M1210 - Won't boot into windows

Hey guys, I have a m1210 and it won't boot into windows. I also posted this in the OS help section, but no one replied.

The reason why I am posting here, is I would like some informtation on the following:

How can I remove the hard drive?

How can I remove the A slot ram? I know how to access the B slot ram. And I tried booting with just A slot ram and it didnt work, so I wann try with just booting of the B slot ram.

How can I clean the fan on the left side of the laptop? i think cat fur may be interferring with the rotations.

I did a thorough dianostics test by holding FN and the power button. Everything seemed to check out. I'm out of ideas now, and really pissed off.

Any suggestions?


And a random question: Is the dell techical support line free? My warranty ran out last november I shouldn't have gotten complete care, should have just stuck with 3 years return to depot.

 

Here are all the service manuals, you can find out how to access everything there:
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/xpsM1210/en/SM/index.htm

Is the computer getting no power, or not finding the OS? That's an easier way to troubleshoot failure to boot.

Greg

 

Tell us exactly what happens when u hit the power button

 

The problem has become worse now.


Before, under a normal boot (not safe mode) the laptop would hang after the windows loading screen. The one with the blue bars moving from left to right. And what I mean by hang is the entire screen will go black, and there will be no CPU usage going on.

Sometimes, when going into safemode, it would hang after the windows loading screen, but a mouse cursor would appear with the black screen.

Right now windows is working, after I successfully got into safe mode, and did a clean boot. (ie as seen here: http://support.microsoft.com/?id=310353)

So what happens is, I clean boot, get into windows, then i use msconfig again, and put everything back, restart, and my laptop is back to normal. But after I shut down and turn it on the next time, it will hang.

What's going on here?

 

I dont think i answered your question the first time so i'll go at it again.


I hit the power button. bios screen comes on. it gets through post. next is the windows loading screen. it finishes, and then the screen turns black. the bluetooth light is on... turns off. there is a brief period of CPU usage, then the laptop hangs.

 

What do you have listed in your msconfig?

Try turning one or two things at a time back on in msconfig, rebooting after each, and see if you can narrow down what's causing the problem.

 

I tried that before, it didnt narrow down everything, because eventually I had put back everything and it was working.

Here is whats in my msconfig:

Under system.ini

; for 16-bit app support
[drivers]
-> wave=mmdrv.dll
-> timer=timer.drv
[mci]
[driver32]
[386enh]
->woafont=dosapp.FON
->EGA80WOA.FON=EGA80WOA.FON
->EGA40WOA.FON=EGA40WOA.FON
->CGA80WOA.FON=CGA80WOA.FON
->CGA40WOA.FON=CGA40WOA.FON

Under WIN.INI


; for 16-bit app support
[fonts]
[extensions]
[mci extensions]
[files]
[mail]
-> MAPI=1
[MCI Extensions.BAK]
-> within this there are about 15 different video file endings that all = MPEGvideo

 

gonna sleep now. tomorrow i'm gonna call dell and see what they say.

 

help before i format for the third time!

 

hmm i think it might be a bad sector on HDD bro just try scanning your disk for errors bro

 

What program should I use?

 

sounds like hw failure to me...bluetooth light going off and all that - the bluetooth light is controlled by the BIOS (I think...in linux even if the kernel hasn't loaded the modules for even recgonizing usb 1.1, the light stays on).


if you think it's a hard drive error:
>>use scandisk, select scan for bad hardware sectors too. If that doesn't work, or windows doesn't boot, try this:

first, try taking the hard drive out and putting it in a computer with working windows then run scandisk on it.

if you really have no alternatives, this:

It will def rule out any hard drive probs if they're around, because it runs off a cd:
http://www.sysresccd.org/Main_Page

burn that as an image.

put it in, boot from cd. at the prompt, type "fb1024" so that you can have a nice res screen (it only goes up to 1024x768). If you wish to save your cd-rom drive from lots of seeking, then type "fb1024 docache" and if you want to eject the drive too, "fb1024 docache doeject".

docache will put the entire cd in your memory. I think you need at least 256 MB memory.

Ok, it'll ask you for your keymap, select it if its not standard us, if it's US, just hit enter. It will commence to load/or put the cd in memory if selected.

once its done loading you'll get a screen with red text and white text as an intro, then a prompt at the bottom.

type this in:

use the arrow keys to scroll. this is the SMART diagnostic info of your hdd.

to run a test that checks everything, type this in:

it'll tell you how long you have to wait. wait wait wait. wait a few extra minutes for good measure.

then

the last command will print the results.


ok. if you get kinda bored waiting for the thing to finish and you're hooked up to the internet with a ethernet cable and really want to go web surfing (without flash player), then you can start firefox....

control+alt+F2
switches you to the second terminal
([control+alt+F1] for the first terminal, which is probably where your tests are running.)

then you'll get some crummy window manager then you can start firefox xD

 

windows is booting fine now. i've restarted about 5-6 times and it boots into windows. i was just about to format for the third time too.... I'm really confused now. But i'm sure it will happen again.

 

that's annoying. i think something's wrong with your hw (not harddrive).

 

I learned today how to access both pieces of ram. if the problem occurs again, I will take out 1 piece of ram, and just try to boot off of one of them.

Ram is cheap these days, I hope its the ram. I've always wanted to upgrade to 2GB anyway lol.

 

I ran chkdsk before startup, it was fine.

i will try booting off one piece of ram later.

 

Apparently this is a problem with Bluetooth drivers, XP, and the built-in camera. Tons of us are having similiar problems. I just uninstalled BT and disabled both the camera and bluetooth in device manager. I don't use either anyways...