Dell Reboot Issues

[Guest NotInTheKnow]

A "friend" tried to help me reboot my Dell E310 with my OEM Windows XP Media

disks. It seems to do the setup okay but when it comes to reinstalling the

programs the screen says it can "take up to 30 minutes" and to not hit any

keys. So he waited over an hour and the disk light had quit blinking, so he

aborted. Only some of the programs reinstalled and all the old files were

still there. Any idea how to fix this? I have all my data backed up and my

disks available.

[Guest Malke]

Re: Dell Reboot Issues

 

NotInTheKnow wrote:

> A "friend" tried to help me reboot my Dell E310 with my OEM Windows XP

> Media

> disks. It seems to do the setup okay but when it comes to reinstalling

> the programs the screen says it can "take up to 30 minutes" and to not hit

> any

> keys. So he waited over an hour and the disk light had quit blinking, so

> he

> aborted. Only some of the programs reinstalled and all the old files were

> still there. Any idea how to fix this? I have all my data backed up and

> my disks available.

 

If the old files were there, your friend didn't do a clean install. Refer to

your manual or Dell's website for how to restore your E310 to factory

condition. Or:

 

1. Put the operating system disk that you got from Dell into the drive.

2. Restart the computer while pressing F12 to get the one-time boot menu.

3. From the boot menu, choose the optical drive to boot from.

4. Follow the steps at the link below to do a clean install:

 

http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

 

5. Use the Dell Resource CD to install the drivers or get them ahead of time

from Dell's website and save to USB thumbdrive or burn to CD-R.

 

6. Install programs from original installation media. Restore your data from

backup.

 

Malke

--

MS-MVP

Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!

FAQ - http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/#FAQ

[Guest Ken Blake]

Re: Dell Reboot Issues

 

"NotInTheKnow" <NotInTheKnow@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

news:7AA52942-7FC1-413F-BF33-FC79353976F7@microsoft.com...

>A "friend" tried to help me reboot

 

 

You "boot" Windows on your computer every time you turn it on. To "reboot"

means to turn it on again (or restart it). I assume you mean that you

*reinstalled* Windows.

 

> my Dell E310 with my OEM Windows XP Media

> disks. It seems to do the setup okay but when it comes to reinstalling

> the

> programs the screen says it can "take up to 30 minutes" and to not hit any

> keys. So he waited over an hour and the disk light had quit blinking, so

> he

> aborted. Only some of the programs reinstalled and all the old files were

> still there. Any idea how to fix this? I have all my data backed up and

> my

> disks available.

 

 

Your friend unfortunately didn't know what he was doing. The correct way to

reinstall Windows (if you have an installation CD) is to boot from the

Windows XP CD (change the BIOS boot order if necessary to accomplish this)

and follow the prompts for a clean installation (delete the existing

partition by pressing "D" when prompted, then create a new one).

You can find detailed instructions here:

http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

 

or here http://windowsxp.mvps.org/XPClean.htm

 

or here http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/clean_install.htm

 

If you don't have an installation CD, depending on what you have, you need

to follow Dell's instructions for doing this.

[Guest NotInTheKnow]

Re: Dell Reboot Issues

 

I did what I thought was right with the reinstall and it worked on the second

time I tried it. I'm not sure what happened but it seems to be working fine

now. You know...except the updates. something seems to be wrong with the

regkey now. grr...

Any ideas?

 

"Ken Blake" wrote:

> "NotInTheKnow" <NotInTheKnow@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

> news:7AA52942-7FC1-413F-BF33-FC79353976F7@microsoft.com...

>

> >A "friend" tried to help me reboot

>

>

> You "boot" Windows on your computer every time you turn it on. To "reboot"

> means to turn it on again (or restart it). I assume you mean that you

> *reinstalled* Windows.

>

>

> > my Dell E310 with my OEM Windows XP Media

> > disks. It seems to do the setup okay but when it comes to reinstalling

> > the

> > programs the screen says it can "take up to 30 minutes" and to not hit any

> > keys. So he waited over an hour and the disk light had quit blinking, so

> > he

> > aborted. Only some of the programs reinstalled and all the old files were

> > still there. Any idea how to fix this? I have all my data backed up and

> > my

> > disks available.

>

>

> Your friend unfortunately didn't know what he was doing. The correct way to

> reinstall Windows (if you have an installation CD) is to boot from the

> Windows XP CD (change the BIOS boot order if necessary to accomplish this)

> and follow the prompts for a clean installation (delete the existing

> partition by pressing "D" when prompted, then create a new one).

> You can find detailed instructions here:

> http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

>

> or here http://windowsxp.mvps.org/XPClean.htm

>

> or here http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/clean_install.htm

>

> If you don't have an installation CD, depending on what you have, you need

> to follow Dell's instructions for doing this.

>

>

>

[Guest Daave]

Re: Dell Reboot Issues

 

NotInTheKnow wrote:

> I did what I thought was right with the reinstall and it worked on

> the second time I tried it. I'm not sure what happened but it seems

> to be working fine now. You know...except the updates. something

> seems to be wrong with the regkey now. grr...

> Any ideas?

 

Your post is unclear.

 

Apparently, updates aren't working. What kind of updates are you

referring to? And what specifically is going wrong? Please provide

verbatim messages.

 

Also, what do you mean by the phrase "something seems to be wrong with

the regkey now?"

 

What kind of reinstall occurred? Was this a clean install? Or a repair

install? In your first post, it sounded like a repair install had been

performed. But it is unclear as to what exactly happened "on the second

time [you] tried it." Please describe the disk that was used.

 

Finally, what is the context of your Subject line? I'm guessing that you

had reboot issues you couldn't fix, and you decided to reinstall XP. But

that's only a guess!

[Guest Plato]

Re: Dell Reboot Issues

 

=?Utf-8?B?Tm90SW5UaGVLbm93?= wrote:

>

> A "friend" tried to help me reboot my Dell E310 with my OEM Windows XP Media

> disks. It seems to do the setup okay but when it comes to reinstalling the

> programs the screen says it can "take up to 30 minutes" and to not hit any

> keys. So he waited over an hour and the disk light had quit blinking, so he

> aborted. Only some of the programs reinstalled and all the old files were

> still there. Any idea how to fix this? I have all my data backed up and my

> disks available.

 

Wipe the drive first then install totally fresh.

 

--

http://www.bootdisk.com/