Vista Laptop Frozen On Welcome Screen

[Harve]

I have a Dell 1525 laptop. I think the hard drive is going bad because I was getting the desktop then a blue screen. The computer is a year and a half old. I have a new hard drive on order. I have a problem though that may keep it from working even with a new drive.

I went to Dell's website to see if they had any steps to troubleshoot the drive issue. They first said to run the hard drive diagnostic utility on the BIOS. You hold down the <Fn> key as you hit the power button. You get the Welcome screen with a notation in the top right corner that says "Diagnostic Boot Selected".

I left it in this mode for over an hour. It never moved past the Welcome screen and the progress bar never moved over 1/2 inch. Now the computer stays on that same screen no-matter how you boot up. You can do a normal start-up and still get the same screen.

Things I have tried:

I have tried inserting several OS disks at start-up. I used the re-install disk for Vista, a disk for XP Pro, 98 and even 95. The drive runs for 4 or 5 seconds and then stops running. You still keep the same screen.

I swapped the 1g RAM Modules and checked for lint build-up. I looked for a CMOS battery but didn't see one.

I totally removed the hard drive and left it out.

I tried the <F> keys to no avail. I tried <F2>, <F8> and <F12>.

It might be a BIOS problem or maybe a CMOS battery problem. Either way, I could sure use all of the help that I can get. All help will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks and have a great day.

Harve

[WMBrown]

Depending on the system, this test can be run either from a CD or from the System Setup (BIOS). When you run the diagnostic test, you will be informed whether the diagnostic is able to test your hard drive.

Most recent Desktop, Portable, and Workstation systems have the hard drive diagnostic included in the System Setup. You will find detailed instructions on running this test at the following web address:
http://support.dell.com/support/topi...401E0A55174AE6

[Harve]

Thanks for the reply. I could not get any <F> keys to work so I couldn't run the diagnostic.

I spent over 8 hours on live chat with Dell techs over a 3 day period. We finally discovered that I had a bad 2g stick of SODIMM DDR2 memory. That was a relief. I was afraid that it may be a BIOS problem. They're even sending me a free replacement stick of memory.

Thanks again for your reply. Have a great day.

Harve