Dell Inspiron One Boot Corruption?

[iplaye9]

Hello,
A relative's Dell Inpsiron One recently failed to boot. The computer was defaulting to run PXE.EXE and returning -E53 error message. They did not create backup disks when they purchased the PC so I created Win7 64-bit recovery CD using RECDISC.EXE on my PC. I booted it, ran CHKDSK (no issues) and then ran BOOTREC.EXE /fixmbr (successful) and rebooted from HD. The computer still didn't boot; windows message re: boot being reconfigured / insert recovery disk. So, I tried to boot from CD again (recdisc.exe) but the PC now won't boot from CD. It stops at HD with error (PXE.EXE -E53). I checked boot order in BIOS. Changed CD to 1st but still won't boot from CD. I was going to run further BOOTREC commands to try to rebuild boot sector, etc. Ideas how to get CD working?

baffled,
-mark

 

[marsmimar]

Hello Mark and welcome to Seven Forums.

Are you able to boot into safe mode and access system restore via the advanced boot options menu? (This is usually done by clicking F8 repeatedly at startup.) If system restore doesn't help you may also be able to access the Dell Factory Image Restore on the same advanced boot options menu by selecting "repair your computer". On some Dell computers it was also possible to click Ctrl+F11 immediately upon powering on the computer and accessing a restore option.

If the above doesn't work you could also try running startup repair from either a Windows 7 install disk or a system repair disk. (Run startup repair 3 times and reboot the computer after each scan regarless of what the prompts might say.) If you need an install disk you can obtain a free, legal copy from here. You could also consider doing a repair install.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2083-system-repair-disc-create.html

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/681-startup-repair.html

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/3413-repair-install.html

One of the Forum experts prepared a couple of troubleshooting tutorials that have some additional suggestions.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/219533-troubleshooting-windows-7-failure-boot.html

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/220165-troubleshooting-steps-windows-7-a.html

Or you could use this opportunity to do a superior clean install.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/219487-clean-reinstall-factory-oem-windows-7-a.html

 

[Saurabh A]

Hi iplaye9,

Please run 'Hardware Diagnostics' to verify 'Hardware functionality'. For details on 'Hardware Diagnostics', you may want to refer to the following 'web article': http://dell.to/OUGnqT (Also capture 'error message' if any).

Do reply with the findings; would be glad to assist.