Infinite Loop Problem

Check out this following link

http://www.abxzone.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-28206.html

In case you have no luck with this, I have tried everything I have found in this forum with no luck. Below is a summary of what I have tried:


Seems like in my search for answers to this exact problem (Inspiron 9100) I am finding many threads with the same problems. See the following:

http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=insp_video&message.id=146761&view=by_date_ascending&page=1


I have a three year extended warranty and have been chasing this for a year or so. Dell Techs have had me uninstall the video drivers, then load the latest drivers from the Dell web site, reformat the hard drive, replace the hard drive, and now have taken the laptop to the repair depot for repair. We will see. If you search through all the message threads here, you will find variations of the same problem. One wonders how widespread this really is. You can live with the problem, so long as a single power cycle fixes the problem. In my case I put the machine in standby every night. This also seemed to bypass the problem. Eventually, I had to power cycle the machine 15-20 times to get it to come up. I figured I would leave tracks as I searched for a solution here in case anyone actually comes up with a permanent effective fix for this.

just out of curiosity have you tried formating? If a format didn't fix the issue I would put the entire thing over to Dell Tech support to fix as a hardware issue. In theory it's their image that would be at fault if it's a software issue so it's their issue, and if it's a hardware issue you're saying that it is under warranty and should be fixed for a hardware issue. Either way I see this as a Dell issue if a format using the Dell recovery CD/Dell recovery partition didn't fix it.

Message Edited by Niggles on 04-18-200602:11 PM

Yes. One of the early attempts was to fall back to the Dell Factory config. I was surprised to learn that Dell ships all its PC's with a partition containing the factory shipped software config. So I reformatted the main partition and reloaded the factory settings without having to fall back to the CD's/DVD's shipped with the machine. This worked great, at first. The machine booted fine - for a few days. I started loading my software back on the system, saving images on an external drive along the way. After 2-3 days, the machine failed to boot with the old infinite loop problem. Falling back to an old image did not fix the problem. I opened a new case with the Dell tech's. This time they had me run a disk diagnosis prior to the boot up. Disk errors were found. So Dell shipped me a replacement hard drive. I loaded the system back on and the infinite loop problem was still there. I stumbled on the Omega Drivers suggestion and tried installing them. That actually seemed to fix the problem for 4 or 5 days, but then the error reappeared. I reverted back to the Dell ATI drivers, but the problem remains.

So I agree. Either it is a Dell hardware problem or it is a Dell software problem.
Unfortunately, if it is software, it is unlikely I will see a fix any time soon.
We have two Dell desktop machines, and three older Toshiba laptops. We have never had any trouble with any of the Desktops, but all the laptops have been through strange, difficult to diagnose problems. There must be something inherently difficult about engineering laptops.

I remain baffled.

Message Edited by Toadbadger on 04-18-200602:51 PM

You have a good idea here, and I went down this path when I first reformatted the drive back in February. The problem resurfaced about 3 days after reformatting, but it was not obvious if it was caused by a specific program. I was loading 3-4 programs a day to recover from the reformat. I am running some pretty plain vanilla software: MS Office, Adobe, Internet Explorer, Norton Internet Security, etc. It will be difficult to find as the problem only occurs when the machine is cold - 12 hours or so cold.  In any case, the problem first appeared last year when my machine was in a very stable state. Unless there was some kind of unnoticed Windows or Dell SW update (I have since turned off automatic updating so I can see what is going on!) the problem surfaced out of the blue.

When the machine returns from Dell, I will try it out with my hard drive as is. If the problem resurfaces, you are probably correct, and I will have no choice other than to load a baseline Dell configuration from the CD's or from the recovery partition (the new machine did work fine for 9 months or so) and then one piece of software per day until I either run into the problem again or get everything loaded. I am really hoping the problem is some sort of bad solder connection or defective component on the mother board or video board that works OK when the machine is warm. It is very hard to understand a thermally related software problem. We'll see. Dell has been very good at working with me so far. As do we all, I have a lot tied up in this machine and 14 months left on the warranty to try and get the thing fixed. If I can't get past this problem and can't find a software culprit, it will be interesting to see what Dell will do. Too bad they discontinued this machine and can't just give me a new one.

Update: I've just received the machine back from the Dell Repair depot with a new video card, new bios, and a new "plastic hinge cover assembly" or something (related to the reported problems with the laptop open/closed sensor switch?). I replaced the hard drive and she booted up perfectly. I hope this completes this trouble shooting process, but time will tell.

Interesting intinerary of replacement items. The video card would certainly be the place to start, but the obvious hit to me would be the mother board. It's understood that this is likely the last thing they want to do because it's unlikely that they have many of these just kicking around. They probably want to save them for when they know they that absolutly have to replace it.
It's good to know that Dell stood up and fixed it for you though, makes me proud to say that I own a Dell and that I payed for the extended warranty.

Update: Machine booted normally in the morning for the third straight time. I'll give it another week before pronouncing the patient cured. I have been thankful for the 3 year warranty as well. I tend to bypass those on desktop machines (Shhh! Don't tell Dell!). But laptops have been troublesome. If this is a common failure mode, I hate to think what it would have cost it it had been off warranty.