Computers| Computers |
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03-10-2008, 04:32 AM
| #1 (permalink) |
| Newb Techie Join Date: Jan 2004
Posts: 14
|  Can't boot up- runs for 10 seconds and restarts Hello, Today I turned on my notebook (purchased from Dell, 5 months ago and running Vista) and the machine only runs for about 10 seconds and then restarts on its own and continues the cycle repetitively. I tried to get into safe mode, but it will not allow me to - the notebook restarts itself too quckly. On a positive note, I am able to get into the 'boot' menu and 'diagnostic testing' which is illustrated on the top right hand corner of the screen. I entered the 'boot' section, and I inserted a windows XP cd (I only had an oem version of VISTA). I figured I would reformat one of the drives, or load a new copy onto a secondary partition I have, however, once in progress, the cd indicates it cannot find a hard drive and then prompts me to reboot - so much for that idea. My last attempt was to run the diagnostic testing offered through dell and so I have, thinking the hard drive is the issue. Fortunately it is not and the test ran through all sectors (and the rest of the notebook for tests) and everything passed. What gives? I do not download anything that would put me at risk for a virus. I check my daily websites and that's it. Any help on what else I can do to test it? A friend suggested booting DOS from the cd-rom and seeing if I can locate the i386 (where oem VISTA is kept, supposedly?) Thanks! |
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03-10-2008, 05:20 AM
| #2 (permalink) |
| Commander Super Mod Joker  Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: In Trotter's crawl space
Posts: 14,364
| Re: Can't boot up- runs for 10 seconds and restarts I am guessing you didnt burn yourself the Vista discs from teh recovery partition? If not head over to this link: Windows Vista Recovery Disc Download — The NeoSmart Files Download the Recovery CD. Boot with that and see if you can recover the boot info. See if that does anything. What have you installed recently? Something had to of corrupted the system in order for it to stop booting.
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03-10-2008, 08:12 AM
| #3 (permalink) |
| Newb Techie Join Date: Jan 2004
Posts: 14
| Re: Can't boot up- runs for 10 seconds and restarts Thank you so much. I simply went to the 'repair start up' section and within 30 seconds I was back up and running. I had not installed anything for this to occur. I deleted the back-up partition that came with the notebook (to save space) initially, so I do not have a back-up. I figured i'd never use it. That was the wrong choice. What can I do now to ensure this problem will never happen again? Will this back-up image you provided suffice? or should I make an image of my pc? Thanks alot... really.. thank you. |
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03-10-2008, 08:33 AM
| #4 (permalink) |
| Newb Techie Join Date: Jan 2004
Posts: 14
| Re: Can't boot up- runs for 10 seconds and restarts I did install something recently, and that was MSN's new update. From that update I was having issues accessing my hotmail account directly from the msn toolbar. Maybe it was that? |
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03-10-2008, 09:16 AM
| #5 (permalink) |
| Commander Super Mod Joker Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: In Trotter's crawl space
Posts: 14,364
| Re: Can't boot up- runs for 10 seconds and restarts It could be that update. But that Recovery CD is just to recover your boot if you lose it or to use a restore point. It is nothing more than a recovery tool. If you do not have a backup i would suggest making a Image of your drive with Acronis True Image or Norton Ghost. That way you have some way to fully recover your system if something goes wrong. Glad to hear it was just a simple boot lose and nothing more serious.
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