vista not booting

drumdogg · 25 Nov 2009 at 14:46

im fixing a laptop for a friend 'Packard Bell Limited-Edition EasyNote' n which it does not load into the OS. Have tried several windows repairs, hard drive checks and system restores but still wont boot into vista. It comes up to the loading screen then a black screen remains and you cannot do anything.

have a feeling the graphics may also be dieing as screen flickers and glitches sometimes. Have also booted into safe mode and removed viruses but still will not load up.

wats wrong???

IAmATeaf · 25 Nov 2009 at 15:35

Can you plug in an external monitor? if so then try that and see if you get anything?

drumdogg · 25 Nov 2009 at 17:11

tryd that but nothing comes up on the external monitor but screen shows up on laptop!

nutsnut · 25 Nov 2009 at 17:44

Can you successfully boot into windows safe mode? Try a Linux Live CD to see if that works, might just be a bad installation.

Other than that, Try repairing the boot manager via the CMD prompt on the vista DVD.

drumdogg · 25 Nov 2009 at 19:07

do you no the command lines cause i cnt remember!!

nutsnut · 25 Nov 2009 at 22:08

1. Put the Windows Vista installation disc in the disc drive, and then start the computer.

2. Press a key when the message indicating "Press any key to boot from CD or DVD …". appears.

3. Select a language, a time, a currency, and a keyboard or another input method, and then click Next.

4. Click Repair your computer.

5. Click the operating system that you want to repair, and then click Next.

6. In the System Recovery Options dialog box, click Command Prompt.

7. Type Bootrec /RebuildBcd , and then press ENTER.

Lee · 25 Nov 2009 at 22:36

as per nutnut, try a linux live cd to confirm the hardware is working. I've spent hours looking at a "software" issue to discover later in 2 minutes with a Linux live CD that i have a hardware fault. Lesson learned....

drumdogg · 26 Nov 2009 at 16:23

ok tried the command line in the comand prompt it says 'Total indentified windows installations: 0'

so if its not even seeing the installation that not gud!!!

downloading the linux live now so will try dat later.

Admiral Huddy · 26 Nov 2009 at 16:29

yes, try a bootable cd like PEBuilder. Always handy. If you boot from that then it's not your graphics..

It sounds to me like a failing hard drive. Check the manufacturer of the HD where the OS is loaded, and download the diagnostic tools for the drive, usually on a bootable CD. Run this and see what happens.

drumdogg · 26 Nov 2009 at 18:53

tryed running linux live CD and it doesnt run, the screen glitches and freezes, which makes me think its the graphics again. But i put another hardrive into it and it booted up no problem into windows. Go back to aquare one again.

nutsnut · 27 Nov 2009 at 00:09

Could be a driver conflict on the old harddrive, boot into safe made, use driver cleaner to remover graphocs drivers, resinstall.

Admiral Huddy · 27 Nov 2009 at 11:09

If you put another HDD into the system and it worked, then what's the problem??