Need Help With Vista Reinstall

I followed the reinstall guide and at first everything went well. Vista loaded so much quicker and I was very satisfied. However, about a week later, I had the blue screen pop-up. I tried the option of repairing Vista. I thought it worked, but the blue screen came back again. I ran a diagnostic of the system and it said the following two files are corrupt:

c:\wmlib.sys is corrupt, and c:\windows\system32\drivers\acpi.sys is corrupt.

Now when I turn the system on it will only go to the black boot screen. I have tried reinstalling Vista using cd boot drive option with the Dell disk, but it will not complete reinstallation, it stops halfway through and gives a message that installation failed.

Next I tried to delete the existing partition drive and do an entire new install. Dell tech support recommended trying this option. It seemed to work until the "completing Installation" part of the installation process. This part takes like 3 hours, then all of a sudden a black screen appears and the cursor is visible. Nothing happens and the only option is to turn the whole computer off.

I have called the Dell support and the person I spoke with seemed to know less than me about trying to get the system working again, so I wasted an hour with them.

Any ideas? right now I have a laptop that is useless, which is worse than the bloatware and slow Vista system that drove me nuts before.

Thanks for any help.

 

Wow... wild.

Press F12 at the splash screen and run diagnostics (power-on self-test) to check the hardware.

You could also try pressing F2 and resetting BIOS settings to factory defaults... but that will only matter if you've tinkered with them.

If that doesn't get you anywhere... send it back to Dell for repair or replacement.

 

+1 on running the Dell diagnostics. I'd almost suspect a failing hard drive, considering the original installation suddenly develeoped corrupt and unreadable system files. If you have an external USB caddy of some sort that you could load your HD in (always a handy thing to have) it'd be worthwhile doing a full surface scan on that drive from some other working machine.

 

I ran diagnostics again and nothing wrong with the hardware is shown. Dell Tech Support has been friendly, but they keep requiring further tests. I have an upgraded warranty with at home service, but tech support says they will not do anything with a software problem, the warranty only covers hardware issues. It takes all this time and effort to try and get a service call even though its what I thought I would get when I purchased the upgraded warranty.

So I guess I'm stuck for now. Maybe I just have to buy a new hard drive.

 

maybe it's a Dell problem...

i say this because this guy on this forum seems like he had almost the same problem, and he has a dell computer.

and did your laptop ever seem to get overly hot?

 

You can pick up an external enclosure for $20 or so. Remove your HD and install it in the enclousre, then use another machine to run a full disk check, surface scan and all. If it finds errors, then have Dell replace the drive under warranty.

On the other hand, I think Dell support is really letting you down here and you might need to demand to talk to a supervisor to get some action. If you are really unable to complete an install of Vista on stock Dell equipment using the Dell-supplied Vista DVD, then that's an issue that they should be addressing. Just my opinion.

 

aggreed. i'd of been flipping out the instant i saw a BSOD. you seem pretty calm lol

 

download either ultimatebootcd or hiren's cd, and boot from it. They allow you to check all of your pc's hardware.

 

It could have been a virus that is in the root (which corrupted those files), which will be very hard to remove, unless you do a deep formatting.

 

After further research on this forum, I tried re-installing the AHCI driver via USB and it seems to have worked. I can now boot. I will try and run further diagnostics to see if some of the drivers are still corrupted.

Thanks to everyone on these forums. Dell Tech support was no help whatsoever. if you have a hardware issue, its fine because they will replace the hardware item. On software issues, unless it is something in the norm, you are out of luck. Plus, they keep having you run the same tests over and over, trying to save money on avoiding the service call. All the while you waste so much time.

 

Great news Zoner. The AHCI driver issue certainly would explain why the reinstall continually failed. Glad you're past that. Doesn't explain what went wrong initially though. After you're up and running, definitely do a full surface scan on the disk to rule out bad sectors on the drive. If it was a virus, deleting the system partition no doubt rid you of that.

 

I don't understand what went wrong initially, or why, when using the Vista disk, the AHCI drivers needed to be reinstalled separately. I don't have a Dell, so this doesn't affect me, but I am curious.

 

Okay, everything went well for the last two weeks, but I did a system restore to about a week ago and now the same AHCPI error system comes up again, and the system won't boot up. Any ideas? I am starting to feel like those Apple commercials about Vista are coming to life right before my eyes. Thanks.

 

Man, you are having some bad luck.

If it doesn't boot into safe mode, you'll have to boot an external drive and repatch the driver. After you get it to work, make a restore point and remember not to restore to a point earlier than that point!

 

because you did a system restore? ....

dude just start over....
you need to during the re-installation of VISTA when it asks you to install drivers take the VISTA disk out, put ur driver disk in and install the AHCI drivers during the OS Installation.. then put the vista disk back in and continue..

enjoy.

(when u put ur driver disk in during the re-installation, the only drivers that will show up are the AHCI drivers so just install them... when that finishes, pop that disk out and put the VISTA disk back in and continue)


here it is by Les