Need help on a Dell laptop

T

Texas Proud

Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Joined
May 16, 2005
Messages
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OK... son screwed up and turned off a laptop in the middle of it updating the operating system. It is Vista Home Edition. It goes through the start up, but then we get a screen that says

"Configuring updates: Stage 3 of 3 0% complete"
"Do not turn off your computer"


NOW... it looks like it is doing something, but then reboots and goes through the whole process again... and again... and again.. I have tried to boot from the CD, but it still does the same thing (I might not be doing it right).

I do have the install disk, but for the life of me I can not get it past this screen....

Any suggestions besides throwing it out the window or taking it to the Geek Squad:confused:
 
When you try to power on the laptop, find out what the system key is and press it, it's different for most manufacturers, i.e. a function key or a combination of keys . Press these buttons and then change your startup process to boot from the cd/dvd drive first. Make sure the system disk is in the drive and try to power it back up. Otherwise, see if you can find the system backup that should've been made before the upgrade started... If this doesn't work, there's more drastic steps to take, i.e., format the hard drive and insert the os disk.
 
You can get to the Advance Boot option by pressing F8 key on start up. From there you will see several boot options. The Safe Mode being one. You might be able to get back to the update menu from there and re-install the update.
 
Does this sound familiar ?
From the dell community website


I've had my Studio for less than 6 months and a couple of days ago my computer crashed after installing the latest windows update. I tried to restore it but it didn't work. I had to wipe out my system and re-install Windows. I have the same operating system (64 bit) as you. After re-installing windows the updates started again and it crashed my system again. Fortunately, I was able to get back to my desktop and stop the updates. I contacted Dell customer support and they suggested I update all of my drivers. I did but Windows stopped responding during the installation process for some critical drivers so I called customer support again today and they did the rest of it for me. I was on the phone with them for almost 3 hours. After the drivers were updated, I resumed the automatic updates and my computer crashed again! I stopped the updates and now I'm looking for a solution. I can't even re-install the Dell Dock. Windows stops responding. If I hear anything, I'll let you know.
 
Rustic23 said:
You can get to the Advance Boot option by pressing F8 key on start up. From there you will see several boot options. The Safe Mode being one. You might be able to get back to the update menu from there and re-install the update.
Click to expand...

This option I have tried and it did not work... when going into safe mode, it still hits the update part and then reboots
 
Dimsumkid said:
When you try to power on the laptop, find out what the system key is and press it, it's different for most manufacturers, i.e. a function key or a combination of keys . Press these buttons and then change your startup process to boot from the cd/dvd drive first. Make sure the system disk is in the drive and try to power it back up. Otherwise, see if you can find the system backup that should've been made before the upgrade started... If this doesn't work, there's more drastic steps to take, i.e., format the hard drive and insert the os disk.
Click to expand...

Tried this and it did not work.... but just tried it again and... WTH... you have to hit a key within a few seconds for it to boot from the CD....

Now got it past that.... but have to wait as it is in a foreign language... it was not bought here in the US...

Hopefully we will get past the problem now...
 
Yesterday my SO accidentally turned off the computer before shutting it down . It would not even go to the safe mode no matter how many times we tried . We just had a blank screen . I went in and pushed ctr,alt ,del and just held it there as the machine went on & then off & finally after five minutes amazingly the machine did boot up . I know this is far fetched but worth a try .
 
Dimsumkid said:
If this doesn't work, there's more drastic steps to take, i.e., format the hard drive and insert the os disk.
Click to expand...

I had a major problem with my Dell mid summer. Had to format the disk and reinstall everything. I was so proud of myself, got everything up and running, faster than before. About a month later, the darn thing would not boot up or show any life what so ever. Ended up buying a new system.:(
 
Texas Proud,
You never mentioned if you're still under warranty or not, doesn't sound like you are. You can contact Dell, website or phone, and see if you can get tech support for this situation. It'll obviously cost some money, when you get a quote determine if it's worth it or better to try and get a new laptop (<$500), since they're pretty cheap nowadays and keep this one to play around and try to do a format of the hard drive and do a new install of the OS and be prepared to reinstall all the drivers and software from scratch. If you have critical data, don't format the drive, but get a new one, swap out the hard drive and start from there. You can get an external enclosure (or hard drive cable) to make this old hard drive accessible so you can get the critical data off of it.
 
Rebooting halfway through a software upgrade is pretty much guaranteed to get you a mangled OS - it's kind of like throwing your car into park at highway speeds.

Because I have dubious moral standards, I would be inclined to log it as a warranty call, having first formatted the hard disk (or even better, got a friend who knows about computers to do a low-level format). Dell's after-sales people probably won't do an extensive post-mortem if the disk appears to be completely empty.

You do have a recent backup of the critical data on the disk, which you also know how to restore, don't you? Yes, of course you do, silly me for even asking.
 
BigNick said:
Rebooting halfway through a software upgrade is pretty much guaranteed to get you a mangled OS - it's kind of like throwing your car into park at highway speeds.

Because I have dubious moral standards, I would be inclined to log it as a warranty call, having first formatted the hard disk (or even better, got a friend who knows about computers to do a low-level format). Dell's after-sales people probably won't do an extensive post-mortem if the disk appears to be completely empty.

You do have a recent backup of the critical data on the disk, which you also know how to restore, don't you? Yes, of course you do, silly me for even asking.
Click to expand...


Still have not got to the fix... other things keep coming up....

It was my wife's computer and was given to my son... it was bought overseas so they will not do anything here... also, out of warranty anyhow...


There is no 'critical' data on the machine, but there are some programs that my wife had put on that we will lose... we do not back up that often so there is always a chance for us to lose something...
 
Is the computer using Windows XP?

If the OS got corrupted, seems to me like the best option would be to do a restore or reinstall of the system and start from scratch. If you don't have a restore CD or a restoreable partition, maybe you'd need to locate (download) from dell the drivers for your model laptop and if you know someone who has a copy of Windows XP, have them reinstall to OS to your laptop, then install the drivers that match up with the laptop.

Sometimes things get messed up so the system is unstable and you gotta bite the bullet and reinstall or restore from scratch.
 
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