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Trying to reinstall Vista on Dell - system crashing
Good Day.
I have a 3 year old Dell Inspiron 1501 that was slowing down so I tried doing a fresh reinstall. I inserted the OS Reinstallation DVD that came with the system (Vista Home Premium 32 bit).
I booted from the DVD, deleted the existing partition (data on c: drive) and let the install DVD do it's thing. It seemed to go through all steps, but when it went to do the first reboot the computer abruptly shut down during the reboot (blank screen and immediately silent). I tried rebooting and while it went a little further into the reboot, it abruptly shut down again. It gets far enough that it appears that Vista has installed, but it crashes during the screen where it says something along the lines of "it's doing it's first install since Vista was installed and needs a few minutes". It just keeps dying before actually booting windows. At this stage, I go back to the beginning and try reinstalling Vista.
Another time it installed Vista and in the first reboot a window pops up advising that Windows shut down before the install could be completed and it instructs you to reinstall.
I'm struggling to understand how the system was functioning before I tried to do the fresh install, and now I can't reinstall the OS.
I loaded the Reinstall DVD and even tried to "repair the computer", but no luck.
Any ideas? (Thanks)
ieee488
4 Operator
4 Operator
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11.1K Posts
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May 23rd, 2011 09:00
I have never experienced overheating issue myself. You might want to check the vents etc.
I would also run the extended hard drive diagnostics.
ieee488
4 Operator
4 Operator
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11.1K Posts
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May 22nd, 2011 10:00
Either your hard drive is on its last legs or your laptop is overheating.
To check for the former, F12 at bootup and run the Extended hard drive diagnostics.
credential
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May 23rd, 2011 07:00
Thanks for the reply. I did manage to get the OS reinstalled...but the crashing continues. As suggested above, I believe that overheating is the issue. I installed speedfan to get a sense of temperatures. The readings are reaching these levels below with no programs running:
HD0 - 49C
Temp1 87C
Core 85C
Fans are showing:
Fan1 14 RPM
Fan2 3459 RPM
Fan3 0 RPM
When I perform Windows Updates (or download antivirus updates), Temp1 goes above 90C and it shuts down.
I don't know what the readings were prior a clean install of the OS...so it's hard to tell if this has changed, but my laptop had never abruptly shut down before. Now, its system is crashing regularly...and I'm guessing it's because of the temperatures it's reaching.
Any thoughts on how an OS fresh install could lead to an overheating/crashing issue that wasn't there prior to the OS fresh install?
Thanks again.
credential
3 Posts
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May 23rd, 2011 09:00
Yep, I'm an idiot. I took a can of air to the vents. After the dust settled and I could see again, it rebooted. Temperatures went way down and it's been running for an hour and is stable. Perhaps it was coincidental that the overheating issues started EXACTLY at the same time as the OS reinstall, but it does seem odd.
Thanks again for the input...much appreciated.