Dell Inspiron 1525 Vista starts in Bios. Switching on and pressing F12 boots OK, but why do I have to do this? Isn't there a way I can start normally? Thank you in advance.

Google ophcrack for vista. Download and burn to a cd. Set laptop to boot to cd drive f12 on start up I belive. Let it do its thing and It should pop up with any passwords it can find.
Hope this helps.

reinstall the operation system or check the hard disk to be in place ..cause it seam it opens up ok for the initial stage ..
try to see if your hard disk has a recovery partition ..and use it to go back to the factory settings ..To do that press f12 on start and on the boot screen choose the recovery partition if it has one ..If not..use a installation disk and make a clean install (format the C drive when you install .

I'm sorry to hear about the optical drive not working. For Dell Notebooks, as the BIOS screen comes up (The first screen with the DELL logo), press F12 to get into the boot device menu. If the device you want to use is not in there, arrow key down to the BIOS Setup. Each BIOS menu is different, but about 4 or 5 options down, you should be able to modify the boot order. Change this so that the desired boot device comes before the hard drive. Exit, make sure you have your USB device plugged in and retry it. Please let me know how it goes.

1. You may have a power supply issue. the power adapter is not completely charging the battery.
2. You battery may not be holding a charge and needs replacement.
3. Contact Dell support for a technical support.

Power on your system, Press F2 on Dell logo. This would take you to system BIOS. Ensure that USB controller is ON, and USB emulation is also set to ON. Save settings and Exit. System would reboot now. Press F12 on Dell logo, and select USB ROM as the boot device. This should boot your computer through your External drive. If it still doesnt work, try switching to a different USB port. If none of these steps work, it may be a problem with the boot sector on your External drive.

Good Luck!
Abhishek

I'm not sure what you've tried, but I will go over suggestions I have for you. Turn computer off completely. Push power button and immediately press F12 for Boot Menu or F2 to enter BIOS. Hope this helps you.. GOOD LUCK!! lucky4lynn2 p.s. PLEASE RATE ME, K?

try press F12 when you see the DELL Logo, if it still goes to BIOS you need to replace keyboard

Hibernate issues are generally an issue with the Video driver. Try the following: Update to the latest list of drivers from support.dell.com BIOS Video Driver see if the issue is resolved. If not, then try editing the startup group of MSCONFIG and see if an item running at startup is causing the issue. (Start, RUN, MSCONFIG, OK to open MSCONFIG)

If you have the vista disk, then just put it into the drive, and reboot. You may need to change bios boot order, which can be done by pressing f8 as the computer starts up, and selecting the dvd drive. If this does not work, then please refer to your user manual for the correct key to press. If you can boot, then the installation is self explanatory. Give it you country and keyboard layout, and then when the screen shows "install vista" button, undeneath it is a repair vista button link. Click this, and select your existing installation. From there it may ask you about "system restore" press cancel, and then hopefully, it will restore.  Hope this helps.

go into bios by pressing F2 - change the boot order so the cd / dvd drive is the first bootable device and use the installation / recovery disc you got with it and boot from the cd and re install or install windows xp.

If you do not have the cd then you either need to find it or contact dell and see if they have another one with a key ( which may be chargeable )