Computer will not start up.

computer wont boot up, tried to start in safe mode, however it freezes half way through and says "please wait." it appears to start loading but stops on the same thing each time. after two minutes it comes up with windows error recovery and offers you launch start up repair or start windows normally. either option black screen with mouse icon. any assistance will be much appreciated.

Hi Ginkara, sorry to hear about the issues you are experiencing, 1 Please asdvise us the make and model number of your computer 2 Your profile is showing that you are running Windows XP but the screens you are seeing are indicating that you may have Win 7 installed… please advise. 3 Have you made a disc image? 4 Do you have a Win XP installation disc? 5 If running Win 7 did you make a repair disc? 6 Do you have installation media ( discs) if Win 7 or do you have a recovery partition? 7 Have you a complete and up to date, comprehensive and easily reproducible back up of everything that is important to you on your computer? 8 When trying to boot, have you disconnected all peripherals (removed the battery if a laptop) emptied the CD/DVD tray, removed any USB memory sticks or devices including printers scanners etc. and have you tried with Ethernet cable removed. Post back with the details and we will do our best to help Regards paws

Hi Paws, Sorry I should have updated my profile, its a Toshiba Laptop - Satellite running Windows 7, no installation disks or other disks, was purchased pre installed. Was working fine, I shut it down then later in the day tried to start up and wouldnt boot up. There is nothing important on there, kids use it for games Have disconnected all items & checked tray Any ideas would be appreciated Thanks

Hi ginkara OK I understand I need the exact make and model number of your Toshiba please (there are many different Satellites in circulation) Regards paws

Toshiba Satellite A660

Hi Ginkara, That's better information, but I still need to know the exact the model number…. there are a number of different versions of the A660
Regards
paws

Hi, i dont know where to find the exact model number, but the part number is PSAW3A-15J06T Hope this helped! Ginkara

Here is a link to the Toshiba site for that model: PSAW3A-15J06T - Toshiba Satellite A660/15J Computer

Download page: Australia - Satellite A660/15J

Also: How do I run a System Recovery?

Hi, yes it is that computer, but i do not have a recovery disk and i tried the recovery from hard drive but the machine doesnt "beep" when i hold down the "0" key. Also when i hold the "0" key windows boot manager comes up, not windows recovery. Thanks

Sounds like it's not recognizing the keyboard or at least the 0 (zero) key. The beep should be generated by the hardware when the keyboard buffee gets full which should happen when you hold down the 0 key.

Its recognizes the keyboard because the "enter" key and "F8" works because we have tried to put the machine into safe mode.

Then you may not have a recovery partition, sorry. I was hoping that would work for you.

You can download a legal copy of Windows 7 here: 2.1 Microsoft Windows 7 Official .iso Download Links (Digital River)

Get the same one that is currently installed.

Boot the install DVD once you have created it, select Rapair your computer when allowed then Command Prompt.
Enter the following commands and post the results here please.

diskpart
list volume

On my system (3 drives, 6 partitions) the output looks like this:

>diskpart

Microsoft DiskPart version 6.1.7601
Copyright © 1999-2008 Microsoft Corporation.
On computer: DESKTOP

DISKPART> list volume

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
———- — ———– —– ———- ——- ——— ——–
Volume 0 L DVD-ROM 0 B No Media
Volume 1 D D370_D NTFS Partition 78 GB Healthy System
Volume 2 E D370_E NTFS Partition 191 GB Healthy
Volume 3 F D370_F NTFS Partition 9 GB Healthy
Volume 4 C Win_7 NTFS Partition 119 GB Healthy Boot
Volume 5 G D370_G NTFS Partition 698 GB Healthy
Volume 6 H D370_H NTFS Partition 542 GB Healthy
Volume 7 I Win_8 NTFS Partition 78 GB Healthy
Volume 8 K Removable 0 B No Media

You can use a digital camera to take a picture if you want then post it. This will tell us for sure whether you have a recovery partition or not. If not you can use the DVD you created to do a Clean Install and start over again.

Might want to wait and see what Paws has to say about this as well. I think he's leaning toward you gett9ing a Recovery Disc from the manufacturer.

Might want to wait and see what Paws has to say about this as well. I think he's leaning toward you getting a Recovery Disc from the manufacturer.

Rich, you are a mind reader!

However your own approach of downloading the Win installation disc and using the product serial key on the COA (if a clean install is needed) sounds like an even better way forward…