Boot failure for about 1 in 5 starts

On my brand new Dell Precision laptop with Vista Business x64, I find that
about 1 in 5 starts gets as far as the green progress/activity indicator bar
then brings up a completely black screen but never progresses to the giant
orb so that I can log in. Rebooting then brings up the suggestion to enter
startup repair which I do and which has always (so far at least) solved the
problem. The machine then boots normally.

Any idea what is causing these intermittent boot failures? Any way to fix
them? It's very counter productive to have to wait 15-20 minutes for
startup repair to do its thing every so often.

--
And loving it,

-Q
_________________________________________________

(Replace the "SixFour" with numbers to email me)

Qu0ll wrote:

> On my brand new Dell Precision laptop with Vista Business x64, I find that
> about 1 in 5 starts gets as far as the green progress/activity indicator
> bar then brings up a completely black screen but never progresses to the
> giant
> orb so that I can log in. Rebooting then brings up the suggestion to
> enter startup repair which I do and which has always (so far at least)
> solved the
> problem. The machine then boots normally.
>
> Any idea what is causing these intermittent boot failures? Any way to fix
> them? It's very counter productive to have to wait 15-20 minutes for
> startup repair to do its thing every so often.
>

Brand new as in right out of the box? If yes, return it immediately. It
sounds like a power supply problem or other hardware component failure.
Since when you call Dell their bottom-tier techs will tell you to restore
to factory condition, do this - if in fact "brand new" does mean right out
of the box - and if you still get the problem insist on replacement.

Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
Don't Panic!

"Malke" <> wrote in message
news:...
> Qu0ll wrote:
>
>> On my brand new Dell Precision laptop with Vista Business x64, I find
>> that
>> about 1 in 5 starts gets as far as the green progress/activity indicator
>> bar then brings up a completely black screen but never progresses to the
>> giant
>> orb so that I can log in. Rebooting then brings up the suggestion to
>> enter startup repair which I do and which has always (so far at least)
>> solved the
>> problem. The machine then boots normally.
>>
>> Any idea what is causing these intermittent boot failures? Any way to
>> fix
>> them? It's very counter productive to have to wait 15-20 minutes for
>> startup repair to do its thing every so often.
>>
>
> Brand new as in right out of the box? If yes, return it immediately. It
> sounds like a power supply problem or other hardware component failure.
> Since when you call Dell their bottom-tier techs will tell you to restore
> to factory condition, do this - if in fact "brand new" does mean right out
> of the box - and if you still get the problem insist on replacement.
>
> Malke
> --
> MS-MVP
> Elephant Boy Computers
> www.elephantboycomputers.com
> Don't Panic!

Thanks for replying. Yes, it's right out of the box. But why do you think
it's a hardware problem? Why would a power supply problem cause this?

--
And loving it,

-Q
_________________________________________________

(Replace the "SixFour" with numbers to email me)

Qu0ll wrote:

> Thanks for replying. Yes, it's right out of the box. But why do you
> think
> it's a hardware problem? Why would a power supply problem cause this?
>

It's a classic power supply problem symptom; your computer doesn't start up
all the way the first time (or even a number of subsequent times) because
the power supply is failing. There isn't enough "juice" to get the hard
drive all the way up. After a few tries, there is enough momentum on the
drive to get into Windows. Eventually this won't work any more.

In any case, a computer should never exhibit this sort of behavior right out
of the box. Because the problem occurs before the operating system is fully
loaded, the culprit is probably *not* software like the antivirus or other
pre-installed OEM crapware. Since almost everything that makes a laptop
work is on the motherboard, you can't easily swap out the power supply to
fix. Besides, you paid for a working machine and you should have gotten
one.

Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
Don't Panic!

"Malke" <> wrote in message
news:#...
> Qu0ll wrote:
>
>> Thanks for replying. Yes, it's right out of the box. But why do you
>> think
>> it's a hardware problem? Why would a power supply problem cause this?
>>
>
> It's a classic power supply problem symptom; your computer doesn't start
> up
> all the way the first time (or even a number of subsequent times) because
> the power supply is failing. There isn't enough "juice" to get the hard
> drive all the way up. After a few tries, there is enough momentum on the
> drive to get into Windows. Eventually this won't work any more.
>
> In any case, a computer should never exhibit this sort of behavior right
> out
> of the box. Because the problem occurs before the operating system is
> fully
> loaded, the culprit is probably *not* software like the antivirus or other
> pre-installed OEM crapware. Since almost everything that makes a laptop
> work is on the motherboard, you can't easily swap out the power supply to
> fix. Besides, you paid for a working machine and you should have gotten
> one.

OK, that makes sense. But why would Startup Repair fix the problem?

I am a little hesitant to call Dell because I have spent days installing all
the software I need and getting the settings just right. I would hate to
have to reinstall Windows and start again.

--
And loving it,

-Q
_________________________________________________

(Replace the "SixFour" with numbers to email me)

mikeyhsd;665310 Wrote:
> from previous experience
> it could be power supply, or could be a memory module bad or goin
> bad
>
> but definitely it is a hardware problem and you need to get to dell fo
> fixing it
>
>
>
>
> mikeyhsd@xxxxx
>
>
>
> "Qu0ll" <Qu0llSixFour@xxxxxx> wrote in messag
> news:%23ea0s%23QkIHA.5260@xxxxx
> "Malke" <malke@xxxxxx> wrote in message
> news:ub2jJ7QkIHA.1204@xxxxxx> > >
> > > Qu0ll wrote
> >
> >
> > > Brand new as in right out of the box? If yes, return it immediately
> > I
> > > sounds like a power supply problem or other hardware componen
> > failure
> > > Since when you call Dell their bottom-tier techs will tell you t
> > restor
> > > to factory condition, do this - if in fact "brand new" does mea
> > right ou
> > > of the box - and if you still get the problem insist on replacement
> >
> > > Malk
> > > --
> > > MS-MV
> > > Elephant Boy Computer
> > > 'index' (http://www.elephantboycomputers.com
> > > Don't Panic! > > Thanks for replying. Yes, it's right out of the box. But why do yo
> think
> it's a hardware problem? Why would a power supply problem caus
> this
>
> --
> And loving it
>
> -
> ________________________________________________
> Qu0llSixFour@xxxxx
> (Replace the "SixFour" with numbers to email me

Like he said, not enough juice to spin the hard disk...so the compute
cannot access the OS the first time

Start up repair probably isn't actually doing anything useful, it'
just that your system is retarded and thinks it's software issue when i
isn't because of the failure to boot up

--
KingOfChaos

Qu0ll wrote:


> OK, that makes sense. But why would Startup Repair fix the problem?
>
> I am a little hesitant to call Dell because I have spent days installing
> all
> the software I need and getting the settings just right. I would hate to
> have to reinstall Windows and start again.
>

Well, I understand but a hardware issue won't heal itself. Go out and buy
yourself an external hard drive and Acronis True Image. Make an image of
the hard drive and save it on the external hard drive. Then when the
computer gets back from being repaired/replaced, you can use the image to
quickly restore your computer to where it is now (except working!).

Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
Don't Panic!