Dell Win 8 - can't get pass "Repair" screen?

Working on a Dell PC for a friend. Windows 8 Pro CD (from Dell).
Updated from win 7 to 8 previously.

Power on, get to Dell Logo then then i get the repair screen.

BIOS (or whatever passes for BIOS in win8) has no options to change first boot device or much of anything else either, its mostly greyed out.

Cannot get passed this screen no matter what i try.
a. wont boot from win 8 pro cd.
b. wont boot from win 7 usb.
c. wont boot up spotmau (i know but trying anything for a valid response).
d. wont run spinright.

Any suggestions will be welcomed, help.

 

Does he have the 7 DVD/CD? Maybe try that.

 

Hi Cliff, what model Dell is it? What keys activate BIOS? Is it F2?
Found this which appears to be the problem you described:http://forums.techguy.org/windows-xp/883387-dell-inspiron-530-stuck-dell.html
Maybe worth a try. Neil.

 

Dell Support enter the Service Tag

 

Neil,

i saw that site when searching for a solution. I did pull the battery and waited
for a few minutes (didn't try overnight tho).
I'll try and swap the HD and mem replacement next.

Only BIOS key available is Control+I, it works but i can only have access to the
RAID settings using it. This is not a RAID system so going through the BIOS
is useless. win 8 uses UEFI instead of BIOS.

Ij50, cannot get to a screen that will allow me to enter the dell service tag.

Mr Bill, he has win 7 on a USB stick and win 8 pro on a cd. Again, no effect
when trying to boot from either one.

I will update this after HD/mem swap.


Thanks for the feedback,

 

Do you have access to another computer to run the service tag. You may be able to pull up the service manual for that particular Dell model. I know someone who owns a Dell with Win 8.1. He booted it up and it went straight to the repair screen. So he performed the repair and as far as I know he hasn't had the problem since.

 

lj50,

I will try that tomorrow.

thanks,

 

You're welcome.

 

OK, on aboutteck.com i found a "shift - F11" that did get me to the normal boot options (F12) after several attempts.

From there i could boot to the cd and do a repair (still running).
Seems like i'm out of the woods now.

Will post the results here when it finishes.


thanks,

 

It takes awhile to run. My friend's took 4 hours. You'll just need to let it go until it finishes.

 

Got it!

2 hours and working.

Has a 1-t hd

 

That's what my friend had 1TB.

 

No goog!

Finished in under 3 hours, rebooted, and back to same repair screen.

Will replace HD tomorrow.....


thanks,

 

You're welcome.

 

Update!

HD checked out ok.

Solution??: Finally got to a system setup (BIOS) screen.
His sys date was set for 4/17/2012 for 1 thing.
Reset UEFI back to Legacy and was able to install win 7, sp1 so he is happy.

His HD is 2.2 Terrabytes.

Prob with win 8 (i think) is the HD format MBR vs GPT. There was 4 partitions
on the HD (OEM reserved, Recovery, Primary and unallocated. I'm assuming
MBR format. He had bounced from Win 7 to win 8 then back to win 7 and
then to win 8.1 where it eventually crashed, reason unknown.

Whatever the problem was, he is happy with win 7. Stated he didn't
like win 8 anyway.

thanks for all the help,

will flag as solved but it really isn't.....

 

Thanks for the update.