Calling all computer Wizards. I have a dell dimension c521 and the OS is not loading for some reason. I'm not computer savvy and this is pissing me off. It just boots up, and stays on a black screen. I tried to boot it in safe mode and it's the same thing. I don't have the recovery disc or back up disc if this computer came with one. (bought it along with business) So my question is, what the heck do I do? How do I access the recover partition for a Dell? I looked online, but I am getting nothing. This sucks. Thanks in advance.
Yeah, pretty much. It's been sitting in the same position for 2+yrs. I opened it up any way and everything is snugged in tight. Cables and everything else are perfect.
Nope. I wasn't left any disk when I purchased the business. I wasn't thinking to clearly at the time. Dell will send me a back up disk, but I don't have the receipt to prove the purchase. So they said they'll send someone out to fix it, but I will be charged. I rather learn, and do it myself than hire someone, unless I absolutely have to.
can you get to the bios on your mobo, by holding DEL during bootup usually...maybe for some reason your boot order got changed around?
This seems a little vague to me. First and most importantly, when exactly are you getting this black screen? Can you at least get into the BIOS? Second, can you run stuff off CD like Ultimate Boot CD or some form of Linux (like Knoppix)? Third, what's the OS? I'm guessing some flavor of Windows?
Realistically your **** out of luck if you don't have recovery CD's. I'd call Dell to be honest and see if they might ship you some for free/cheap. What's happening is the computer is bogged by some process (could be spyware/malware/virus or something innocuous) and it's stuck on trying to load it. The only way possible would be is if you had a friend with an XP disc to let you borrow it and when the CD boots enter recovery console and try and make it fix the boot protocols. If it doesn't load safe mode however, you're probably *****ed. Honestly, the best thing to do is: Buy a new Hard Drive Get the recovery discs Make your new hard drive the master drive Reinstall the OS and run a two hard drive setup You could always throw down Hirens boot CD (free and available online, just google it) and do a drive health check. It could be you're getting cyclic redundancy errors and the OS can't load, but the symptoms of this are usually but not limitted to the presence of BSOD (Blue Screen Of Death). It can still happen tho, w/o BSOD.
Unless I'm mistaken, the Dell recovery CD will simply wipe his system and re-install all factory installed software on his computer, won't it?
no, it can run a recovery center console that merely reloads the boot sequence, it's under extra options.
Well when I turn the computer on, it goes to that dell bios loading screen. Than it goes to the windows vista screen and it just turns black. I can see the mouse, but the screen is just black. Thanks for everyones comment so far.
I can get to that screen no problem. I was just wondering if there's a way I can get access to the recovery partition.
S. O.S too. Just purchased a monitor, 20", and everything looks like I'm holding a magnifying glass to the screen. I've tried adjusting the resolution and things still look distorted. Monitors should be squared not widescreen! grrr! I miss my 2001 gateway monitor. =(
this might seem a little silly...but are you sure you arent jumping the gun? i know when i first started up vista...i was sitting at my computer the vista load bar was going and then my screen was black for awhile and i'm like ok...whats going on. then after about a minute and a half the vista logo popped up and then proceeded to my desktop. vista is kind of a memory hog and the bootup seems to take awhile. even now i just flip my computer on and go do something else for a few minutes to let it load. might seem like a long shot but i know the first time loading vista i thought something was wrong and i think i actually manually shut down my comp thinking something was wrong.
