Laptop Can't boot to logon screen

my dell inspiron keeps hanging right after POST when i boot it. It will only boot to desktop after i have left it untouched for at least 10 hours and also done a startup repair. Formatting is not really an option. Please help with any suggestion at all..

 

Hi,

I think a chkdsk might be in order. Go to Computer and right-click the C: drive and select Properties. Under the Tools tab select Error Checking. In the window that opens leave the first box ticked and hit Start. It will schedule for next reboot. Reboot when you have time and after it runs see if any difference. (The chkdsk on takes a few minutes but if no change you will have to wait the normal several hours for the desktop.)

If it made no difference go back and this time tick both boxes and run it again.

You can just skip to ticking both boxes but the second box means a surface scan which will add at least an hour to the chkdsk procedure. Perhaps many hours if there are real problems with the hard drive. I would eventually run it with both boxes since you want to see if in the results it has any files in bad sectors which means your HD is failing.

 

The problem is, i can't even get to desktop now. right after "starting windows" shows, it goes blank and nothing happens again. I was thinking maybe the the boot.ini file of the operating system might have a problem and so might need to be replaced. but i'm not really sure if it is or hw to do that.

 

Which OS is this? How are you doing "Startup Repair"? I think Startup Repair is a function of Vista/win7 and the boot.ini file is only relevant to XP. If the computer gets to starting Windows then the boot.ini or the Vista/Win7 boot manager file is working.

Do you have any Windows disc?

Does hitting F8 at startup give you the list of Safe Mode options and does Safe Mode with Command Prompt work?

 

Thank you all for your concern.

@sach2: I have a windows cd. When i press the f8 key, the options cm up alright. when i choose safe mode, the computer still hangs after it has loaded the drivers.
Just tried again for three times, safe mode with command prompt works now.

@plodr: I tried your method bt it didnot work.