Windows startup problem

Hi, I'm looking for some help to resolve the following problem. I have a Dell Vostro laptop running Vista. A few days ago when booting up I got a black screen with white text telling me that windows had not started correctly. It offered the option of running a repair which I did and the laptop seemed to return to normal. This has now happened again but this time the repair tool won't sort out the problem and the computer won't boot up at all. The only clue I get is "the parameter is incorrect - 0x80070057". A little research suggests that this is a programming issue. I have tried the restore function but this fails and it also won't boot in safe mode. Being a Dell it has a recovery partition but I don't know how to access this. All help appreciated, thanks

i'm sorry i don't know what your problem, but to access the recovery partition it's usually keep tapping one of the F keys when you first switch on your machine, untill you get to it's screen menu, i think it's F3 or F10 key, but if nothing happens with those two try each of the others except F5 or F8 they are for windows safe mode as you know. if none work then try holding the control(Ctrl) key down and hit the F11 key at splash screen, then release both. would you please be kind enough to post back what all the options are in restore mode for me please, for example 1/ full restore with format, 2/ full restore without format etc.etc

it seems from what i've googled that the restore might now be shown under the usual F8 windows safe mode menu too, so try that key also.

The restore function offers me a choice of restore points to restore back to. I've tried several, including the oldest, and it always fails.

ok did using the ctrl and F11 or tapping any other F key bring you to the factory restore menu?? if not did you receive any back up dvd's with the laptop??

when you started if safe mode after hitting the F8 key did you use the down arrow key to see if there were any other options below what you could see on the screen? it seems that with vista you need to select repair your computer from that F8 menu then log in as administrator, select your language then select dell factory image restore and follow the steps in the launched wizard. Ctrl + F11 seems to only work for XP and not vista.

Hi, I couldn't start in safe mode. There are various options available including restore to last good configuration but none of these worked. I can't log in as admin as it won't let me. Restoring to factory settings seems like a fairly drastic step, is there no other solution?

i should of said when you got to the safe mode menu by hitting the F8 key and i did not mean actually starting up in safe mode.

and yes it is a drastic step, and one used only as a last resort..

i'm sure there are other things that you could try first, but i'm not a windows user so have very limited knowledge on the things you could try, i was just trying to answer your query here

Being a Dell it has a recovery partition but I don't know how to access this.

here is the pdf link from dell that gives you all the options for repair and restore for a vostro laptop:- http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/SOFT…DBRM_UGV1_3.zip

i'm sorry i don't think i'll be of any further help in solving your problem, but i'm sure another tech will be able to run through all your options first before the drastic step of needing to do a full factory restore is needed.

must admit i'm a bit concerned that you can get to the recovery menu's but it won't restore to any working configuration, or even allow you to log on as admin, but like i said i've very limited knopwledge where windows is concerned so it may not be as bad as i think.

do you have any restore discs that might of come with the pc? or is everything only on the restore partition?

if you have a disc then it might be possible to use that instead of the hard drive partition to do a repair install so we can at least get you into windows to find out what may have caused the problems in the first place.

OK, thanks for your help. Unfortunately, I don't have any back up discs.

can you get to the menu that is shown on page 21 of that pdf link i listed?? if so then the first thing listed there is a startup repair, i think i'd give that a try, see what it finds and if it can repair the problem.

I have a couple of times and tried the repair option several times but without success

did it report any errors on why it couldn't fix the problem?

No, it just said it had failed. I'm running a dubugging process at the moment which is running a scan specifically on the OS not booting.

what scan is it your running?? i was thinking the next step would probably be choosing the command prompt from that menu and then running a check disk command to see if it can fix any hard drive problems, probably use the f flag first and if that didn't work, try the r flag. once such a check is started tho you shouldn't stop it no matter how long it takes, can be hrs/day depending on drive size, and the lappy should be on power connection and not battery. i wouldn't instruct you to do it tho because i don't have enough knowledge on it, and would wait for another tech to respond first with such a direction if they thought it was needed.

I think it was just called 'debugger' which tested the processing memory addresses and then offered me the choice of running some tests. I opened a 'symptom tree' and there was a section on running tests when the OS won't boot. So far it's tested the L1 and L2 cache, the realtime clock and interrupt controller. It is now testing the hard disk. It's been running over an hour already and is only 13% done.