Without seeing the exact error message, no one can advise you.

Would the error code be something like

"Technical information:

STOP: 0x0000C1F5 (0x00000000, 0x00000000, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)"

 

6 days ago, my Inspiron E1705 laptop started giving me a Blue Screen of Death on boot-up with that technical information in it.

 

Sequence of events:

1) Turn computer power on;

2) Dell splash screen comes on with small gold bar display;

3) Black/white screen comes on with following information:

(white bar/black characters) "Windows Error Recovery"

(black screen/white characters)

"Windows failed to start. A recent hardware or software change might be the cause.

 

If Windows files have been damaged or configured incorrectly, Startup Repair can help diagnose and fix the problem. If power was interrupted during startup, choose Start Windows Normally.

 

(black screen/grey characters)

"(Use the arrow keys to highlight your choice.)"

 

(black screen/white characters; white bar/black characters moves to show selected option)

"Launch Startup Repair (recommended)

Start Windows Normally

 

(black screen/gray characters)

"Description:" (black screen/white characters) a description of what each choice does when selected

 

(white bar/black characters)

"ENTER=Choose"

_____________________________________________________________________________________

 

Choosing either "Launch Startup Repair (recommended)" or "Start Windows Normally" results eventually

(after some intermediate screens) in:

 

Sequence of events:

 

1) black screen with white characters "(copyright symbol) Microsoft Corporation"

under gold/black bars moving back and forth inside a white outline box, followed by

 

2) blue screen/white characters: (this screen will be described hereafter as "Blue Stop Error Screen")

"A problem has been detected and Windows has been shut down to prevent damage

to your computer.

 

If this is the first time you've seen this stop error screen,

restart your computer. If this screen appears again, follow

these steps:

 

Check to make sure any new hardware or software is properly installed.

If this is a new installation, ask your hardware or software manufacturer

for any Windows updates you might need.

 

If problems continue. disable or remove any newly installed hardware

or software. Disable BIOS memory options such as caching or shadowing.

If you need to use Safe Mode to remove or disable components, restart

your computer. press F8 to select Advanced Startup Options, and then

select Safe Mode.

 

Technical information:

*** STOP: 0x0000C1F5 (0x00000000, 0x00000000, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)"

 

I've tried using the Advanced Boot Options:

 

Nothing involving the Internal Hard Drive works, not Safe Mode or "Repair your Computer" works;

 

Booting from the CD/DVD Drive doesn't work - a tech from Microsoft and I walked through all the different ways of trying to boot the Windows Vista Re-Installation DVD but got the Blue Stop Error Screen described above every time;

 

Couldn't think of a way to boot the system over our home LAN;

 

Neither of the USB hard drives I have would boot without coming up with the Blue Stop Error Screen described above;

 

None of the BIOS Setup options prevented the system from eventually coming up with Blue Stop Error Screen described above;

 

I went through every Diagnostic in the BIOS, and no hardware problems were diagnosed.

 

I've also disabled the internal wi-fi adapter, the internal modem and the internal NIC, still wound up with the Blue Stop Error Screen described above.

 

Media Center Express works if turned on from one of the two buttons located on the case outside the keyboard.

 

Anyone have any ideas? (Apart from the inescapable conclusion that my drive's FAT is toast)

 

Looking up the "technical information" from the blue stop error screen, I learned from Microsoft's Knowledge Base that the string "STOP: 0x0000C1F5" is associated with corruption of one particular system file, for which there is a hotfix file named "341806_intl_i386_zip.exe" which I have downloaded from Microsoft.

 

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/946084 covers the problem AND the hotfix.

 

My problem being that I have no way of replacing the corrupt file in the hard drive.

 

I'd welcome any serious suggestions on how to at least recover the files on the drive in the event that the file corruption is the result of a damaged boot sector or FAT.

 

Thanks, everybody.

Blinking lock lights usually signal memory failure. Reseat the memory modules securely. If that does not resolve the problem, try each memory module separately in each slot to isolate the problem. If the same module fails in both slots, then the module is bad. If both modules fail in one slot, that slot is bad (it is harder to resolve if this is the case since the slots are soldered to the motherboard, so a bad slot might require a motherboard replacement to correct).