Vista Business Crashed, And Won't Reboot, Help Please.

Dell Latitude E5500 computer running Vista Business. The computer froze, and task manager wasn't working, so I removed the battery as a last attempt. Unfortunately the computer wont reboot now. It tries to open windows but fails. Any hepl would be appreciated. I have a valid windows product code, but don't have the disc. We bought the laptop last year and it has worked well until now. I tried hitting f12 during startup for more options, and tried to boot in safe mode, and that didn't work either. Thanks, Ed

 

Was the Vista Business version on the laptop computer when you bought it?

Which battery did you remove — CMOS?

You should hit F2 for Setup (and not F12) and you can change Boot Order (if that's what you were trying to do).

From the computer you're posting with, go to the Dell Support site and enter your Service Tag number from the E5500 (7 letters — All Caps/numbers). Then go to Drivers and Downloads -> Software and see if you can download an ISO image of the Vista OS then burn it to DVD. It may not have one but, you can at least check.

Dells are persnickety when it comes to OEM OSes so, if you were to purchase one (from say, ebay) it might not work.

Also, Microsoft support for Windows Vista ended on 4/11/17 and there are several programs and browsers that will no longer work in Vista.

I have a Latitude E6400 myself that originally came with Vista Business x86. I ditched Vista altogether and installed Windows 8.1 which runs great on it. You may be able to do the same.

 

Thanks for the help.

Yes, Vista Business was on it when we bought it.

F12 works, I can change the boot order from there. Right now it's -Diskette Drive, -Internal HDD, -USB Storage, and -CD/DVD.................should I try a different order?

I checked Dell Support, and didn't see an ISO image of Vista.

I was thinking of trying one from ebay. Does it matter if it's 32 or 64 bit? I'm guessing mine is 32 bit from 2009, with 2 gb of ram, but not sure. Is there any way to tell?

 

Check if Last Known Good Configuration (advanced) works - first screenshot.

 

Thanks....I've tried them all.

 

Will a restore/reinstall disk/stick something like this work? I think I have a valid product key.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/181900264239?ul_noapp=true

 

You've got the COA sticker, so it's a valid OEM Product Key.

That re-install/repair DVD might work to repair your Windows installation but, I'd hate to have you spend money on something that MIGHT not work. As I said, Dells are persnickety and you'd still be running a, now, dead OS.

Yes, it does matter. With only 2 GB of RAM, you're definitely running 32-bit.

 

Thanks for the help all. I was able to contact the person I bought it from, and he's copying the Vista disks and sending them to me. Hopefully they will work. Only spent $50 on the computer, so it's no big loss, but I'd like to fix it, since it's (was) a nice working computer.

 

Further to your question...I would like to know whether your Dell Latitude E5500 is Windows 10 compatible.
I know it would need an extra 2GB ram. Perhaps an even a SSD?
Having just upgraded my partner's HP Compaq 6910p to Creators update version Win 10 pro.
HP only offer updates up to Vista for it but it's happy as Larry on Windows 10 pro.

It thought I would throw that out to you because you are going to spend time on the machine. Getting Vista backup and running.

Good luck ,

s.

 

Of course you would have to boot from something like Hierens Boot CD. Boot into the XP program and open a browser.

s.

 

Why would he need to do that? He's getting the Vista Disk from the person who sold him the laptop.

 

You are quite right. I do think that it is a little imprudent for me to make the above comments.
That the path for solution to the original posting had been found. Cannot be denied.

My interruption would probably need some additional hardware; external dive.
A great deal of time and energy.
I thought it worth mentioning.
s.

 

Thanks again. I will say that if I can get this running again, the first thing I will do is look into the max ram it'll take. I'm guessing it might upgrade from 2 to 4 GB.

 

As plodr says, 4 GB max. You could purchase 2 x 2 GB modules from Dell or run Crucial Scan and get a lower price on completely compatible modules.

 

I got the disks, and installed Windows Vista and the drivers. Everything went smooth. Had a hard time downloading Chrome and Firefox though, but got them via Safari. The search engines work great, but the web pages are slow to load, and watching a youtube video is tough. Not to side track the thread, but I could use a suggestion to possibly fix this. It wasn't this slow before. Thanks, Ed

Mod. please let me know if a new thread is necessary.