Blue screen When i start up my laptop it goes to black screen with text saying windows did not start sucessfully saying a recent hardware or sofware change may have caused this.There is more text and menu but whatever i select if just goes to a blue screen with text on and i cannot go any further.I have not done anything different other than switching it on?

From what i see in your specs the Dell Inspiron 1420 came with Win Vista. I assume you have upgraded, Did you check Win 8 compatibility with your hardware? You may have exceeded the hardware components limitations. Therefore it will not run Win 8 with much sucess, and will continue to crash, Check here: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/system-requirements. That said, I would use win 7 at the most.

Go to the safe mode option then once there go to start-run-then type in MSCONFIG then go to system recovery then go to recovery for an earlier time. This will reset your Windows to an earlier time you may be able to salvage it without having to re-install the operating system. F8 also will bring you to "Safe Mode" if not do it through the Dos command screen. If this does not work then you might consider re-installing Windows again. John

Start the system with safe mode and uninstalled the recent hardware drivers may solve your problem.

Revert back for more assistance.

Try start, run, then type MSCONFIG go to start tab and UNcheck everything, then go to services and at the lower left of the window it says hide microsoft services and check the box then disable all then restart and see if that helps.

go onto the bios after pressing f2 and look through the options and tabs and tick or change whichever option is about the setup or start up

You can try to select safe mode and do a system restore (Start-all programs-accessories-system tools-system restore) choosing the date when your laptop was working properly. If you are using Vista, you would see if you had a Windows Update or other such software changes. It is like undoing that but there would be no changes with your personal data. If your laptop works faster after that, please do not have the same software or update again. Hope this helps. Thank you.

you want to time in the number corresponding to start windows normally and press enter.

Hi,
Your memory is broken it's need to be replaced!

try to boot in safe mode, if you can then from there try to remove the latest software or hardware you install.
if you are unable to boot in safe mode, then try to repair or reinstall the os.
plz post your findings

You should go into the safe mode and try to uninstall or undo the previous work. Else use the system restore. But if it continues again with a blue screen error, then u should format ur pc, further if u experience blue screen error then u should note that one of ur hardware is damaged.

Thankyou...!!!