laptop will no boot

[challah]

hello to all
a mate gave me his laptop to try and fix
it will not boot
it starts off telling me that it cannot reconise the battery and press any key to continue then for a minute or so it appears to boot then the blue screen comes up saying
unmountable_boot_volume
stop: 0x000000ed etc
i was hoping to reinstall the os but the cd does not seem to be working either
is there any workaround for this eg connecting the laptop to my computer and reinstalling from there
i would be gratefull for any help
thanks

[Reapers]

Please provide info on laptop type of laptop,os etc.

Someone will have to open the case and check the hard drive.
The connections ide/sata somethink has might have come loose i
think.

if your not comfortable doing it take it to repair shop or technician.

hope it works out fine :)

[dasteph]

hello to all
a mate gave me his laptop to try and fix
it will not boot
it starts off telling me that it cannot reconise the battery and press any key to continue then for a minute or so it appears to boot then the blue screen comes up saying
unmountable_boot_volume
stop: 0x000000ed etc
i was hoping to reinstall the os but the cd does not seem to be working either
is there any workaround for this eg connecting the laptop to my computer and reinstalling from there
i would be gratefull for any help
thanks

read the following it might help.

STOP 0x000000ED UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME Error - MajorGeeks Support Forums (http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=145429)

[challah]

dell inspiron 1501
xp home
thanks for the replies

[challah]

cannot use the fix on majorgeeks as the cd drive does not seem to be working or the system does not reconise it
i tried to change the boot option to cd drive but it wont let me
thanks

[dasteph]

depending on how old the laptop is there might be a recovery partition on the hard drive which you access at boot up by pressing f10 or f11 i can not remember which it is, it is on the screen as soon as the pc starts hope this is of some help.

[challah]

tried f1 to f12 no good
thanks

[dasteph]

as you say your cd/dvd drive does not seem to work and you cannot change boot options in the bios and there is no recovery partition i think its going to cost to repair it.

[ezzda1]

restart your computer when you see the dell screen press CTRL+F11 follow the steps

[challah]

tried 4 or 5 times no good
thanks

[ezzda1]

with most dell laptops, to change the boot order you use the "U" or "D" button to move the higlighted device up or down the list in the bios.
maybe this will help
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/ins1501/en/om_en/html/appendix.htm#wp1055231

[subcriminal]

Try removing the battery and power lead, hold the power button down for 10 seconds or so then refit battery and lead. If it sorts it, make sure you're running the latest BIOS A16 I think.

[challah]

tried that no good
screen says bios revision 2.3.0
i have a nasty feeling my mate may have updated the bios himself and messed it up
i have tried everything suggested by the good people here and no good,i have also downloaded the manual from dell and followed the instructions from there no good,
it makes no sense the options that are are supposed to be available to me are not there
i think this will need something radical
any off the wall ideas are very welcome
thanks

[ezzda1]

remove the battery and plug the charger into the laptop.
can you get into the bios by pressing f2? if yes its not too bad,
can you scroll through the bios pages by pressing alt & P?
if you can its not too bad.
page 2 has the boot options on it, highlight the one you want to boot from and pres U untill it goes to the top.
then save and exit.
if you can get into the bios but nothing in there is sellectable then it is probably a goosed bios.

[georgegt]

ask your mate for bios update first but I have a similar problem with a laptop after a day without bios update he stat but freez on posttest and I open he back panel and ( I was lucky the bios chip have socket ) remove the chip and program with a programmer after that mine work perfectly

[challah]

thanks for the reply
yes i can get into the bios but the only boot option is the hard drive, i tried removing the hard drive and putting a bootable disc in the cd drive but the system does seem to reconise the cd drive even though it feels and sounds like it is working,
with the hard drive removed there is no selectable boot option,
thanks again.

[georgegt]

I can get in to the bios and batery status none and only the hard disk see no cd/dvd changed the device with another laptop and on the other laptop work both work but if I let him to boot freez

[challah]

sorry georgegt i did not see your post
sounds like that could be the answer but i do not have a bios programmer nor do know where to get one
thanks

[georgegt]

first of all is good to ask him if try bis update
possible rong version

[ezzda1]

have you tried another cd drive in it?
or have you tried an external usb dvd drive?
or a usb stick? if you plug a usb device into it then go into the bios, to the boot page, see if theres a boot other device option, or if they even show up in the bios,

[challah]

i was in work today and got a notion let me know what you think
what if i get my hands on another dell laptop and swap bios chips boot up the laptop reverse the switch and download the correct bios, will that work?
thanks

[ezzda1]

you can try but i think you need to boot into dos to update the bios.

[dingo38]

Mobo change..

[fcarocha]

install the operating system