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My Dell Inspiron 1420 just decided it couldn't start up.
At first I could get into the boot menu and had options for repair, restore, etc. I let Vista try to repair itself a few times, and tried the most recent restore point. Now I have fewer options left- it goes through POST and then ends up with a blank screen. I have a Generic Vista recovery CD that I downloaded that gets me back into the repair/restore options screen, but now the laptop doesn't see any restore points, and when I run repair, it thinks the OS is fine. Still won't start, and won't go into safe mode either.
Side note: nothing new had been installed recently. It was running fine when I shut it down.
Additional complications: I don't have a COA or Dell recovery CD for this laptop. The recovery CD I have is generic for Vista and I downloaded it online and burned the CD. The laptop was pre-loaded with Vista Ultimate from the factory and has the sticker on it, I just don't have the COA or anything to reinstall it.
On other systems with XP, I could go in and repair or replace all of the startup files. Does this option exist for Vista? I don't mind reloading it from scratch, except I don't have the Dell recovery CD for it, and don't have the COA for it.
I think this generic recovery CD will reload it if I could find the COA for the laptop- I got stopped at the COA entry field- the numbers on the bottom of the laptop evidently are not the same thing. It does allow me to browse files within Vista via command prompt and I was able to copy files and pics onto a USB drive. Is there anywhere I can get the original COA out of the OS from a command prompt?
TIA!!
At first I could get into the boot menu and had options for repair, restore, etc. I let Vista try to repair itself a few times, and tried the most recent restore point. Now I have fewer options left- it goes through POST and then ends up with a blank screen. I have a Generic Vista recovery CD that I downloaded that gets me back into the repair/restore options screen, but now the laptop doesn't see any restore points, and when I run repair, it thinks the OS is fine. Still won't start, and won't go into safe mode either.
Side note: nothing new had been installed recently. It was running fine when I shut it down.
Additional complications: I don't have a COA or Dell recovery CD for this laptop. The recovery CD I have is generic for Vista and I downloaded it online and burned the CD. The laptop was pre-loaded with Vista Ultimate from the factory and has the sticker on it, I just don't have the COA or anything to reinstall it.
On other systems with XP, I could go in and repair or replace all of the startup files. Does this option exist for Vista? I don't mind reloading it from scratch, except I don't have the Dell recovery CD for it, and don't have the COA for it.
I think this generic recovery CD will reload it if I could find the COA for the laptop- I got stopped at the COA entry field- the numbers on the bottom of the laptop evidently are not the same thing. It does allow me to browse files within Vista via command prompt and I was able to copy files and pics onto a USB drive. Is there anywhere I can get the original COA out of the OS from a command prompt?
TIA!!
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