laptop help pls

Strider590

sarah-t wrote: »

ok , ive taken the hard drive out and used a usb thingy to connect it to my fat pc , id like to do a systemm restore on the laptop hard drive then insert it back in the laptop can any one tell me please how to do that , which folder will contain the system restore thing
thanks,

Should you really have done that? :huh:

If it was a boot sector virus, you could have wiped out your PC too. It happened to my work laptop, even with "autorun" disabled (but I knew the risk).

Oh well.... can you read/see the contents of the hard drive when it's connected to your PC?

sarah-t_4

i can see/read the contents but cant understand a thing :S

sarah-t_4

Strider590 wrote: »

And has the hardware changed at all?

no changes that i mad. last i used it 3 days ago n it was working fine.

Money_Grabber13579

Maybe you SIL could tell you what she did? On second thoughts, that's maybe not a good idea either! :rofl:

Can you get into safe mode on the laptop at all? I think I read that you took the hard drive out, so obviously you'll have to put it back in!

If you can get into safe mode, then you can carry out the things above. Keep pressing F8 as mentioned and you should get a menu that says
Safe mode
Safe mode with networking

along with several others. Pick safe mode.

Although maybe you can't even get this far?

sarah-t_4

i can see the screen with the options
Safe mode
Safe mode with networking etc
but when i clik safe mode i get a list of errors the black screen again then the blue then back to square one

Money_Grabber13579

Oh dear! That is bad. Do you have restore discs for the laptop? Sometimes manufacturers will send out restore discs that will put it back to its factory settings. If so, can you try booting off one of these? Or even a Windows XP CD?

Money_Grabber13579

If there's nothing on your laptop worth saving, then this is probably the easiest way to get going again. Make sure you have no docs or pics you want to save since you will lose everything!

I can't write it any better myself, so try and follow these steps, if it will allow you to do so. You may have a recovery partition on your hard disc instead of the discs I mentioned previously, and so this method will only work if the partition exists.

http://www.ehow.com/how_2184092_perform-dell-system-restore.html

sarah-t_4

i cant seem to press ctrl and f11 just doesnt seem to work
dont have any dics as it doesnt have a cd drive can only press f2 and f8 and then nothings working:(

Money_Grabber13579

I assume the laptop is fairly elderly then? Does it have any floppy discs and a floppy disc drive?

Money_Grabber13579

sarah-t wrote: »

hiya
can someone pls help me with my laptop
it was working fine (dell latitude d400) lent it to SIL last week and now ive got it back all of a sudden yesterday it wont start.
i keep getting error saying . windows cant load a recent hardware or software change might have caused this,will start in 24 seconds and when it does it goes to blue screen says something (not long enough to read it) makes a small burning or something sound then back to the black error screen software / hardware change might have caused this , blah blah

does anyone know whats going on with it please ?
or how to fix this
ive tried rebooting in safe mode etc but just wont work

What makes the burning sound? I assumed it was the CD drive making the noise, but if it doesn't have one....