Vostro 1015 - No Bootable Devices but also no Problems Found

Question

I bought a Vostro 1015 in late August and have been very pleased with it. I developed a problem this week I've been unable to resolve using the tech support so here I am.

When I turn on the laptop, I've been getting a blue screen which says, "No bootable devices. Strike F1 to retry boot, F2 for setup utlility. PressF5 to run onboard diagnostics." When I press F5, it changes to a different blue screen with the name "Pre-boot System Assessment Build 4121" at the top. It does some scanning and then I hit a point where colored lines go across and then down the screen. It asks if the colors appeared and I hit Y for yes. It continues scanning after which I get the message, "No problems found on the system so far. Do you want to run the remaining tests?" When I press N for no, it boots up normally.

This has happened three times this week. I called tech support on Tuesday and was told to remove the battery, hold down the power button for 5-10 seconds to discharge static electricity and then put the battery back in. Did that, It worked. Today I blue screened again so I called tech support and was told pretty much that they can't help me other than to do a clean install and have me start over. I do have my data backed up on an external drive but I know it's a hassle to reload (since my last laptop was a Latitude that died unexpectedly and I had to transfer my data to this Vostro).

I did the full diagnositc system test today just on a whim and the only thing it found was that my DVD drive was empty (Error Code 0F00:133c).

I'm hoping to figure out why this happens on a new laptop and if ther'e's a fix. I really don't want to reload again if I don't have to. Any ideas?

Mary G · Answer

Do the extended hard drive test in the diagnostics to see if it's a hard drive problem. Sounds like either a hard drive problem or damaged system files. If the drive test returns no errors, you should try PC Restore to factory settings.

PS you should not skip the extended tests. Tests take hours, but you need to do them since nothing turned up in the quick test..

BamaBrie · Answer

Thank you, Mary G. I wasn't clear in my message yesterday (sorry, blue screen stress) and I actually had done a full system test (it took a couple hours). The only thing it found was the 0F00:133c error code which I understand to mean my DVD drive was empty and it was.

Based on your message, I did a system restore this morning. I picked a date from a couple of weeks ago before my problems began. I did end up with an error signature page and an error report as a result of doing the restore. I don't understand that coding but am hoping that doing the restore will resolve my issues. I'm backing up to an external drive as we speak.

If you understand the numbers in error signatures and error reports, I saved them as .jpeg files and can post them here. If not, I do thank you for helping me and I hope the restore process resolved my issue, whatever it was. Worst case scenario is that my hard drive is bad for some reason and I'll have to have it replaced and reload my data.

gmj29 · Answer

I also possess a Dell Vostro 1015. I have the same problem caused because I inadvertently ended a SYSTEM process in the Task Manager for Windows 7. Does anyone have an idea to fix this issue?

BamaBrie · Answer

GMJ - I ultimately had to get a new hard drive. My IT guy at work told me that the hard drive that came in my Vostro wasn't a stellar product and it has just died. This was before I upgraded to 7 though. I'm not a systems person but I know I had a similar issue with I tried to move from XP to 7 and I was not patient enough.  Perhaps if you do a clean restore of 7 as your operating system?  By all means listen to people much more experienced than me. I still have my Vostro and plan to keep it for a while since doing the upgrade to 7 was a hassle.

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Vostro 1015 - No Bootable Devices but also no Problems Found

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