3

I have a Dell Inspiron that doesn't seem to get past the initial POST - it turns on and displays the logo, and the loading bar fills about 60%, but can't boot into the OS, enter Setup (F2), or display the alternate boot options (F12). I tried swapping the RAM, in case that was faulty, but it didn't help. What now?

Improve this question

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
3

I called Dell, and they suggested that the issue might be that the hard drive was defective, and that the hard drive was being accessed as part of the boot sequence. My guess is that this is because the BIOS examines if the hard drive has specific data on it, that is needed to provide Dell-specific functionality.

In short, removing and replacing the hard drive was sufficient to fix this problem. I hope that this information is useful for whoever else encounters this issue; it was a learning experience for me.

Improve this answer
2
  • Your conclusion is close but not accurate. Your HDD boot sector was corrupt, while its possible to resolve that problem, it will happen again because boot sectors don't because corrupt without a reason.
    – Ramhound
    May 28, 2013 at 17:47
  • I've seen this happen with drives of laptops of other brands without special boot-time magic. I guess this its something most people miss.
    – Journeyman Geek ♦
    May 29, 2013 at 12:01

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .