Dell driver update panic

closed

what happens on screen when you switch on after holding down power for 6 secs

badger09

closed wrote: »

what happens on screen when you switch on after holding down power for 6 secs

Sorry if I'm being dim, but if I 'hold down power for 6 seconds' laptop turns on, so I don't understand how I can then 'switch on' as it is already switched on (though only has a black screen after the 4 square windows logo disappears)

closed

The hold down for 6 seconds question was to make sure you are actually switching it off, and not suspending it - until now you only reported a black screen, so it wasn't obvious whether it was ever switching off completely. If youre getting a bios screen, it clearly is switching off.

Try Shift and F8 again at switch on

If you can't get into any of the safe mode options before windows tries to boot, you're probably going to have to get hold of a w8 disc, which shouldn't cost anywhere near what you have been quoted - it's not clear from your post if they were going to send you a disc or usb for free?

http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/software-os/f/4677/t/19476992.aspx

and, you don't need to lose any data, provided you can make a linux boot disk in another machine, and have somewhere to backup to, eg an external hard disk

badger09

closed wrote: »

The hold down for 6 seconds question was to make sure you are actually switching it off, and not suspending it - until now you only reported a black screen, so it wasn't obvious whether it was ever switching off completely. If youre getting a bios screen, it clearly is switching off.

Try Shift and F8 again at switch on

If you can't get into any of the safe mode options before windows tries to boot, you're probably going to have to get hold of a w8 disc

OK might be some progress.

I left it all switched off for a while & this time when I switched on & pressed Shift F8 I got 'Please wait' message

Now I have
Recovery
It looks like Windows didn't load correctly.
If you'd like to restart and try again, choose 'Restart my PC below' otherwise choose 'See advanced repair options' for troubleshooting tools and advanced options. If you don't know which option is right for you, contact someone you trust to help with this

and I have 2 options:

See advanced repair options
Restart my PC

As you are the 'someone I trust to help with this'
Which should I choose?

closed

advanced, system restore, use a restore point recorded on your pc to restore windows to an earlier time (ie before you updated ati software)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgQ87b7muWs#t=6m40s

badger09

Thank you so much!

I did a system restore to earlier this morning and it seems to have worked. It didn't give me the option to restore to a point before the ATI installation, so I assume that got interrupted/corrupted part way through?

Anyway, seems ok now apart from that annoying message about Catalyst Control Centre :mad: which I'll just live with, until I'm sure I can deal with it properly.

Thank you again Closed :T

closed

It's a shame the Dell tech didn't suggest it.

Guess what you should do now.....?

Create the windows disc


Creating your recovery discs is a very important step in your computer setup. While you may never see an issue with your Dell PC, it is possible that you may need to restore the operating system back to factory condition. Dell provides a partition on your hard drive to make this an easy process, but if you delete that partition or if your hard drive becomes corrupt or damaged, you will need the recovery media to reinstall Windows 8. These discs should be kept in a safe place that you will remember, and should be labeled for easy recognition.


This step requires two (2) writable DVDs OR one (1) 16GB USB key to complete. Note that this process takes about 1 hour to complete using DVDs.

• Select the My Dell Support Center tile on the Start Screen.
• Select Backup at the top of the My Dell window.
• Select Create Recovery Media.
  Select Yes to allow the Dell Backup and Recovery program to start.
• Select the type of media you will use to create the backup, either USB Flash Drive or Discs.
• Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the backup process. If you are using DVDs, you will need to switch the DVDs midway through the creation process

install macrium reflect free http://filehippo.com/download_macrium_reflect

backup to an external hard disk (portable usb disks are about £40) using the macrium disk image option (not clone), create the macrium boot cd - see video in speedup sticky thread

if catalyst is still crashing, disable catalyst from startup using msconfig, startup tab

backup on a regular basis to an external hard disk, and dvd's - a macrium backup would allow you to recover a fully working system including windows and all data and programs if this happened again, burning your most important data to dvd's is also a useful habit to get into, they cost about 10p each and hold 4.7GB

badger09

closed wrote: »

Guess what you should do now.....?

Create the windows disc

install macrium reflect free

backup to an external hard disk using the macrium disk image option (not clone), create the macrium boot cd.

if catalyst is still crashing, disable catalyst from startup using msconfig, startup tab

backup on a regular basis to an external hard disk, and dvd's

I promise I will follow your advice re Macrium.

I do regularly backup - well every 4 - 6 weeks - photos, doc etc to external hard drive. with vital ones (not may of those) to USB as well, so losing recent data wouldn't have been a big issue.

To be honest, I don't know what the Catalyst Control Centre does, but got fed up with the message appearing all the time.

Thanks again for your time. Very much appreciated.

closed

create windows discs too, needs 2 dvds, instructions above.

normal (ie not disk image) backups are slighly useless on their own, if you have no means of reinstalling/repairing/booting windows too

badger09 wrote: »

Also even though switched off & charger unplugged, the power on/off light is blinking constantly.

Flashing light suggests it was in suspend mode at the time (powered by battery), rather than completely off, which is what the 6 second thing was all about, to make sure it was off, so you could use shift F8 to get into safe mode.

badger09

Trying to follow Closed's advice.

Earlier today when I tried to look at 'Dell Support' I got message it wasn't available & to try later. Then I couldn't get into 'My Dell' at all - the Dell logo came on screen but nothing else. I also couldn't open the 'Getting Started on Windows 8 with your new Dell' app & got message 'This app can't open. Check with Windows Store for more information ...'

Now, I can get into 'My Dell' tile, the 'Backup' tile says 'No backup software installed'. If I click on it, the only option is 'Backup & Recovery We strongly recommend you create an external copy of the Dell factory software that was installed on your computer when it was built. This image includes the operating system (OS), the OS recovery environment, and all applications and software drivers installed at the Dell factory.' With option to Download Local Backup

My question is – if I do Download Local Backup – will it be all the original correctly functioning stuff , or will it be the malfunctioning/corrupted version which led to the problems yesterday?

Hope I’ve explained that properly and thanks for any help.