15 replies to this topic

[user681]

I got a new laptop a couple weeks ago..anyway for some reason it won't boot up
I'm thinking this might be because of the power outage from this afternoon where I live..
anyway, windows boot up with no problem but after the "Starting Windows" screen (using windows 7 btw)
the screen goes black(backlight still on) but you could still see the cursor and move the cursor. (the hdd light doesnt flickr or anything) I've tried using windows recovery tool and it says it couldn't dectect any errors
When I try to access safe mode the same thing happens..just a blank screen with the cursor :/
I've even tried using system restore..and that didn't do anything ..

Does anyone know any solution to this??

[rayzoredge]

That sounds more like an operating system error than a hardware one, but I could be wrong.

If the laptop is relatively new and you don't mind, reformat and reinstall. (That'll give you the opportunity to have a clean installation of everything that you want without the bloatware that most likely came with it.)

If you want to keep things the way they are, try a system repair using the Windows 7 recovery tool on the DVD or by snagging/downloading dedicated recovery discs from Microsoft. (I know you said you used a recovery tool, but I don't know what you used, specifically.) This site will help you out a bit more concerning recovery without me reiterating everything.

And for future reference, if you haven't gotten the hint by now, always have a surge protector handy. They're relatively cheap and worth their weight in gold if you are susceptible to power surges, and if you really want to make sure that things don't go awry with your electronics, a UPS from APC or another reputable brand will protect against surges and brownouts. (Not as applicable to your laptop since you have a battery in it.)

[BuffaloHelp]

What I would do is call the manufacturer. Obviously you have the warranty. Use it before it's too late.

I am more concerned with physical damage like hard drive spike or motherboard short circuit. So call the warranty department and tell them your laptop ceased to operate one day. It's unethical but lie and do not tell them about the power outage. That might void your warranty coverage. Play nice and speak nicely to the warranty department. And have patience. They will walk you through gazillion steps just to find out, "oh your harddrive might be bad." It happened to me. I was on the phone for nearly 2 hours until they accepted my original claim, "I think my power supply is bad. It's not charging the battery." They had me check for virus, blah blah and they even connected to my laptop and updated, patched for hours until they issues a new power supply.

Anyway, you want to have well functioning hard drive and not the drive that might fail because of this outage.

[anwiii]

do you have a recovery disk? first thing i usually do is see if i can boot from the cd. if you can boot from the cd and not the c: drive, i would backup your files and reinstall the os. if that doesn't work, i wouldn't mess with it any further and administer your warrantee rights since it's a new laptop. tech support may want to troubleshoot over the phone first but will most likely have to end up sending it to one of their service centers. i'm with BH. i wouldn't tell them about any power outage. just play stupid like you know nothing about computers. don't help them solve the problem. let THEM do it. that is their job and you have a warrantee to back up your claim.

but still, i would see if you can use a restore cd for your os first or somehow get to a command prompt

user681, on Dec 30 2009, 05:26 AM, said:

Does anyone know any solution to this??

[user681]

anwiii, on Dec 30 2009, 05:08 PM, said:

do you have a recovery disk? first thing i usually do is see if i can boot from the cd. if you can boot from the cd and not the c: drive, i would backup your files and reinstall the os. if that doesn't work, i wouldn't mess with it any further and administer your warrantee rights since it's a new laptop. tech support may want to troubleshoot over the phone first but will most likely have to end up sending it to one of their service centers. i'm with BH. i wouldn't tell them about any power outage. just play stupid like you know nothing about computers. don't help them solve the problem. let THEM do it. that is their job and you have a warrantee to back up your claim.

but still, i would see if you can use a restore cd for your os first or somehow get to a command prompt

I do have command prompt
I could still access the "Repair your computer" section of f8 but safemode doesn't work
How do I make is so that it boots from the Windows 7 DVD instead of the hardrive?

[user681]

EDIT: nvm I figured it out how to boot from dvd but it gives me an error saying that windows has encountered a problem with one of my devices :/
does that mean the power outage killed my laptop :S?

[Tramposch]

BuffaloHelp, on Dec 30 2009, 10:37 AM, said:

What I would do is call the manufacturer. Obviously you have the warranty. Use it before it's too late.

I am more concerned with physical damage like hard drive spike or motherboard short circuit. So call the warranty department and tell them your laptop ceased to operate one day. It's unethical but lie and do not tell them about the power outage. That might void your warranty coverage. Play nice and speak nicely to the warranty department. And have patience. They will walk you through gazillion steps just to find out, "oh your harddrive might be bad." It happened to me. I was on the phone for nearly 2 hours until they accepted my original claim, "I think my power supply is bad. It's not charging the battery." They had me check for virus, blah blah and they even connected to my laptop and updated, patched for hours until they issues a new power supply.

Anyway, you want to have well functioning hard drive and not the drive that might fail because of this outage.

I agree, since you recently bought it it is most likely under warranty and if you call them manufacturer, it will most likely get repaired free of charge, may be a hassle, but don't mention the power outage.

I wish you luck, get back to us if it works.

[anwiii]

are you able to fully boot from your dvd/cd drive? with your windows 7 recovery disk? if not, you need to call tech support. if you are, and it gives you the option to restore from a disk image, i would do that. this should restore your laptop to how you got it out of the box.

i am assuming you don't have much data on your computer since it's fairly new and if smart, always have a backup of your important files and programs.

one thing i like to do when experiencing problems like this is to see if i can get in to the bios or setup. on my laptop, it's f2 from there, you can manage to see if it's recognizing some of your hardware. you should also be able to set your boot preference order from there as well.

this whole situation can be very frustrating. if it was me, i would have already called tech support to help me troubleshoot some stuff. i'm really sorry to hear about your new toy and i am really hoping it's just software related....which it actually seems to be from the descriptions you have given. i'm sorry that i cannot be of any further help

about this power surge. if it was from a storm, always remember that you can unplug your laptop and it will run for a couple hours(depending on your battery). i live in missouri where lightening storms come and go often. i try to remember to always unplug my laptop until the storm passes. sorry. i don't even trust surge protectors. from there, i can still get a couple hours of good use out of it. one thing too is investing in another battery pack. you will probably have to purchase one anyway since they don't last forver. this way, you have double the power when your laptop is unplugged and not really wasting any money since you would probably have to invest in one sooner or later anyway. although i don't trust them, i would also invest in a good surge protector. it can't hurt if you do ever forget to unplug your computer during a storm.

another option is to take your laptop back to wherever you purchased...if it wasn't through the mail. i bought my toshiba from walmart and i love walmart because they have a GREAT return and/or exchange policy within a month of purchase

user681, on Dec 30 2009, 03:26 PM, said:

EDIT: nvm I figured it out how to boot from dvd but it gives me an error saying that windows has encountered a problem with one of my devices :/
does that mean the power outage killed my laptop :S?

[Xalor]

If you do need to reinstall or you do send it for tech support, or they come over. I would download and burn ubuntu or another linux distro. Just Google for Ubuntu and instructions on how to burn the ISO it comes in. If you already have one you don't need to listen to the above part. I would then pop in the disc, if its a dell I believe its f12 to choose the boot option, choose CD drive, and then go on, Ubuntu will load, choose the Try Ubuntu without change to my computer option, then let it load for a bit, alright once thats done, now on the desktop you should see your harddrive, its gonna say X number of GB Media, double click it and navigate to your stuff, if its documents then check c:/users/name/documents, plug in a flashdrive then save your stuff to there.

[user681]

The bios dectects all of my hardwares but for whatever reason when booting with windows 7 disk it gives an error.
What I want to do know though is that is it an hardware failure or is it software wise

[user681]

The bios dectects all of my hardwares but for whatever reason when booting with windows 7 disk it gives an error.
What I want to do know though is that is it an hardware failure or is it software wise.

Xalor, on Dec 31 2009, 12:35 AM, said:

If you do need to reinstall or you do send it for tech support, or they come over. I would download and burn ubuntu or another linux distro. Just Google for Ubuntu and instructions on how to burn the ISO it comes in. If you already have one you don't need to listen to the above part. I would then pop in the disc, if its a dell I believe its f12 to choose the boot option, choose CD drive, and then go on, Ubuntu will load, choose the Try Ubuntu without change to my computer option, then let it load for a bit, alright once thats done, now on the desktop you should see your harddrive, its gonna say X number of GB Media, double click it and navigate to your stuff, if its documents then check c:/users/name/documents, plug in a flashdrive then save your stuff to there.

If I do that, would linux screw up windows 7?
anyway thanks for the tip! I'll try that out later

[user681]

I've decided to just reformat the laptop after hearing Xalor's wonderful suggestion of using ubuntu to get my files out
not only that I've also installed ubuntu as a dual boot os after testing it out with the live cd now the only problem with ubuntu is that it doesn't recognize my wireless card on my laptop :/ anyway thank you so much xastor!!

[k_nitin_r]

Hi!

@user681

One of the problems that you would encounter with Linux is the lack of drivers out-of-the-box. However, you can get most cards working by selecting the option to load proprietary drivers. The reason for this inconvenience is the intellectual property protection law that prevents Linux vendors from distributing their code without paying a licensing fee, and since Linux intends to remain free, the proprietary drivers are not included loaded by default. In either case, you can either use the wired network or use a USB flash disk drive to copy your files across.

BTW, did you get a recovery CD with your laptop PC? If you did, you can use it after having backed up all of your files. Make sure you also get the files in "Documents and Settings", which is where all of your files from the Desktop, My Documents, My Pictures, My Music, My Videos etc folders are located. When using a recovery CD, you don't have to look around for device drivers for Windows, and you get a licensed version (OEM) of Windows 7 and can enter the product key located on the sticker underneath your laptop. Some vendors also provide a pre-activated version of the operating system and install Microsoft Office, an antivirus, and lots of other utilities along with Windows.

[deadmad7]

what is the error? Does it restart? If so you may want to reinstall it completely. If it gives a blue screen, Then what does the blue scren say? if it gives the error driver_irql_not_less_or_equal, then yopur system is 100% going to fail again and as such toast.

[iGuest]

 I don't know if anyone else said it, but, if you have to pay for any repairs, file a claim with your power company. This will only work if the outage was the power companys fault, and not an out of the ordinary storm. If it was just raining, and say, a transformer blew up, they will likely reimburse you.

 

[daviscup]

I would also recommend you contact the manufacturer for support as the system is under warranty. Without knowing the cause of the issue, you cannot screw up your system. Consult them and avail the warranty.