Resolved Dell Inspiron Does Not Boot - Redux

About 3 months ago I created the thread "Dell Inspiron Does Not Boot". With a lot of help from this Board I was finally able to reinstall Windows 10 and get it going again. Resolved - Dell Inspiron Does Not Boot
It has worked fine until a couple of days ago. Unit wouldn't boot and displayed this message:

"dwm.exe - System Warning
Windows discovered a corruption in the file C:\Windows\System32\en-US\dwm.exe.mui. This file has now been repaired. Please check if any data in the file was lost because of corruption".

Today it still will not boot. Now the Dell Support Assistant engages:

"Support Assistant is running a system scan to detect any potential problems
Hardware scan is complete with no issues"
Then we get a blue screen that says "Your device ran into a problem and needs to restart. We're just collecting some error info and then we'll restart for you." It then directs us to www.windows.com/stopcode. At the bottom - Stop code CRITICAL PROCESS DIED".

While working the previous problem, Steve Jones posted this:
"The trick to getting files off a drive is to NOT USE the drive.
I think I'd beat it up for a few days and run Drive Diagnostics on it before putting to much work into it.... Something caused this issue."

My question - Is it time to put this 6 year old computer to bed and start with a new one?

 

Evan,
My friends bought a new Lenovo yesterday so I will have some time to work with the unit that quit. They don't have any paperwork for the nonworking laptop. The Dell Assistant scan screen had the Model (Inspiron 5567) and Tag Number. I looked at the Dell website and the specs that showed up for the Tag Number but I couldn't come up with any specifics that I recalled. I think it is a hard drive vice SSD and has 4GB memory. The Intel sticker on the front says i5 seventh gen.

I can't find the W10 flash drive that I used to reinstall so I will need to create a new one. I'll be working on that.

 

Got the W10 boot flash created. Not sure I recall how to change boot order.

 

Evan,
I took the hard drive out to see if I could recover the files and was successful using a Manhattan QuickDock. The hard drive is not SSD. While I was there, I checked and the memory is 8GB - not 4.

I'm still having problems trying to boot. I have the W10 boot flash drive inserted but it still boots and aborts as described above.

I have tried powering the laptop off during the Dell load circle several times to see if I can get it to give me the "Automatic Repair" screen but the Dell Support Assist app pops in and starts the cycle all over again.

If I press "F2", I get settings. One of the settings is "Boot Sequence" but it won't allow a change. It shows UEFI, which is apparently the default, and Legacy. I can't make any chages at that screen. Any suggestions?

 

I finally got the unit to boot to a W10 Install DVD. I was given 2 options:

1-Upgrade - Install Windows and keep files, settings, ........ Only available when a supported version of Windows is running. When I try to use this option I get a message that Upgrade isn't available using Windows install media.

2-Custom - Install Windows Only. When asked where to install, I get these options:
Drive 0 Partiton 1 System
Drive 0 Partition 2 MSR Reserved
Drive 0 Partition 3 OS Primary
Drive 0 Partition 4 Recovery
Drive 0 Partition 5 Recovery
No matter which partition I select, I get a warning below that says Windows can't be installed. When I go to details I get the following message:
The selected disk is of the GPT partition style.
Windows cannot be installed to this hard disk space. The partition is an EFI system partition (ESP)

I have obviously done something wrong. When I created the Windows Install media, I selected 64 bit rather than 32. Could that be the problem?

 

Hi Robert, You probably know this -- but if it helps explain things:
MBR vs GPT: what's the difference? A MBR disk can be basic or dynamic, just like an GPT disk can be basic or dynamic. Compared with MBR disk, a GPT disk performs better in the following aspects: ▶GPT supports disks larger than 2 TB in size while MBR cannot.


Can I install Windows on GPT partition?
Normally, as long as your computer motherboard and bootloader support UEFI boot mode, you can directly install Windows 10 on GPT. If the setup program says that you cannot install Windows 10 on the disk because the disk is in GPT format, it is because you have UEFI disabled.

 

rl - thanks for the input. No - I didn't know the difference between MBR and GPT. Did some searching and I think I have a bit of an idea. You are correct - I had disabled UEFI as that was the only way I could change the boot order to boot from the DVD drive. I enabled UEFI and when I try to boot now, I get a message from Dell Assistant that had a code for me to scan with my phone which took be to Dell website. Then got message -

Critical issue found. Hard Drive - self test unsuccessful, terminated:
Recommended action - Replace Hard Drive.

So I think I have reached the end of my rope here. I think I'll nuke the hard drive and then it's off to Staples or Best Buy for recycle.

Thanks for the help.

 

[So I think I have reached the end of my rope here. I think I'll nuke the hard drive and then it's off to Staples or Best Buy for recycle.]

SSD I hope?

 

For sure.

 

Usually it's best to use a new (newer) HDD to rule out a dodgy drive being the cause

 

Another lesson learned for me.