Computer Disaster! Help needed!

Hi All,

Was working away yesterday quite happily when a dialog came up saying Windows detected a problem and needs to restart

Saved my document and restarted, took longer than usual to get the Dell logo with the marching ants, then the windows multicoloured screen, clicked this and got my picture with the PIN field, entered my PIN number.

Nothing happened for a while then the Windows colour screen again, then my picture but no PIN field, this happened a couple mote times then the WELCOME and marching ants. At last the background photo came up but with NO ICONS.

This stayed up for about 5-10 seconds then just a green screen with my cursor, nothing else at all.

I have repeated this many times and tried booting holding down SHIFT & F8 but to no avail.

it is only when this happens that one realises how dependent one is on the damn thing!

Any help or ideas would be so appreciated please

Cheers, Martin

System is Dell XPS 8700, running Windows 8.1

martin

Martin,

Check the power light on the front.when you try to start it up. If it's orange instead of green then you have a failing power supply.

Pete

Shift + F8 -recovery screen not appearing doesn't look good. If all else fails you should be able to see what data is readable off the disk with a USB connected SATA/IDE disk dock like this. HD Dock

Stueee, problem is I cannot see anything on the screen even if I get one of those. The blurb on that item says Windows 7 & earlier only?

Pete R, power light is still white, always has been, tiny little thing!

Frances IOM, will try that and get back,

Martin

BTW, If left on the screensaver kicks in over the green screen?

Martin

Delete and escape keys during restart have no effect, same problem, gets to desktop background image for few seconds then green screen.

Bahhhhh!

Martin

Edited By Frances IoM on 23/08/2020 13:47:17

Was working away yesterday quite happily when a dialog came up saying Windows detected a problem and needs to restart

Loose connection?

Sometimes something works loose on the mainboard because of movement and hot/cold/hot/cold effect

Edited By Frances IoM on 23/08/2020 14:00:20

Frances, not a laptop but a tower desktop unit?

Martin

Before you start ripping the guts out try booting from a recovery dvd / USB stick or if you have one, a Dell get you out of the crap disk. The idea being that if you can get booted into Safe Mode you might be able to do a non destructive System Restore. If you have none of the above media I can only suggest download this:

**LINK**

onto the device you are typing this post on and burn it to a disk / usb stick. Then try booting from IT

Rik

This smacks of an overheating issue. How long since the case was blown out? If it's full of dust - don't hoover it, use a brush or an air line.

Make sure nothing is plugged into the computer like a external drive or memory stick. Watch out for non-obvious plug ins like a Camera card or DVD. Remove them and try again.

Best chance of diagnosing the fault is to get into the BIOS. This can be tricky! According to the web on that model Dell F2 should activate the BIOS menu, and F12 the boot sequence menu.

F2 has to be hit at just the right time, and there is only a short window when it will be recognised. With the machine off, start tapping F2, and then - whilst still tapping - power up. With luck the BIOS will engage and it will be possible to run diagnostics and maybe do a simple fix. Or not!

As the boot doesn't get far I like Frances' suggestion that the MBR is damaged, but it might be the whole disc.

Much depends on what's wrong. Might be:

• Anti-virus has crashed the boot process due to believing some part of Windows is malware. (Or the machine is genuinely infected.)
• The battery has failed. Try removing it, but don't expect miracles. Two of my old laptops saw removed batteries as failed batteries and refused to boot. Neither would work off the mains or battery alone.

Could get complicated and may be easier to take the computer to a local repair shop. They have the gear and expertise needed to get a quick answer. Otherwise, tell us what you find. Do you have another working computer? One neat trick is to boot dead Windows with a Linux Recovery USB. Last time I used one it autodetected and fixed the MBR. Provided the disc isn't too mangled may be able to copy important files off it.

Dave

With a Dell, you get to the bios by pressing F2 when starting. keep tapping it as soon as you've turned the power on, so it gets read as soon as the keyboard is enabled.

Frances..

.Hi...please read to the end....

I'm all Apple .....my old 27 incher would not start up.....looked at google and concensus said the fault was the wiring pick up/connector to the screen.....apparently quite a fault for that model year......

took it to bits and found nothing......put it back in the box....

fast forward a couple of years and knowing I was moving to Crete thought I'd have one last try.....as I didnt wanna move junk.....

phoning around, nobody in France (comp repair shops) would touch Apple.....

so thought why not just take it to Apple themselves.....asked for a quote...this is France.....hahaha...

1 month later get a call to say it was repaired ....

THE COST was €50 euro's...they charge that to look at anything....well pleased....

50 dabs well spent.......

I have 2x27inchers, Mac Book, iPad, 4phones 6 thru 10, mini mac, and a tiny music box....no major failures...ever...

Why did I go Apple, most of my friends produce videos for TV, music, art etc n they are all Apple....

basically I had so much grief with Windows and there last major cxxx up prior to windows 10 was enough.....

Apple were very expensive to buy in the early days but the rest have started to catch up price wise......

I'm quite happy overall but if something/system BETTER n Cheaper comes along I'll jump ship.....

going Apple has alowed me to keep what little hair I have left....hahaha....

glad there are people out there to help.....

Edited By Frances IoM on 23/08/2020 16:45:14

Edited By Frances IoM on 23/08/2020 16:48:47