Dell Vostro 1500 Laptop: Without any obvious warning, my laptop will no longer boot into windows vista beyond the "microsoft corporation" screen with the green progress bar. it will get past the bios and begin loading windows for about 15-30 seconds, and then freeze - literally, everything stops, the hard drive, cd, fan...everything. i have: - ran all on board diagnostics - all dell recovery diagnositcs (hours of them) - full virus scan - full check of hard drive and all memory - replaced the memory dimm's (2) All of this, and no change. I have also replaced the hard drive with a brand new hard drive and tried to install windows 7 on the new drive, but it would also lock up while booting into windows (before it actually installed on the drive) and the starting windows screen - just like it was doing on the vista drive, about 15-30 seconds of activity and then everything stops. I'm keeping the new memory because i now have 4gb rather than 2gb, but i'm going to return the new hard drive. The 23-bit dell diagnostics program was amazingly exhaustive in everything that it checked. Virtually every hardware item was tested. And, I ran the tests at least three times. Does anyone have any other suggestions?

Hello,

You may transfer the files and settings from one computer to another by using Windows easy transfer:

Download link:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-IN/windows7/products/features/windows-easy-transfer

Instructions to transfer data:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-in/windows/transfer-files-settings-from-another-computer#1TC=windows-7

Hope this helps..

The good news is that your laptop powers on and you have a display. The bad news is that you laptop is trying to boot up from an OS (operating system software) like XP, Vista, or Win 7. Ether your software is corrupted or you have a problem with the hard drive or hard drive controller.
Press and hold the <Fn> key while powering the system on. This will run the Dell Diagnostics. Another more intense diagnostic program is located on a Dell CD that you should have received with your laptop. Look for one that has "Diagnostics and utilities" listed under the "Contents". You will have to boot from that CD disk. To do this, power on your laptop and tap the <F12> key to bring you to the "One time boot menu". Insert the CD and then select CD/DVD drive and hit <Enter> key. Select the "Run the 32 Bit Dell Diagnostics".
If diagnostics pass then your software is corrupted and needs to be reinstalled.

It sounds like there is a file or files in either your boot files or system files that are missing or corrupt.

Have you tried booting in safe mode? Turn off the computer, then turn it on and immediately start hitting the F8 key repeatedly until you see SAFE MODE. Select the Safe Mode option and see if it boots up. If it does Click Start/Programs/Accessories/System Tools/System Restore. Select a restore point (date and time) that is before you started having this problem. Let it run and then see what happens. If it does not resolve the issue then: (see below)

You'll need a system disk to get around this.
Put the system disk in the cd drive and boot from it. You want to get to the Dos Command Prompt (black box with white lettering) so that you can type the following command: chkdsk /r
Check Disk will run for well over an hour. You will notice the percentage of completion going from high to low, but that is normal. Let it run to completion then reboot.

In windows xp you can get to the command prompt by selecting Repair when the options come up. You'll be doing a repair to the Windows Operating System. Most times you select it by entering a 1. Most times the Administrator password is blank so just press enter.

In Vista you will have to get to the Recovery Console and the command prompt will be down at the bottom

There are several operating systems that are free. These operating system are Linux based and include umbutu (a really good choice available at http://www.ubuntu.com/) and others. It is pretty easy to learn, and has many features you are used to in Windows.
If you have another computer you can download the operating system and burn it to a CD then boot your new laptop with that CD.
There are no "Free" Microsoft operating systems. You should be very cautious of any that say they are "Free" Though you can find copies of XP and Vista for around 100 dollars, so they can be an inexpensive option.
Hope that helps.

I’m happy to help further over the phone at https://www.6ya.com/expert/thomas_b83e841f114394f4

To reset the BIOS please follow the below steps.
1 . Restart your Dell laptop. Click on "Start," "Turn off Computer" and "Restart."
2 . Press "F2" during the boot process to enter the BIOS. Press "F2" before the Windows loading screen. Certain models may use a different key. The key will be displayed during the boot process. For most Dell models, the key is "F2."
3 . Use the "Alt" + "F" key combination to load defaults.
4 . Press "Esc" on your Dell laptop keyboard to save and exit.
5 . Choose the "Enter" key to save all changes and exit the BIOS screen. Allow your laptop to restart for BIOS settings to reset.

Thanks. Have a great day.

See this for XP http://support.microsoft.com/kb/321305
or this for Vista/Win7 http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-vista/What-to-do-if-you-forget-your-Windows-password
or you can use thrid party software from Hiren's Boot CD http://www.hirensbootcd.org/download/Hirens.BootCD.12.0.zip

What kind of warning do you get? i would update the BIOS from dell.com. also, get rid of Vista and get Windows 7. apart from that this could also be a motherboard issue.

I think that you would have a hardrive issue find out if your laptop uses an ata drive or an sata drive and i would look into getting a new one. if you have any further questions you can email me at [email protected]

Boot to the F12 menu, see if you can boot to the HDD diagnostics. If not, boot to the Dell Resource CD, run the HDD diagnostics from there. If Diags fail, replace the HDD. If they pass, boot to the Vista DVD, then run a repair of the operating system

You will need to get a windows system disk or install disk and boot up with this in the laptop to load windows whatever into your hard drive and set your laptop up to run on the new drive. Here is Microsoft's tutorial on how to install and set up windows:http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/setup/winxp/default.mspx
Hope this helps you.