Problems with pc (Dell) barely starting boot up.

[bobsscgirl]

It barely starts then stops. Sudden onset today with this problem. Any feedback would be appreciated. Other info needed please ask.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi work your way down this list,
Troubleshooting for win-7,
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/220165-troubleshooting-steps-windows-7-a.html
Please add which security suite you have installed and which ones were ever installed,
Cheers.

 

[bobsscgirl]

Sorry about the slowness in response. The net has been up and down a bit the last two days. I will, of course be checking out the link tutorials you suggested. My security suite is Comodo Internet Security Pro and is the only one ever used. After dealing with a previous issue someone on this Forum has suggested the use of Malwarebytes Anti-Malware and I am using it.
Now to update you on some more of the story. I had been literally hung up at the blue DELL screen. On one site it had been suggested to unplug an external drive. Once I did that the bootup completed. I had noted when I attempted to access my external drive that I got an error message that read something to the effect of cyclic redundancy and the drive needs to be formatted. No I did not format it. After I got said error message I unplugged the drive again and in approx. 6 hours I plugged it back in. A parting shot that night was I did note I could see the individual folders. Shortly I attempted to access a folder and was successful in doing so. Next morning I was not so successful.
In a spell in the no so distant past we lost a lot of our electronics due to a lightening strike, including a previous external drive of mine. That drive as well as the most recent one intermitently seem to work. Excuse the paranoia but at this point I am not willing to keep playing games with external drives. I have a new drive en route. I look forward to your feedback and assistance.

 

[NoelDP]

If you're on the DELL screen, then the chances are that it's a hardware failure somewhere - disconnect ALL external devices (Ethernet/router/modem/printer/etc...) and attempt to boot to Safe Mode - what happens?
There's a good chance that the problem is caused by the lightning strike.

Turn of in the BIOS the following items
Modem (if present)
Ethernet (if present)

boot and see if that works
If not, reset the BIOS to defaults, and see if that helps - the repeat the modem/Ethernet disabling if not.

Please also post Speccy results (if you can boot that far) - a strike can also affect the Power supply.


Also - try booting from a bootable CD/DVD or a bootable USB stick.

You can even try taking out the hard drive - see if it gets as far as complaining about that1

 

[gregrocker]

Complete the Troubleshooting Steps for Windows 7 starting with the hardware tests. Uninstall Comodo and try Microsoft Security Essentials.

If it's now unable to start at all then these steps for Troubleshooting Windows 7 Failure to Start try everything possible to get it started leading up to file rescue to reinstall. They also start with the hardware tests.

 

[matts6887]

Indeed I concur with noel and the others; it looks like some sorta of hardware glitch. Could be with the mb or elsewhere; but running those hardware tests should definitely give ya something to go on.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

My 2 cents worth looking at the lightning strike issue maybe that has undone the BIOS chip or indeed any part of the motherboard.

I would also suggest running this

MEMTEST

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/105647-ram-test-memtest86.htmlthis one you will need to make abootable disk set the BIOS to optical (or USB if preferred) boot the machineand let it run for at LEAST 8 passes unless the errors come upstraight away. Takes fair time to complete and some leave it running overnight.
This will throw up any sort of damage to the memory sticks but you MUST run the test as set out above if errors throw straight away you need not carry on and the sticks will have to be replaced.

If this does not come up with anything try a hard drive test use this SeaTools for Windows | Seagate

Of course damage could have been done to any part including the CPU or other essential hardware parts.
For the future make sure you ALWAYS have the machine powered through a surge protector power board. Personally I always use boards with a surge protection above 1500 joules minimum see this and always ick a good brand board that has all of the features shown in the Wiki link page Surge protector - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia those little wall one are not worth the plastic they are made of as they cannot house the heavier duty components needed for all the various damaging patterns of a surge, strike or brown out it too can damage the machine beyond redemption.
Having said that these things are not infallible and a direct strike will take out anything.

 

[bobsscgirl]

Like I mentioned in my previous posting on this thread as soon as external drive was unplugged the bootup and yes the rest seems to work ok. My husband had attempted to see if this external drive as well as the previous one (post lightening strike) were able to be seen and they were not at first. Then they were, kind of like on my pc. My new external drive is in route so we will see on that count. Feedback is appreciated a bunch.

 

[gregrocker]

Can you please post back a screenshot of Disk Management - Post a Screen Capture Image
with all drives plugged in.

You may need to plug in the External after booting into Win7. But confirm one more time that Win7 wil not boot, or describe exactly the booting problems, with the external plugged in and not.