Neil

 

[RIAA]

I have a friend who has a Dell laptop that will not boot. When she boots it
with the power cord plugged in, it starts to boot and then shuts off. With
the battery removed, it seems to work better, but still shuts off.
Sometimes she can get it to boot a little into Windows, but then gives her
an error message (see below), and then shuts down.

Though it seems to me to be a hardware issue, someone told her to
reinstall
Windows (XP Home). So she put in the Windows disk, and it began the
reinstall. It actually got much further than it had in the past when just
trying to boot. So that made me think that maybe it was something related
to
Windows.

She said she got to a part asking if she wanted to create a FAT partition
or
something to that effect (she doesn't remember the actual prompt), and,
after that, the system shut down. Here's her actual message to me:

"I got a CD from Dell, to reload my Windows XP. I got my laptop to boot
from the CD. It loaded lots of files. Drivers and such. And now it
wants
to put a FAT partition or something like that on. In order to do that it
will erase what I have on the hard drive. (I think) But then, when I
clicked
ENTER the whole thing just went blank which makes me think - yes - the
power
cord needs to be replaced. But I'm wondering do you think the hard drive
is
okay if it's working this far, loading stuff on and giving me options?

"AS before, when it starts without the CD booting it, which I can get it
to
do if I have patience, it gives me the same error message of it shut down
to
prevent damage to my computer and its a unbootable volume error (I'm not
sure of these words, it's something like that)."

My instinct at this point would be to reformat the C drive, then reinstall
Windows. Perhaps the hard drive just got corrupted and needs to be
reformatted.

Any ideas/thoughts/suggestions?

Also, is it possible to just boot from the Windows XP CD, without loading
Windows from the hard drive? Perhaps that might show whether it's a hard
drive or Windows problem or none of the above.

Thanks!

Neil

Can't boot from an XP cd, but you can with a Linux CD, if it boots that ok,
it probably is a bad hard drive.

 

[Neil]

Thanks.

Can't boot from an XP cd, but you can with a Linux CD, if it boots that
ok, it probably is a bad hard drive.

 

[BigJim]

hard drive may be going bad.

 

[Neil]

Thanks, guys, for your assistance. Here's an update on the situation.

I asked to her to repeat the previous steps, to try and do a Windows install
from the CD, just to see if it crashed at the same place (trying to create
the FAT partition). Here's the note I just got from her:

"I just turned it on to try installing again and see if it got stuck in the
same place (the FAT thing) and it lit up for a second and shut off. Then I
tried it again and jiggled the cord and it shut off again. I don't think
it's crashing, I think it's just shutting off because the cord is loose. I
think I need a new cord."

So I don't know what happened that first time (except that she's said that
she was occasionally able to keep it on for more than a few seconds; maybe
that was one of those times). But it does appear that perhaps that FAT thing
was a fluke, and that it might be a power issue after all....

 

[John Doue]

Thanks, guys, for your assistance. Here's an update on the situation.

I asked to her to repeat the previous steps, to try and do a Windows install
from the CD, just to see if it crashed at the same place (trying to create
the FAT partition). Here's the note I just got from her:

"I just turned it on to try installing again and see if it got stuck in the
same place (the FAT thing) and it lit up for a second and shut off. Then I
tried it again and jiggled the cord and it shut off again. I don't think
it's crashing, I think it's just shutting off because the cord is loose. I
think I need a new cord."

So I don't know what happened that first time (except that she's said that
she was occasionally able to keep it on for more than a few seconds; maybe
that was one of those times). But it does appear that perhaps that FAT thing
was a fluke, and that it might be a power issue after all....

All this being second hand information, it is a little difficult to get
a clear idea of the situation. But I am not convinced by the power cord
story (what is the condition of the battery?) and I wonder if the
machine simply shuts down because it is overheating. I suggest making
sure this is not happening.

Regards

 

[Neil]

I don't think it could be overheating, as it happens sometimes after the
machine is cold, and then it shuts down after a few seconds. I don't think
the machine could overheat that quickly (unless there's a switch that's
shorted that makes it *think* it's overheated).

Prior to this non-ability to boot situation, this person for some months
complained that her battery wasn't charging, that she'd only get about a
half hour of use from a fully-charged battery (and this battery's only a
year or two old). So my guess is that the power cord had trouble charging
for a while. And now the battery's dead. So when the power is cut off, there
is no battery reserve to fall back on, and the system shuts down.

But I'm going over there tonight and will look at it first hand, and try
this "jiggle the cord" thing. If you have any ideas or suggestions for me to
try when I'm looking at it, fire away.

Thanks!

Neil

 

[CBFalconer]

Neil wrote: *** and top-posted. Fixed ***

I don't think it could be overheating, as it happens sometimes
after the machine is cold, and then it shuts down after a few
seconds. I don't think the machine could overheat that quickly
(unless there's a switch that's shorted that makes it *think*
it's overheated).

Prior to this non-ability to boot situation, this person for some
months complained that her battery wasn't charging, that she'd
only get about a half hour of use from a fully-charged battery
(and this battery's only a year or two old). So my guess is that
the power cord had trouble charging for a while. And now the
battery's dead. So when the power is cut off, there is no battery
reserve to fall back on, and the system shuts down.

But I'm going over there tonight and will look at it first hand,
and try this "jiggle the cord" thing. If you have any ideas or
suggestions for me to try when I'm looking at it, fire away.

There is a little bit of information in all that, and most of it
effectively got lost due to the top-posting. I have fixed that so
that it is understandable, but I have not snipped it down
properly. I will leave that to you. Snip in complete paragraphs,
and mark the snippage.

I am accessing this through alt.comp.hardware.

I gather that the system is a lap-top. Windows take forever to
reinstall, so I believe the failure without a line cord is a
chimera. However there is no real reason it should fail. The fact
that you are lacking any system is very awkward. The old system is
long gone, so it might be well to start with a different
installation. I suggest Ubuntu, because you can get the
installation disks free, and besides it is a better system. Start
from Ubuntu.com. At any rate a new line cord is a cheap trial.
Bad connectors are another thing.

Please do not top-post. Your answer belongs after (or intermixed
with) the quoted material to which you reply, after snipping all
irrelevant material. I fixed this one. See the following links:

--
<http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html>
<http://www.caliburn.nl/topposting.html>
<http://www.netmeister.org/news/learn2quote.html>
<http://cfaj.freeshell.org/google/> (taming google)
<http://members.fortunecity.com/nnqweb/> (newusers)

 

[Neil]

I have a friend who has a Dell laptop that will not boot. When she boots it
with the power cord plugged in, it starts to boot and then shuts off. With
the battery removed, it seems to work better, but still shuts off.
Sometimes she can get it to boot a little into Windows, but then gives her
an error message (see below), and then shuts down.

Though it seems to me to be a hardware issue, someone told her to
reinstall
Windows (XP Home). So she put in the Windows disk, and it began the
reinstall. It actually got much further than it had in the past when just
trying to boot. So that made me think that maybe it was something related
to
Windows.

She said she got to a part asking if she wanted to create a FAT partition
or
something to that effect (she doesn't remember the actual prompt), and,
after that, the system shut down. Here's her actual message to me:

"I got a CD from Dell, to reload my Windows XP. I got my laptop to boot
from the CD. It loaded lots of files. Drivers and such. And now it
wants
to put a FAT partition or something like that on. In order to do that it
will erase what I have on the hard drive. (I think) But then, when I
clicked
ENTER the whole thing just went blank which makes me think - yes - the
power
cord needs to be replaced. But I'm wondering do you think the hard drive
is
okay if it's working this far, loading stuff on and giving me options?

"AS before, when it starts without the CD booting it, which I can get it
to
do if I have patience, it gives me the same error message of it shut down
to
prevent damage to my computer and its a unbootable volume error (I'm not
sure of these words, it's something like that)."

My instinct at this point would be to reformat the C drive, then reinstall
Windows. Perhaps the hard drive just got corrupted and needs to be
reformatted.

Any ideas/thoughts/suggestions?

Also, is it possible to just boot from the Windows XP CD, without loading
Windows from the hard drive? Perhaps that might show whether it's a hard
drive or Windows problem or none of the above.

Thanks!

Neil

Well, I looked at the laptop first-hand tonight. I couldn't even get it to
turn on! By jiggling the wire, every once in a while I could get the lights
to flash for a second, but that was it. My son came and helped me (thank
goodness for kids, right?...) and found that by holding the wire straight
out at the point where it connected to the tip that inserted into the power
socket, he could get the power to stay on, and the laptop to boot.

We tried holding the wire straight out without pushing the tip; and we tried
pushing the tip without touching the wire. The former got it to turn on,
while the latter did nothing. So we concluded that the problem was with the
wire, and the socket itself was fine.

(Indeed, when one looked at the wire where it connected to the tip, one
could see that it was very loose, and would hang straight down. Obviously
some wires are loose in there. I surmise that she must have damaged it by
having the wire bent back, tucked under the laptop while she used it, or
something to that effect.)

Once the computer was able to remain on, with my son at the helm, holding
the wire steady, Windows booted fine -- except that it got to the message
that I believe she was originally talking about: "Unmountable boot volume...
Windows will shut down to prevent damage to the computer," with the blue
screen with white letters, etc.

So I figure that sometime when the computer shut down instantaneously,
either the hard drive was damaged, or at least the data on it got screwed
up.

Either way, we're ordering a new cable, and will go from there. Once that's
done, I guess the next thing would be to do a Windows reinstall with a
reformat, and see if that succeeds. The fact that (per my original message)
she had previously gotten to the point where Windows was going to recreate
the FAT partition, and then it just shut off, indicates that the hard drive
might be irreparably damaged. But, OTOH, she may have just jiggled the wire
when she hit the Enter key.

Anyway, thanks to everyone for your assistance. Will let you know how it
goes.

Neil

 

[meerkat]

Snipped a lot.

Either way, we're ordering a new cable, and will go from there. Once
that's done, I guess the next thing would be to do a Windows reinstall
with a reformat, and see if that succeeds.

..
You could first try a System Repair Neil.
That would save all her settings/data/etc.

bw..

 

[Neil]

Are you referring to chkdsk /r, or something else?

 

[Raymond J. Johnson Jr.]

Well, I looked at the laptop first-hand tonight. I couldn't even get it to
turn on! By jiggling the wire, every once in a while I could get the lights
to flash for a second, but that was it. My son came and helped me (thank
goodness for kids, right?...) and found that by holding the wire straight
out at the point where it connected to the tip that inserted into the power
socket, he could get the power to stay on, and the laptop to boot.

We tried holding the wire straight out without pushing the tip; and we tried
pushing the tip without touching the wire. The former got it to turn on,
while the latter did nothing. So we concluded that the problem was with the
wire, and the socket itself was fine.

(Indeed, when one looked at the wire where it connected to the tip, one
could see that it was very loose, and would hang straight down. Obviously
some wires are loose in there. I surmise that she must have damaged it by
having the wire bent back, tucked under the laptop while she used it, or
something to that effect.)

Once the computer was able to remain on, with my son at the helm, holding
the wire steady, Windows booted fine -- except that it got to the message
that I believe she was originally talking about: "Unmountable boot volume...
Windows will shut down to prevent damage to the computer," with the blue
screen with white letters, etc.

So I figure that sometime when the computer shut down instantaneously,
either the hard drive was damaged, or at least the data on it got screwed
up.

Either way, we're ordering a new cable, and will go from there. Once that's
done, I guess the next thing would be to do a Windows reinstall with a
reformat, and see if that succeeds. The fact that (per my original message)
she had previously gotten to the point where Windows was going to recreate
the FAT partition, and then it just shut off, indicates that the hard drive
might be irreparably damaged. But, OTOH, she may have just jiggled the wire
when she hit the Enter key.

Anyway, thanks to everyone for your assistance. Will let you know how it
goes.

Neil

If it is indeed a power issue, it's possible that the connector on the
motherboard is loose, and a new AC adapter won't help. When you get the
new adapter, if the same thing happens, you can be pretty sure it's the
internal connector.

 

[BillW50]

In CBFalconer typed on Wed, 21 Nov 2007 20:02:21 -0500:

... I suggest Ubuntu, because you can get the
installation disks free, and besides it is a better system. Start
from Ubuntu.com...

That is only good advice if you want to take your laptop and reduce it
down to a glorified PDA. For example, if I ran Linux, my KWorld TV
tuner, my four iRiver T10 MP3 Players, my PrecisionLink Glucose Meter,
etc would stop communicating with my computers. Plus to get your
glorified computer working with Linux, you have to find all of the
necessary drivers to make it work with you sound card, video card, etc.
So tell me again how is that better? Even Linus himself (the father of
Linux) admits in his book "Just for Fun" himself uses Windows.

 

[Victor]

I have a friend who has a Dell laptop that will not boot. When she boots it
with the power cord plugged in, it starts to boot and then shuts off. With
the battery removed, it seems to work better, but still shuts off. Sometimes
she can get it to boot a little into Windows, but then gives her an error
message (see below), and then shuts down.

Though it seems to me to be a hardware issue, someone told her to reinstall
Windows (XP Home). So she put in the Windows disk, and it began the
reinstall. It actually got much further than it had in the past when just
trying to boot. So that made me think that maybe it was something related to
Windows.

She said she got to a part asking if she wanted to create a FAT partition or
something to that effect (she doesn't remember the actual prompt), and,
after that, the system shut down. Here's her actual message to me:

"I got a CD from Dell, to reload my Windows XP. I got my laptop to boot
from the CD. It loaded lots of files. Drivers and such. And now it wants
to put a FAT partition or something like that on. In order to do that it
will erase what I have on the hard drive. (I think) But then, when I clicked
ENTER the whole thing just went blank which makes me think - yes - the power
cord needs to be replaced. But I'm wondering do you think the hard drive is
okay if it's working this far, loading stuff on and giving me options?

"AS before, when it starts without the CD booting it, which I can get it to
do if I have patience, it gives me the same error message of it shut down to
prevent damage to my computer and its a unbootable volume error (I'm not
sure of these words, it's something like that)."

My instinct at this point would be to reformat the C drive, then reinstall
Windows. Perhaps the hard drive just got corrupted and needs to be
reformatted.

Any ideas/thoughts/suggestions?

Also, is it possible to just boot from the Windows XP CD, without loading
Windows from the hard drive? Perhaps that might show whether it's a hard
drive or Windows problem or none of the above.

Thanks!

Neil

Run the dell diagnostics.F11 at boot.Run the full test after you get
the new wire.

 

[CBFalconer]

CBFalconer typed:


That is only good advice if you want to take your laptop and reduce
it down to a glorified PDA. For example, if I ran Linux, my KWorld
TV tuner, my four iRiver T10 MP3 Players, my PrecisionLink Glucose
Meter, etc would stop communicating with my computers. Plus to get
your glorified computer working with Linux, you have to find all of
the necessary drivers to make it work with you sound card, video
card, etc. So tell me again how is that better? Even Linus himself
(the father of Linux) admits in his book "Just for Fun" himself
uses Windows.

95% (or more) of the installations from the distribution disk 'just
happen'. No drivers etc. needed. You can pre-check this with the
immediate run version, i.e. no disk installation.

Most of your applications will have free replacements available.
Just check.

 

[BillW50]

In CBFalconer typed on Sun, 25 Nov 2007 17:05:51 -0500:

95% (or more) of the installations from the distribution disk 'just
happen'. No drivers etc. needed. You can pre-check this with the
immediate run version, i.e. no disk installation.

Most of your applications will have free replacements available.
Just check.

That doesn't help me get my devices like KWorld TV tuner, my four iRiver
T10 MP3 Players, my PrecisionLink Glucose Meter, etc to work now does
it? And if I am looking for replacements, all I need is a glorified PDA,
now don't I? When are people going to learn if you seek a niche market
solution, you get nothing but a niche market solution. Windows covers 90
to 95% of all PCs. Everything else is just a niche. Great if you love
doing things the hard way, but most of us actually has a life.

 

[CBFalconer]

CBFalconer typed on Sun, 25 Nov 2007 17:05:51 -0500:

That doesn't help me get my devices like KWorld TV tuner, my four
iRiver T10 MP3 Players, my PrecisionLink Glucose Meter, etc to work
now does it? And if I am looking for replacements, all I need is a
glorified PDA, now don't I? When are people going to learn if you
seek a niche market solution, you get nothing but a niche market
solution. Windows covers 90 to 95% of all PCs. Everything else is
just a niche. Great if you love doing things the hard way, but most
of us actually has a life.

My requirements are not yours, and vice-versa. You have a choice.
Ubuntu is totally free, and includes all source. AFAICS all your
apps, apart from the Glucose Meter, have straight-forward free
replacements (with source) available. The meter may also be
available, check with the provider.

If you don't like Ubuntu get something else. Again, your choice.
You know that whatever you get in the Linux area will remain freely
available, and not be crippled by an utterly impossible EULA.
Another choice: Keep your existing Windows, don't upgrade it, and
dual-boot.

 

[BillW50]

In CBFalconer typed Mon, 26 Nov 2007 00:12:17 -0500:

My requirements are not yours, and vice-versa. You have a choice.
Ubuntu is totally free, and includes all source. AFAICS all your
apps, apart from the Glucose Meter, have straight-forward free
replacements (with source) available. The meter may also be
available, check with the provider.

If you don't like Ubuntu get something else. Again, your choice.
You know that whatever you get in the Linux area will remain freely
available, and not be crippled by an utterly impossible EULA.
Another choice: Keep your existing Windows, don't upgrade it, and
dual-boot.

That is totally irresponsible! Linux is only useful as a server in the
real world (and that is also questionable as well). Why not recommend a
Commodore 64 or Mac if you want to recommend a niche OS? At least they
would get some occasional real world work done from time to time.

 

[CBFalconer]

CBFalconer typed Mon, 26 Nov 2007 00:12:17 -0500:

That is totally irresponsible! Linux is only useful as a server in the
real world (and that is also questionable as well). Why not recommend a
Commodore 64 or Mac if you want to recommend a niche OS? At least they
would get some occasional real world work done from time to time.

Alright. You have now classified yourself as a troll. Bye.

 

[Neil]

OK, so I just go back from trying the new power cable. The computer worked
fine with the new cable. Got to the same error of unmountable boot volume.
When into the R option from CD, ran chkdsk/r, took about an hour, and
finished with no errors. Restarted the computer without the CD, and
everything's fine! So, thanks, everyone, for your input!

Only one problem remains. I guess from all of her trying to start it with no
power, the battery got very low. Now the battery light on her laptop is
blinking red. And, when I got into Control Panel | Power Options, it says,
"Battery not found." So I'm guessing the battery is kaput. We're leaving it
plugged in overnight to see if hopefully the battery will come back to life.
But I'm guessing she's going to need a new battery.

Neil