Hey everyone,
I need some advice on an issue I'm having with my old Dell laptop that's over 10 years old. It's been progressively getting worse—first, the touchpad stopped working, then the keyboard failed, and now it takes more than 10 minutes to boot up. Recently, I can't even get it to load Windows 10; it keeps getting stuck in a boot loop after the Dell logo.
Despite trying to boot it multiple times and leaving it on for hours, it won't start up properly anymore. I've looked online for solutions, and most suggest entering recovery mode, but I can't seem to access it at all. I've attempted to force the recovery mode by turning it off during startup but to no avail. When I get the blue screen of death, I see options like 'start in safe mode,' but none of those work.
I also created a bootable USB device with Windows on it, but when I try to boot from it, it just leads me back to that annoying loop again. I'm really stuck here and would appreciate any help!
1 Answer
It sounds like a rough situation with that old laptop! First off, if you can get into Windows at all or even into Safe Mode, try checking the C:WindowsMinidump folder for any crash dump files. Those files can really help diagnose the BSoD issue. You can zip them up and upload them to a file-sharing site like MediaFire.
If you can't access Windows, maybe focus on getting a bootable USB with some hardware diagnostic tools instead. That might help you figure out if there's a bigger issue at play here.
I can't get into Windows or Safe Mode, so that part's tough. Any other ideas?