How do I get to the Command prompt on the dell

all these symptoms can be from ram stick fault, graphic card or graphic section of the mother board or a failing hard drive
you will probably have to have it properly diagnosed by a computer repair shop to find out exactly the failing component

First of all have you made any hardware additions or changes? memory, hard drives new printer? If so un-do what you did!

Next can you get into the machine in safe mode by pressing F8 before the windows logo appears? and then choosing safe mode? If you can check the event log by right clicking my computer, choosing manage and viewing the system and application logs for any recent errors.

I have also seen this problem caused by your only hard drive not connected as a master and configured as a slave.

When did the problems start occuring? Have you done any software updates? If you can get into safemode you can do a windows system restore. If it fails you can attempt to do a system restore from the command prompt in safemode by following these directions:

Drop to a command prompt by doing a run (Windows Key - R)
Type CMD to get your command prompt.
Get to c:\windows\system32\restore anyway you like
and finally launch RSTRUI.exe and you should get the System Restore Wizard

If this is a corruption it may be fixable, again this depends upon your version of windows, however please be aware this may be a corrupt hard drive so you may need to replace this and reinstall.

Try this first

1. Start your computer by inserting the Windows startup disks or the Windows installation disk if your computer can start from the CD drive.
2. When the Welcome to Setup screen appears, press R to select the repair option.
3. If you have a dual-boot or multiple-boot computer, select the Windows installation that you want to access from the Recovery Console.
4. Type the administrator password when you are prompted to do this.
   
   Note If no administrator password exists, press ENTER.
5. At the command prompt, on the drive where Windows is installed, type chkdsk /r, and then press ENTER.
6. At the command prompt, type exit, and then press ENTER to restart your computer.
7. After you repair the volume, check your hardware to isolate the cause of the file system damage.

1. Check your BIOS to be sure your computer will boot from a CD. Enter the BIOS setup by pressing the "Delete" or F2 or "F12" key, or as directed at the startup screen, immediately after booting. Set the first boot device to "CDROM" or "DVDROM" instead of "hard drive" if it isn't already.

2. MS-DOS command prompt

Insert the Windows XP installation CD into your CD or DVD drive and restart the computer. When prompted, choose to start from the MS-DOS command prompt with CD support. The MS-DOS command prompt will appear in a moment.

3. Start SMARTDRIVE by typing "SMARTDRV" at the DOS prompt and pressing enter. You don't have to run SMARTDRIVE, but copying the files will be much quicker if you do. The computer will display the DOS prompt again.

4. Enter "CD I386" at the DOS prompt to change to the directory where the setup program starts.

5. Enter "WINNT" at the prompt to start Windows XP setup. The installation program will copy files to your computer and then display a message requesting to reboot.

6. Press the "Enter" key to reboot. The setup program will start again and check that your hard drive format is compatible with Windows XP. If not, it will guide you through partitioning and formatting the drive and then ask you to reboot once more.

7. Press "Enter" to reboot. The computer will restart in Windows XP mode and automatically start the Windows Setup Wizard to detect your hardware and finish the installation.

If you are running Windows XP, the boot to the XP CD, press R when prompted to access the Recovery Console, then run the command CHKDSK /R at the C:\windows\system32\ prompt
If you get indications of recovering lost allocation units, then the disk surface of the HDD is likely bad and the HDD will need to be replaced.
If running Windows Vista or Windows 7, boot to the Windows DVD and select REPAIR MY COMPUTER

1.Insert the Windows XP CD-ROM into the CD drive, and then restart the computer.
2.Click to select any options that are required to start the computer from the CD drive if you are prompted.
3.When the "Welcome to Setup" screen appears, press R to start the Recovery Console.
4.Press 1 (One) to select windows XP and then hit enter.
5.When you are prompted, type the Administrator password. If the administrator password is blank, just press ENTER.
6.At the command prompt, Type Bootrec /RebuildBcd and then press ENTER.
7.If the Bootrec.exe tool runs successfully, it presents you with an installation path of a Windows directory. To add the entry to the BCD store, type yes. A confirmation message appears that indicates the entry was added successfully. 8.If the Bootrec.exe tool cannot locate any missing Windows installations, you must remove the BCD store, and then you must re-create it. To do this, type the following commands in the order in which they are presented. Press ENTER after each command.
Bcdedit /export C:\BCD_Backup

ren c:\boot\bcd bcd.old

Bootrec /rebuildbcd

1.Restart the computer

1.Insert the Windows XP CD-ROM into the CD drive, and then restart the computer.
2.Click to select any options that are required to start the computer from the CD drive if you are prompted.
3.When the "Welcome to Setup" screen appears, press R to start the Recovery Console.
4.Press 1 (One) to select windows XP and then hit enter.
5.When you are prompted, type the Administrator password. If the administrator password is blank, just press ENTER.
6.At the command prompt, Type
compact /U C:\bootmgr
compact /U C:\ntldr

Other than re-installing windows completely, which would destroy any data saved on your hard drive, the only other method I can think of is:-

1) Switch you PC on, as its booting, press the F8 key repeatedly until you get a screen similar to or the same as that you're already getting and select "Start in safe mode".

2) With luck, the pc will start with a stripped out version of windows. Click on Start - All programmes - Accessories - System (Tools) I think - System restore - Restore to an earlier date. Then choose a date prior to that of your problems. With luck the laptop will go through a restore process.

Could also be a hard drive issue. Try going to the BIOS and look for the Drive category. Look for SATA Operations and change it to ATA. Save the changes, then exit the BIOS,

Running the Dell diagnostics on the hard drive wll also be a good idea. Turn off the system and then hold down the FN key, then press the power button. This should start the computer and initiate the diagnostics test which should check the hard disk and memory for errors.

Dear Sir:
This could be due to bad hard drive or file system damage if the below steps doesn't work please contact the dell support for hard drive replacement if you computer is in warranty.

If this is the case, restart the computer to the Recovery Console, and then use the chkdsk /r command to repair the volume. After you repair the volume, check your hardware to isolate the cause of the file system damage.

To do this, follow these steps:
1. Start your computer by using the Windows startup disks, or with the Windows installation disk if your computer can start from the CD drive. 2. When the Welcome to Setup screen appears, press R to select the repair option. 3. If you have a dual-boot or multiple-boot computer, select the Windows installation that you want to access from the Recovery Console. 4. Type the administrator password when you are prompted to do this.

Note If no administrator password exists, press ENTER. 5. At the command prompt, on the drive where Windows is installed, type chkdsk /r, and then press ENTER. 6. At the command prompt, type exit, and then press ENTER to restart your computer. If this procedure does not work, repeat it and use the fixboot command in step 5 instead of the chkdsk /r command.


Let me know if you need any further assistance and if you have a moment to accept and rate the solution I would greatly appreciate it.
Thanks,

Mohammed.