Windows Vista Startup Problem

Operating system

I tried again to install the os on the new hard drive but the installation stalls at the fifth step just as before. It looks like it's about 75%done when everything stops.
I can't seem to get any further.

 

I just need to confirm a couple of things.

Are you presented with the message "Press any key to boot from CD" when you boot from the OS disc?

When the installation stalls what do you see on screen, is there any error message or is it just blank with a cursor as before?

During the early part of the attempted installation did you get a screen that asked about formatting the drive and where you wanted the installation to go?

All the normal resolves are hitting a brick wall but I still have a few ideas left. I am still thinking about the memory, is there any chance that you might have access to another similar laptop that you could try out the memory in and run the test. Could you try running on one at a time again and then repeat the OS install.

Just before the original failure occured did you notice if the date and time had changed from what it should be?

The only other thing that I can think of is to try and flash the bios. It is possible for the bios to get infected with a virus so I will be looking for a way to deal with this possibility. After that I may have to conclude that the motherboard or your CPU have faults. Motherboard faults could have created the illusion that the hard drive and CD/DVD drive had faults.

 

OS install

When I start the install, I use f12 to boot from the cd. Everything seems normal. I'm prompted for the partition where the program is to go. I did not partition the drive just told it to install. It goes through each of the first four steps, restarts and then gets to finalizing installation where it just stops. The arrow/cursor still moves around but nothing further happens. I let it run for over 30 minutes with no change.
I have a spare memory which I can swap around with the existing ones to see if that makes a difference.
My wife uses this computer but she didn't mention having any problem with the time or date. (I'm not sure she would have noticed). She first told me she was having problems getting the machine to shut down without using the power button then one day she couldn't get vista to start.
I'll try swapping out the old memories one at a time to see if there are any changes.
I'll let you know.

 

Memory swap

I tried swapping out each memory with a new one but the same result. The machine will not complete either the memory test or the vista install.

 

They don't make it easy, the Dell guide has no instruction to install the bios without getting into windows first. But I did find this.

This is where you can get the bios from.

http://support.dell.com/support/dow...stemID=VOS_N_1700&os=WLH&osl=en&catid=&impid=

And this guide will show you how to make a bootable CD to install it.

http://www.biosflash.com/e/bios-boot-cd.htm

Its complicated and the bios only seems to be available as a .exe file which is self installing, so I can't guarantee that the above guide will work. Unfortunately I am completely out of ideas now.

Maybe other members might have something to suggest.