A few days ago, I updated my Dell Inspiron 13 to Windows 11, and since then, my laptop has been freezing approximately every six minutes after booting up, regardless of whether I'm on the lock screen, desktop, or using applications. The only way I could get it to respond again was to hard reset it using the power button. I attempted to restart the graphics drivers using a keyboard shortcut, but that didn't help when the laptop froze. Eventually, I tried to reset the laptop through the Windows settings to reimage it, but it also froze during the 'preparing to reset' stage. Now, my laptop won't boot at all. When I press the power button, the keyboard backlight turns on and off, but holding down the power button doesn't do anything beyond that. I have a USB boot drive plugged in, and I even tried unplugging the battery, but none of that has worked. I'm looking for insights on what might be causing these issues. Any help would be appreciated!
2 Answers
It sounds like your initial issue may have stemmed from the update, and the current booting problem is likely due to an unsuccessful restore or refresh process. I recommend trying to boot from that USB drive and perform a clean installation of Windows. Just make sure to back up any important data first, perhaps using a live OS if you can access your files.
Before going for a complete reinstall, double-check your BIOS settings. Sometimes changing settings can prevent the system from booting properly. If you're not familiar with BIOS, I suggest looking up a guide or getting someone to help you out. Also, make sure the USB drive is properly set up for booting.
Unfortunately, it seems like your laptop can't even boot from the USB at this point. When I pressed the power button, the same thing happened with just the keyboard backlight toggling. If unplugging the battery didn’t help, it could be a hardware issue.