v877051
Power User
Something I found out tonight (just now!) through Dell Technical Support (here from my PC, as my notebook crashed & burned) was a cool way to run some great diagnostic tests was to do the following:
Even with seemingly unworkable problems like: DVD stuck in drive (non "tray" system, one like a car CD player, BCD\Boot\ error with 0xc000000f code,) you can:
Hit power (on) + Fn key and hold until you hear an unusual (non "Beep" beep. It's an irregular system driver noise.
Let all tests cycle and, at the end, answer "no" to the final test.
Resetting BIOS to factory defaults after the fact will allow you to, in most cases, assuming you're current on revisions (in my case, A11 with a Studio 1558 with Windows 7 x64 Home Premium + Vista x64 Ultimate,) disable all unnecessary hardware/options when it comes to this situation (WLAN, etc.)
SATA to IDE is important to set.
Configuring USB as a bootable device (will differ on almost every BIOS brand, Phoenix, AMI, Award, etc.,) is pertinent; download (if you've got the same error as me,) SourceForge's UNetbootin.
I've tried lots of utilities just to see what's out there.
That particular one is the simplest and fastest way to make a BOOTABLE ISO image out of a Windows DVD (with at least a 4+ GB flash drive!)
...good FYI to throw in there.
I hope this benefits someone out there in the BSOD land.
v877051
Even with seemingly unworkable problems like: DVD stuck in drive (non "tray" system, one like a car CD player, BCD\Boot\ error with 0xc000000f code,) you can:
Hit power (on) + Fn key and hold until you hear an unusual (non "Beep" beep. It's an irregular system driver noise.
Let all tests cycle and, at the end, answer "no" to the final test.
Resetting BIOS to factory defaults after the fact will allow you to, in most cases, assuming you're current on revisions (in my case, A11 with a Studio 1558 with Windows 7 x64 Home Premium + Vista x64 Ultimate,) disable all unnecessary hardware/options when it comes to this situation (WLAN, etc.)
SATA to IDE is important to set.
Configuring USB as a bootable device (will differ on almost every BIOS brand, Phoenix, AMI, Award, etc.,) is pertinent; download (if you've got the same error as me,) SourceForge's UNetbootin.
I've tried lots of utilities just to see what's out there.
That particular one is the simplest and fastest way to make a BOOTABLE ISO image out of a Windows DVD (with at least a 4+ GB flash drive!)
...good FYI to throw in there.
I hope this benefits someone out there in the BSOD land.
v877051
My Computer
System One
-
- Manufacturer/Model
- Dell
- CPU
- Intel Core i7 820QM 1.73GHz "Clarksfield" (8 Threads)
- Motherboard
- Dell Inc. 0874P6 (U2E1)
- Memory
- 4.0GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 661MHz (9-9-9-24)
- Graphics card(s)
- ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5400 Series
- Sound Card
- (SoundMAX) IDT High Definition Audio
- Monitor(s) Displays
- 15"+ Standard Dell Studio 1558 LCD monitor.
- Screen Resolution
- 1024 x 768
- Hard Drives
- (x2) 1TB WD "Elements" External HDD + (x1) 1.5TB WD "Elements) External HDD; 500GB Solid State Storage on laptop.
- PSU
- N/A Notebook
- Case
- N/A
- Cooling
- External (NON-USB!) NZXT CRYO-S (X) Silver. ICE COLD.
- Mouse
- Good 'ol reliable USB 2.0 Microsoft 3-button mouse.
- Keyboard
- Standard, non-10-key, no fancy backlighting.
- Internet Speed
- 16 Mbps w/ Aaris DOCSIS 3.0-compliant modem
- Other Info
- Gigabit LAN. Tight network security. (Hopes of getting a Linksys 4-Port Gigabit Security Router with VPN!) Disabled WiFi/Wireless hardware; don't believe in the concept. If I did, would use draft-N adapter.