Computer freezes on start up on E1705

I barely got my E1705 laptop a few weeks ago and right now, its giving me some problems. My laptop freezes after it shows the microsoft windows logo on start up. It is just completely black and nothing happens. I called Dell's tech support and the rep told me to do a system restore but the problem is still there. And then I called them again and the tech told me to use the msconfig to turn off the other programs which is trying to lighten the load of the processor and reinstall OS which I don't want to do because I have a lot of valuable documents that I don't want to lose. Do you guys have any idea what else to do? Could this be a software or a hardware problem? Thanks.

 

Welcome to the forums teddy.

Your problem is software; possibly a driver conflict which can cause Windows to stall on bootup. If you cannot log on to Windows and backup your important files, I'm afraid you will have to reformat and reinstall Windows.

SouthernGirl has provided a simple guide on how to do this.

 

try booting into safe mode first. hit f8 while computer is booting up. choose safe mode. let it finish. reboot.

 

It sounds like it is your video card driver. I know that when I don't have my video card driver installed, i get a black screen. There are a couple of things.

1.) reboot. Once you get to the black screen, let it sit there for a minute or two. If it is like mine - the screen will go black, but it eventually loads up the welcome screen. If this happens, then reinstall your video card driver. You can find it listed under your laptop at support.dell.com or on the drivers & applications disc if you received it from dell.

2.)Now if you can't get XP to load, then I would do as what Drumfu said. Try booting in to safe mode. Then check your device manager (right click on my computer-->properties-->hardware tab-->device manager). See if there are any yellow questions mark. If you have any devices that are missing drivers, you'll need to install them.

3.)if you get into XP or boot into safe mode - back up any of your documents that you want. This would be a good time to do it while you are in XP in case you do have to reformat or send the laptop in for repair if it is a hardware issue.

 

drumfu made an important point I completely forgot - to boot into Safe Mode. Try this if you cannot log on to Windows and backup your documents in Safe Mode.

 

NOTE: even if you do have to reinstall, that doesn't mean you have to reformat. Just reinstall over the existing windows directory (it'll wipe out the old folder and reinstall there, but leave the rest of your files intact). Then, your existing DOCUMENTS will be there (you'll still have to reinstall your other applications, though.)

You may have to search for them, as your "My Documents" folder may not be in the same place, but the files will still be there. using Start -> Search will help you find them if you go down that route.

With all that said, yes, try Safe Mode first.

 

Good point, JeffreyDJ.

 

Are you talking about reformatting the XP partition? It should delete all of the folders since it formats the partition.

You do make an excellent point though - you can transfer all of your documents to your spare partition (if you received your computer in the last month, there should be a spare partition on there).

 

thank for all the suggestion guys. See the problem happens 1 out of 3 times I turned on my laptop and sometimes more than that, on the other times I open it up I am able to get inside with no problem. I'm not sure if it's the video card driver thats causing the problem since I haven't done any software or driver modification to it, by the way the screen just stays black no matter how long I leave it on when it freezes and the green led light on the right side of the power light is not even blinking it just turns off at the black screen. So is OS reinstall my only option?