Hello, i am looking at dell laptop that is couple of years old and has been left in cupboard since new. The reason for this is it failed to complete the initial install and setup, repair setup also failed.
They did not send it back to dell, not sure why, but now would like to get it up and running.
I tried booting, but would always fail. Tried safe boot and it would load splash screen with cursor and that was all.
As it was first install i decided to nuke current install and use Dell install disk to reinstall win7.
When installing i formatted the win7 partition. Installation seemed to go ok until it got to final setup, user themes, desktop etc. Then it kept failing with 'registry service error'
The way the system is behaving, gives me gut feeling it is hard drive related.
Dell utility boots and test reports all ok.
I used a linux livecd to boot system and check drive Smart info, it is reported as healthy drive. It runs short test fine, but get to about 90% of extended and goes not further. Note this takes hours (6+) to get there.
If put the drive in desktop and run extended smart test it finishes ok.
Now what i do see in the smart info is very high
UDMA CRC errors 1996523
Write error rate 1335824
After smart test on desktop these rates had increased to even more.
When tried to install Win7 on this drive using desktop, the install also failed with similar issues to laptop.
I have feeling that mechanical the drive is ok, but the electronics are not working which why getting errors and install fails as data is corrupted!
Does this sound plausible?
Will dig out my spinrite disk and try testing with that.
cheers
They did not send it back to dell, not sure why, but now would like to get it up and running.
I tried booting, but would always fail. Tried safe boot and it would load splash screen with cursor and that was all.
As it was first install i decided to nuke current install and use Dell install disk to reinstall win7.
When installing i formatted the win7 partition. Installation seemed to go ok until it got to final setup, user themes, desktop etc. Then it kept failing with 'registry service error'
The way the system is behaving, gives me gut feeling it is hard drive related.
Dell utility boots and test reports all ok.
I used a linux livecd to boot system and check drive Smart info, it is reported as healthy drive. It runs short test fine, but get to about 90% of extended and goes not further. Note this takes hours (6+) to get there.
If put the drive in desktop and run extended smart test it finishes ok.
Now what i do see in the smart info is very high
UDMA CRC errors 1996523
Write error rate 1335824
After smart test on desktop these rates had increased to even more.
When tried to install Win7 on this drive using desktop, the install also failed with similar issues to laptop.
I have feeling that mechanical the drive is ok, but the electronics are not working which why getting errors and install fails as data is corrupted!
Does this sound plausible?
Will dig out my spinrite disk and try testing with that.
cheers