Win 10 Laptop with STOP FAULT

[DavidA]

I have a DELL laptop with Win 10 and never had any trouble with it before now.

I encountered what I believe was called a stop code or stop fault and The PC will not start. I went though most of the options they offer among which was to preserve documents and re-install Windows. Now, when it is started it does get to my desktop but the mouse (trackpad) is only active for about 8 seconds so I simply re-start and repeat. It has done a disk repair. How can I get past this problem and regain my windows fully? I realize I will need to re-install software.

Thank you for any ideas.

[veeg]

Hello

We need the complete spec’s of that Dell.

[DavidA]

Hello

We need the complete spec’s of that Dell.

It is a Latitude E7240. I hope that is what is needed. Thanks

[Bruce]

if it has done a disk repair, it must have found something wrong with the drive, so backing up your files would be the first priority.
if you can get into Windows, copy your Docs, Pics, Vids, Music, Downloads, etc onto another drive.
if you can’t get into Windows, have you tried booting into Safe Mode, or using a USB stick with a Linux distro on it.

on the assumption we are looking at a failing hard drive, and you have important docs, let’s get them squared away first.

[DavidA]

if it has done a disk repair, it must have found something wrong with the drive, so backing up your files would be the first priority.
if you can get into Windows, copy your Docs, Pics, Vids, Music, Downloads, etc onto another drive.
if you can’t get into Windows, have you tried booting into Safe Mode, or using a USB stick with a Linux distro on it.

on the assumption we are looking at a failing hard drive, and you have important docs, let’s get them squared away first.

How do I get to Bios on this machine to tell it to boot from a stick?
Thanks

[Bruce]

each PC is different, but they all use a certain standard group of keys, so as the PC starts to boot, try hitting Del, or F2, or F10 as the usual culprits to get into BIOS.

usually the key to use is displayed briefly as the PC first starts - like “Press F2 to enter setup”.

I’ve also seen PC’s require Tab, or Esc.

[phillpower2]

It is a Latitude E7240.

Use the one time boot option " how to " here

[DavidA]

each PC is different, but they all use a certain standard group of keys, so as the PC starts to boot, try hitting Del, or F2, or F10 as the usual culprits to get into BIOS.

usually the key to use is displayed briefly as the PC first starts - like “Press F2 to enter setup”.

I’ve also seen PC’s require Tab, or Esc.

No important files that need to be saved. Just want to have a working computer primarily for email and chrome.

[Bruce]

if you can get to the desktop stage and only the trackpad is causing grief, have you tried connecting an external USB mouse to the laptop?

[DavidA]

if you can get to the desktop stage and only the trackpad is causing grief, have you tried connecting an external USB mouse to the laptop?

Yes, I have and that fails to move anything also. Thanks for the suggestion.

Dave

[Bruce]

since it has no data you wish to keep, and your previous process of reinstalling Windows may have been a reset keeping your data and settings, let’s go for as complete clean install.

on a PC that works (of course) use Windows Media Creation Tool and use it to make a bootable USB stick with the latest Win10 build.
then plug that into this laptop, and check the boot order is USB first.
reload Windows, with he laptop disconnected from the internet, and don’t load anything else.
now try to boot and see if the trackpad works.

did you try booting the laptop into Safe Mode first, just in case you get lucky!

[DavidA]

since it has no data you wish to keep, and your previous process of reinstalling Windows may have been a reset keeping your data and settings, let’s go for as complete clean install.

on a PC that works (of course) use Windows Media Creation Tool and use it to make a bootable USB stick with the latest Win10 build.
then plug that into this laptop, and check the boot order is USB first.
reload Windows, with he laptop disconnected from the internet, and don’t load anything else.
now try to boot and see if the trackpad works.

did you try booting the laptop into Safe Mode first, just in case you get lucky!

I did try Safe Mode, with no success. I was not aware that one can make a bootable stick this way. If it boots from the stick, is there a way to get Windows re-installed on the laptop since the one that is there now may be damaged?

Thanks for your help, Bruce.

[Bruce]

so that process will create a bootable USB with the installation files to reload Windows.
not to be confused with having Windows boot from a USB stick.

the process of doing the reload this way is it allows the current partitions to be deleted and a complete clean install of Windows done.
since we are maybe looking at a faulty hard drive, this process will also stress test the drive, if Windows reloads without error, we can maybe have a bit of faith in the drive.

[DavidA]

so that process will create a bootable USB with the installation files to reload Windows.
not to be confused with having Windows boot from a USB stick.

the process of doing the reload this way is it allows the current partitions to be deleted and a complete clean install of Windows done.
since we are maybe looking at a faulty hard drive, this process will also stress test the drive, if Windows reloads without error, we can maybe have a bit of faith in the drive.

Many thanks again, Bruce. I am hoping this will get me to a solution.

Dave

[Bruce]

well… a solution yes, but maybe not the one you were after.
let’s see what the outcome is.

keep us in the loop!