Vista Home Basic - Doesnt Full Boot Up

Goksly · 3 Feb 2008 at 17:20

Hi!
Right - first laptop (Vostros) with first Vista! Booted up first time, setup my account information as before - all was well! I then right clicked on the desktop and selected Properties or Set Preferences.
Nothing came up and seems to freeze a bit, so I selected shut down. It did (very quickly). Now when ever I boot up it says "Resuming Windows" and it gets to the desktop but shows no icons? Mouse etc works and HDD does some stuff when it boots up, but i cant alt/ctrl/delete etc.

Any ideas?

skanky · 3 Feb 2008 at 18:29

i think you can press f8 while its "resuming windows" and select to delete the hibernation file and then see if it boots up?

Goksly · 3 Feb 2008 at 19:00

Well it seems to be the only computer I've used where F8 doesnt work. My friend has just bought a lap top (philips one) and I was reading the manual and it was like "to fix a corrupt window, press F8 and click repair"... Tried F8 and didnt work on the Dell. Also, their windows says its shutting down / starting back up (they have home premium) - where as this one just goes black when switching off (hdd keeps going for 10 seconds after or so then it finally switches off).

I seem to have 3 disks with this one - os, drivers and applications (all of them has "already installed". Will the os one allow me to do a repair do you think?

TheVoice · 3 Feb 2008 at 19:02

What if you click Restart instead of shut-down?

Goksly · 3 Feb 2008 at 19:06

Well after the initial shut down - now when i shut down i have to press the power key (which I assume initiates a shut down) as I have no start bar or anything :S

TheVoice · 3 Feb 2008 at 19:20

Sounds like that's just putting it into Hibernate. Try holding the power button down and that'll cut power after a few seconds, then try starting it up again.

Goksly · 3 Feb 2008 at 21:48

Did a system restore and it seems alright now - although I'm worried the same will happen when I try to switch it off. Wish I would have just got XP installed on it now!

TheVoice · 3 Feb 2008 at 22:51

It's not a native Vista problem - something else has gone wrong somewhere. Might be worth doing a factory restore, or even a clean install with the Vista disc it came with.

Goksly · 3 Feb 2008 at 23:56

Cheers! Laptop is for my sister - think im just going to switch off the hibernate button (looks like a power switch, so I assumed it was switch off!).

Thanks for all your input