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Inspiron 1525 Vista does not start on first attempt
I am attempting to make serviceable a Dell Inspiron 1525 laptop for a local charity. It was purchased at a car boot sale (for US forum members, it's a bit like a large public *** sale) and I have no idea of its history. I have restored the factory image from the recovery partition and, once booted up, the laptop seems to work well. Some of the front lights never come on and the touchpad buttons do not work so it isn't perfect but these problems are not important in use. However, the laptop almost always takes two attempts before it will boot up.
The first attempt very quickly gets past the Dell splash screen and then there is a horizontal progress bar and the words "microsoft corporation". The progress bar never stops but, having done a forced shutdown and restart, I get a screen offering me the option of a repair or a normal startup. The repair option takes a long time but ends by saying that a startup repair could not be done. Selecting a normal startup usually achieves this and subsequent startups soon afterwards also work properly. After an hour or more, the problem returns.
Any suggestions as to identifying or fixing this problem would be appreciated.
bratman91
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November 26th, 2015 11:00
Further to my post above, I have now restored my laptop to factory condition from the recovery partition three times and the same problem results every time. Various diagnostic scans fail to find anything wrong and the recovery image seems to be good or, at least, not currupted enough to cause failures. I do not understand why two attempts to start up are almost always needed but, once started, the laptop runs perfectoy. I have updated all the drivers and added no hardware or software. Could the recovery image be at fault or perhaps the BIOS?
ieee488
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November 26th, 2015 12:00
I would run a Dell Diagnostics on the unit.
bratman91
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November 27th, 2015 06:00
Do you mean the diagnostic tool that you run from a browser? If so, I have a problem with that because when I try to run it, I get a link to download the Dell System Detect tool. However, when I try to install this (using administrator privileges), I get an error message telling me that the application download is missing some files. Without this being installed, the diagnostics will not run and simply directs back to the download.
ieee488
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November 27th, 2015 07:00
No. The Diagnostic Tool does not run from a browser.
http://www.dell.com/support/article/us/en/19/SLN114988
bratman91
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November 27th, 2015 14:00
I have run the PC Health Check, the Dell Support Centre hardware diagnostics tool, the Windows Startup Repair and the Windows diagnostics. None show any fault. I have not run the Dell PC Diagnostics asnit tells me to install Dell System Detect first of all, and I cannot get this to install.
ieee488
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November 27th, 2015 17:00
I would not be using Dell System Detect.
You should Google for a direct download.
http://downloads.dell.com/diags/CW1337A0.exe
bratman91
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November 28th, 2015 06:00
I am becoming confused by the exteme multiplicity of Dell applications/tools all with the same or similar name of "diagnostics" but I think that I have already used the tool in the link you provided. If I am correct, it lead me into creating a bootable USB drive. i booted up from this drive and it provide a very extensive set of diagnostics for hardware. Was this the thing you had in mind? It found nothing wrong, by the way.
LSUFAN51
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November 28th, 2015 07:00
:emotion-2:
Please click on the link below, hopefully the troubleshooting help solve the problems on your computer:
www.dell.com/.../windows-vista-support