friends dell pc wont boot help

Gonzo

my friends dell pc recently crashed failing to boot up at all, the last thing he remembers doing was installing a codec.
He restarted his pc and no startup configuration will work at all including safe mode. Dell never supplied him with a backup copy of windows or a utility disc so he cant reformat and refused to help him fix his pc as he doesnt have a credit card to pay them.

What options does he have in getting his pc fixed without costing a fortune, he was thinking of bringing his hard disk to my house and installing it as a 2nd hard drive on my pc and removing the stuff that he installed previous to the crash, would doing that cause his pc to work again at home or is he just wasting his time doing that?

Cheers

Karoma

What model? There may be a recovery partition, i.e. he can boot up and recover. Surely Dell accept more than 1 method of payment?

irlrobins

Like Karoma said, Dell would either have provided a Windows CD, or have a hidden partition which you can use to set PC back to factory settings. You would however lose all your data.

So as you suggest, you could bring the HD to your house and copy all his pics/mp3s etc on to your HD. Replace his HD in his dell and preform the reimaging. Then put HD back in your PC to copy all the data back again.

It wouldn't really be possible to undo the codec install by connecting drive to your PC. You would need to know what files and registry changes were made by the installation. And there's no guarantee that the codec is the cause of the problem. Best thing to do would be just to back up his data as i said above.

As regards credit card usage, sounds like he is out of support warranty and has to pay for his technical support call. Obviously they want to be paid there and then. The ol "The cheque is in the post, can you help me now" line isn't going to work!

Karoma

irlrobins wrote:

As regards credit card usage, sounds like he is out of support warranty and has to pay for his technical support call. Obviously they want to be paid there and then. The ol "The cheque is in the post, can you help me now" line isn't going to work!

Other manufacturer's support lines offer some support while the bank transfer goes through

zilog_jones

What happens exactly when he tries to start Windows? Does a blue screen come up? If so, what does it say exactly?

I'm suspecting the registry got banjaxed, which might be fixable with the "repair" thing on the Windows CD.

Which version of Windows is it by the way? If it's a recent Dell, as others said there might be a special partition on the hard disk for restoring Windows - the repair thing or the recovery console may be accessible from that, or it may only have the ability to do a full restore - which will wipe everything off the hard disk and just put all the factory default stuff on it.

If the Windows repair/recovery console stuff is not available, you can just "aqcuire" the appropriate Windows CD from elsewhere - there's nothing wrong with doing that as long, though if you do have to re-install Windows you *must* use the Windows Product Key supplied with the PC (should be a small sticker on the top or side of the PC), not any other.

layke

Backup the data to your machine, get a copy of windows and reinstall it.

gamer

i think you reboot ,press cntrl key f11 when you see dell logo after turning on pc ,release after 30secs approx, then it will restore winxp ,all applications from the dell hidden partition on drive c: ,go to dell.ie desktops help for more info,re restore pc process details.unless pc is more than 3 years old.

Gonzo

gamer wrote:

i think you reboot ,press cntrl key f11 when you see dell logo after turning on pc ,release after 30secs approx, then it will restore winxp ,all applications from the dell hidden partition on drive c: ,go to dell.ie desktops help for more info,re restore pc process details.unless pc is more than 3 years old.

cool thanks:)
he's just after trying that and it will work but he's gonna come out here first and copy his stuff across then do it when he goes home again,

thanks guys for all yer help:)

gamer

when dell logo appears press cntrl,hold down cntrl, then press f11 and holdown,f11,then release both keys after say 30 seconds,restore screen will appear,use tab and enter ,key,to confirm, process to restore,yes,ok.restore,confirm ,takes 12mins approx to restore, you might wanna copy your,music,mp3 files off be4 doing restore process.Be very gentle with hardrives,no sudden movement,or shocks,put down very gently,like a glass .see dell .ie home desktop, support for more info,it brings pc back to factory state,with winxp and all applications as when you recieved the pc.if you wanna copy from c: set ithe drive /jumper it as slave drive,or master drive /principal d:drive on ide cable 2.