Dell D610 gets past Bios screen and hangs with cursor in top right corner. Will not accept F8 or. Any thoughts

Hi mikevahl,

It appears that your laptop is not booting into the 'Windows'. Please try the following troubleshooting steps:

1.Check if Dell logo appears
- If Dell logo does not appear, remove the battery from the laptop
- Unplug the AC adapter
- Remove all devices and physical connections from the laptop (If any)
- Press and hold the power button for 10 - 15 seconds
- Plug the adapter cable and battery back in
- Recheck if that works

2. If the issue persists, run 'Hardware Diagnostics' to check hardware functionality
- Power off the laptop
- Power it back on and immediately tap < F12 > repeatedly
- Select 'Diagnostics' option (Mouse is inoperable on this screen; kindly use arrow keys to navigate)
- Capture the results of diagnostics (capture error code if that appears)

3. If the issue persists, reset BIOS to defaults
- Power off the laptop
- Power it back on and immediately tap < F2 > repeatedly
- Navigate to 'Maintenance' option (Mouse is inoperable on this screen; kindly use arrow keys to navigate)
- Restore BIOS defaults and save changes
- Exit and re-check

4. If the issue still persists, try starting the laptop in 'Safe Mode'
- Power off the laptop
- Power it back on and immediately tap < F8 > repeatedly
- Select 'Safe Mode' option (Mouse is inoperable on this screen; kindly use arrow keys to navigate)
- Tap < Enter > and see if able to get into 'Windows'

5. Check for any recent changes made in the laptop
Please tell if you recently made any software changes to the computer. We may have to do system restore if required.

Do reply with the results. I would be glad to assist.

I tried 1, 2 & 3.  As stated above, the system will not let me get into safe mode.  I get the Dell Screen and the cursor goes to the top right corner and hangs.  My guess is that this is a virus and I will need to reinstall windows without wiping out the old system.  I have documents that are on a users desktop that were not saved on the network and will take at least a week to recreate.

Hi mikevahl,

Thank you for your response. If I understand you correctly, you performed all the troubleshooting steps that I recommended.
1. Static charge is discharged from the laptop
2. Hardware diagnostics have checked the hardware functionality and have passed
3. You have reset system BIOS to factory settings
4. Your system was unable to enter into 'safe mode'

Since the diagnostic test has not found any malfunctioning part, it appears that the software in the laptop has gone corrupt. Due to the inability to get into 'Windows' even in a diagnostic mode (safe mode), re-installing the operating system will be a logical resort.

However, please check for the presence of the 'Hard Drive' in system BIOS. You may find the following steps useful:
- Power off the computer
- Power it back on and repeatedly tap < F2 > as Dell logo appears (BIOS screen appears)
  
- Under 'System' category, navigate to 'Device Info' (Mouse is inoperable on this screen; please use keyboard keys as mentioned in the following image)
  
- Check status of 'Hard Drive' under 'Device Info' category
- If it says 'none' 'hard drive' may need replacement

Hope this helps. Do reply if you have any further questions. I would be glad to assist.

Saurabh, I am convinced that the boot sector is probably corrupt.  Using the reinstall OS from Dell, I can hit enter to install a fresh copy of Windows and then hit R to only reinstall the operating system.  it then reboots and still hangs.  I am afraid that the only way to get this back is to reformat the hard drive and do a clean install.  The only problem is that the attorney who uses this Latitude D610 has about a weeks worth of work on his desktop that did not get moved to the server.  If I format the HDD, he will lose 40-50 hours of legal work.

Going into the repair console will not get me anywhere.  I have a tried a couple of system restores from the command prompt, however none of them will do anything.  I am thinking that in the repair console, only a limited set of commands work.  

Any suggestions?

Saurabh, Another question; how do I make a boot CD to get the system booted and start windows on the C drive?  I can then off load the required files, reformat and reload the OS and reload all the software and data.

Thank you for your assistance.

Hi mikevahl,

It appears to be a boot sector corruption. You may try using the repair commands in 'Windows Recovery Console'. You may want to refer to the Microsoft article with the description of Windows XP recovery console: http://bit.ly/4XAwT However, these tools may result into data loss also. Do reply if you have any further questions. I would be glad to assist.