computer won't start

I have a Dell Insprion 5160. I boot it up and it gets to the Dell Splash Dell and just keeps on looping over and over again!!! It comes up with the Dell logo and below is the boot progress bar it gets half way then boots over again. I cannot access any of the shortcut keys F12 for Boot Menu F2 for setup F8, F10,DEL,ESC nothing to get me to backdoor. Can anyone help me with this? From the searching I've done I think I might have a MBR virus, but I have no idea how to find that out.

 

Hi, try following the Dell troubleshooting process for this.

EDIT - forget that, I just followed it through, it only checks for power, we know you have some power already ...

 

Does that model have a reset button? The kids in my school district like to "stick" the reset button so the startup splash cycles over and over... Just a thought.

 

No reset button...and I don't have any kids.

 

I have Windows XP SP2. The F8 key does nothing. I've tried CNTL F11 to restore the computer. I've tried F2 and F12. Nothing works. It just ignores it and restarts the Dell splash screen again...and again..

 

My interpretation is that the 5160 does not complete POST.

Usually, if the Dell laptop POST test does not recognise a piece of hardware, it stalls and might take many minutes to throw an error message. This does not appear to be the case.

It feels like a bad power feed, maybe a loose connector.

 

ok..I'll open it up and see what I can find

 

That's what tells me POST is not being completed (see Post 7), the reboot happens when the BIOS is trying to analyse the hardware.

By all means, pull the hard drive and get your data backed up - try starting the laptop without the hard drive - you should get the same reboot loop, proving that the laptop is rebooting before completing the POST.

 

Ok, kacilana, back to the 2nd post here please, that troubleshooting process does take you further than checking for power, follow it carefully through, making notes at each stage.

There is a step there that takes you through testing the POST process

I'm not convinced that the note at the end, esp. the 2nd sentence, makes sense ...

 

Thanks for your help. But now the screen is dead. Nothing at all. I did what the directions said but heard no beeps. Couldn't see anything since the screen was black. I'm giving up on this one. Thanks for your help!