Dell Vostro 1500 not loading

alun4

My laptop which had Vista Pro on it when new but a couple of years ago I upgraded to Windows 7 Pro and Office 2010 has stopped.

The set up screen can be accessed and it will load to the Dell screen then offer Windows Error Recovery screen. Whatever I choose here the system starts to run and starts to load drivers until it stops after about 20 drivers have loaded (the last being: Windows32/Drivers/avgidshx.sys then says Wait and then goes to a black screen with the cursor still active.

I can access the Advanced Boot Options screen but whatever I seem to try starting Windows is followed by the webcam start up flashing then a black screen.

I can press function buttons prior to the "Error Screen" and get all the restore options, etc so I can instruct to load from a disc etc. If I put my Windows 7 disc in it will not "repair". I have the original Dell drivers disc, Windows Vista Vista Business 32BIT and the Windows 7 Pro discs.

I am thinking my only further option is a new install that will lose all the files and settings and was hoping that I could avoid this.

I have tried disconnecting the power and battery and holding the power button in for a couple of minutes.

I have BT help insurance but when I spoke to them on Saturday and it would not load enough to get to the "Safe Mode with Networking" it was suggested the probable cause was my hard drive has failed.

Can anyone outsmart BT IT support and help !! ???
or is it probable they are correct.
Alun

HereToday

Boot into a Live CD/USB drive. Ubuntu is an easy place to begin. Use the Try Ubuntu option. You should be able to run the Ubuntu OS regardless of whether your hard drive is working or not. The test is whether you can then 'mount'(access) the hard drive from within Ubuntu.

waddler_8

Try running chkdsk from a recovery environment command prompt.

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/windows-7-recovery-environment-command-prompt/

At the prompt type:

chkdsk c: /r


Note the spaces

chkdsk_c:_/r

closed

if it partially loads, it hasn't failed completely or at all, if necessary data can be rescued with a boot cd and avg can be disabled with the same cd, which may help it to boot.

http://www.paragon-software.com/home/rk-express/download_old.html

http://forums.avg.com/ww-en/avg-forums?sec=thread&act=show&id=94159

alun4

HereToday wrote: »

Boot into a Live CD/USB drive. Ubuntu is an easy place to begin. Use the Try Ubuntu option. You should be able to run the Ubuntu OS regardless of whether your hard drive is working or not. The test is whether you can then 'mount'(access) the hard drive from within Ubuntu.

Can you give a little more detail how to do this? Do I download to a CD (which seems to be a problem with Kaspersky) and then start the failed laptop using the disk as a source to boot?

alun4

waddler_8 wrote: »

Try running chkdsk from a recovery environment command prompt.

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/windows-7-recovery-environment-command-prompt/

At the prompt type:

chkdsk c: /r


Note the spaces

chkdsk_c:_/r

Yes, I tried this .... it took a long time to run through - I thought it had stopped at X percent but it has made it through. It says nothing can be retained to the log.

alun4

closed wrote: »

if it partially loads, it hasn't failed completely or at all, if necessary data can be rescued with a boot cd and avg can be disabled with the same cd, which may help it to boot.

http://www.paragon-software.com/home/rk-express/download_old.html

http://forums.avg.com/ww-en/avg-forums?sec=thread&act=show&id=94159

No joy so far, I will try again in the morning loading both onto 1 CD. I tried the first link and got no joy. Many thanks, Alun

closed

what does no joy mean? loading both onto the same cd won't work, unless you are using advanced techniques. and you cant just copy the iso to a disc and expect it to boot, an iso is a disk image, which has to be written with the disc image function of burning software (imgburn does it for free)

---

the first one has a download link at the bottom, which should take you here

http://download.cnet.com/Rescue-Kit-Free-Edition/3000-2094_4-10910591.html?part=dl-6312838&subj=dl&!!!!!button

click download now, it downloads rk_free.exe (49.4MB)

run that, it runs the unpack and burn wizard.

click the link in the wizard to register, takes you here http://www.paragon-software.com/registration/rk-free11.html

you should get an email within a few seconds with a product key and serial no

enter that in the wizard, select optical disc, put a blank disc in, and let it burn the disc for you

---

it could be nothing to do with avg, but as that's the thing on screen, it's a good starting point --->

boot from that disc in the faulty machine, rename Windows32/Drivers/avgidshx.sys to avgidshx.old

and try booting normally without the disc in.

if it still doesn't work, you can use the cd you have to backup data, or try to rename further avg files which may be stopping bootup

and then when it's booted, stick avast on instead, and do a disk image backup with macrium reflect free, and create a bootcd.