Windows 7 startup problem on Dell Inspiron 1545

[Cjv91]

Hi - sorry if this is in the wrong place - I have a Dell Inspiron 1545 running an upgraded version of Win7 32 bit home premium. For a few months it has had an issue with startup, sometimes when you turn it on it does the Dell loading bar screen where you can press f2 or f12 and then it just goes to a black screen with a blinking/flashing _ cursor where nothing happens. Previously this problem could be overcome by shutting down again, restarting, pressing F12 when it gave me the option to and selecting Boot from Internal HDD.

However, I turned on the laptop yesterday and it did the same thing, I tried my usual remedy only to find that it no longer works - so basically Windows won't boot and I can't use the laptop.

I can't press F8 to try and run in safe mode so I have absolutey no idea what to do.

Does anyone have a solution?!

 

[zigzag3143]

Do you have the win 7 DVD?

Maybe a restore dvd?

Either would be useful

 

[Cjv91]

I've got the Windows 7 upgrade disk. I am able to run that by choosing boot from Cd on the F12 menu - it won't let me install Windiws 7 because obviously it's already there, but under the repair options I've done all the diagnostic tests and scans and it hadn't come up with anything. I've opened the command prompt option and done a chkdsk but I don't really know what I'm looking for on that!

 

[gregrocker]

Boot DVD and choose Repair My Computer on second screen. See if it finds an installation to repair, accept any offered repair, then if Win7 doesn't start boot back in to click through to Recover Tools list and run Startup Repair repeatedly. It will automate all necessary tests. Startup Repair

If this fails, copy out your files using the DVD with this method: Copy & Paste - in Windows Recovery Console

Then boot the DVd to get the superior clean install without the imported corruption of an in-place Upgrade, following these steps to get a Perfect Reinstall