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Laptop problem

littleredhen
littleredhen Posts: 3,302 Forumite
Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
in Techie Stuff
Laptop will boot up but then freezes can't do Carl alt delete to see what is running and it won,t do anything any advise gratefully received
The mind is like a parachute. It doesn’t work unless it’s open.:o

A winner listens, a loser just waits until it is their turn to talk:)
«13

Comments

  • grumpycrab
    grumpycrab Posts: 5,031 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Bake Off Boss!
    Try safe mode (usually holding F8 at boot up). Tell us what happens. Then we may need OS type (XP, vista, 7, 8).
    If you cannot work out which key gets into safe mode tell us the computer make/model.
  • littleredhen
    littleredhen Posts: 3,302 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Ok it's running in safe mode it's windows vista not sure which version..
    The mind is like a parachute. It doesn’t work unless it’s open.:o

    A winner listens, a loser just waits until it is their turn to talk:)
  • grumpycrab
    grumpycrab Posts: 5,031 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Bake Off Boss!
    If its running fine in safe mode then it may be a program that you've recently installed AND is running when the computer starts up (ring any bells?).
    - if anything was recently installed uninstall it and try booting again OR
    - Start -> type "msconfig" in the search box (no "") and when msconfig box opens look at the startup items; one of these could be causing problems. May be worth unticking one or 2 at a time (can take a while depending on how many startup items you have)
    - if you have Trusteer/Rapport uninstall it
  • littleredhen
    littleredhen Posts: 3,302 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Love your username by the way. Nothing recently installed. Will do as you suggest. Thanks
    The mind is like a parachute. It doesn’t work unless it’s open.:o

    A winner listens, a loser just waits until it is their turn to talk:)
  • grumpycrab
    grumpycrab Posts: 5,031 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Bake Off Boss!
    edited 17 November 2013 at 1:00PM
    Don't untick Intel items which are probably needed. Its the non-microsoft items which may be causing a problem.
    Do you have Trusteer/Raport?

    EDIT: follow a guide if in doubt e.g. http://www.netsquirrel.com/msconfig/msconfig_vista.html
  • littleredhen
    littleredhen Posts: 3,302 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    I hadn't started above when it ran out of power so plugged in a hit power button now it is coming up with a disk read error occurred press Ctrl alt del but when I do that it just tries to restart and same message comes up. Tried pressing f8 and it's beeps like a smoke alarm!
    The mind is like a parachute. It doesn’t work unless it’s open.:o

    A winner listens, a loser just waits until it is their turn to talk:)
  • grumpycrab
    grumpycrab Posts: 5,031 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Bake Off Boss!
    edited 17 November 2013 at 1:26PM
    Oh blimey. Unplug from mains, remove battery, plug in mains hold down power button for 30secs. Then try and start it again (without battery at first just to get it going).
    EDIT: before somebody else says it - have you backed up all important docs/pics recently?
  • littleredhen
    littleredhen Posts: 3,302 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    :mad:Same thing happens
    The mind is like a parachute. It doesn’t work unless it’s open.:o

    A winner listens, a loser just waits until it is their turn to talk:)
  • littleredhen
    littleredhen Posts: 3,302 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Yes I do back up photos etc
    The mind is like a parachute. It doesn’t work unless it’s open.:o

    A winner listens, a loser just waits until it is their turn to talk:)
  • grumpycrab
    grumpycrab Posts: 5,031 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Bake Off Boss!
    edited 17 November 2013 at 1:41PM
    So it was running ok in Safe mode; When it ran out of power it still running (and so shutdown unsafely). This shouldn't normally kill a disk. I guess the disk read error occurs immediately? It doesn't get into Windows?

    It sounds like you have a corrupt boot sector. So you will need to perform a chdsk and/or windows repair AFTER booting from a Windows Recovery optical media. Do you have the original Windows Vista boot disk (I will look this up or somebody else may chip in...)

    EDIT: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows-vista/make-system-repairs-from-the-windows-recovery-environment-from-windows-vista-inside-out
    if you can run this you need to do "Startup Repair" and/or go to the command prompt and do a chkdsk /f C:
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