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61098
November 2nd, 2011 10:00
Cannot boot from USB or CD/DVD
Dell Vostro 3700 (i3)
Made a bootable Win7 USB key using WinToFlash. When i try to boot the key, the screen stays black with a blinking cursor (at the point where it is supposed to tell me to "press any key to boot from usb"). Boot priority was set to USB key on BOTH the f2 and f12 menus. Did a BIOS update (A07->A10). Same result. So then I thought this could be my USB stick related issue or the USB ports in general, so I get a win7 dvd... same disappointing reult; black screen, blinking cursor. An agonizing amount of tries later i gave up on this method and decided to try something completely new. So i get PloP boot manager. I try to boot via PloP and the result is very confusing--- it tells me that EHCI, UHCI, and OHCI drivers are removed (or disabled, i cant remember).
My mind is blank. I love this laptop but this issue is killing me.
Anyone with a possible solution please respond. :/
P.S. dont tell me to bring it to my local reseller or dell shop, because i need the laptop for college.
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linmar22
4 Posts
1
November 15th, 2011 05:00
Problem solved! It turns out it WAS the USB stick. For some reason my bootable USB stick was not bootable afterall, which is weird, considering it worked on several other computers. My programming teacher tried his USB stick and it worked perfectly. This still, however, doesn't answer the CD/DVD issue.
linmar22
4 Posts
0
November 2nd, 2011 10:00
Oh and the same USB stick worked on two other laptops (HP)
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November 3rd, 2011 07:00
It is strange that neither boot from USB nor boot from Cdrom would work-that almost sounds like a mainboard problem.
What happens to the USB boot behaviour if you try removing the DVD drive,then the hard drive?Do it only if you have easy access to it - don't really believe that it will fix the problem.
Another "crazy" idea would be to remove one memory module(if you have two) - sounds laughable but there are laptops on the Dell market that can't be updated with the latest BIOS version because of too much memory installed.....
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PloP wasn't a bad idea.I use it on an older system without Boot support from USB.Works fine but seeing your problem I tested PloP on my inspiron 545(which perfectly boots from USB on its own).I used the option to install PloP without HDD installation.However choosing PloP from the Boot menu and then choosing to boot from USB my USBstick wouldn't boot anymore:blank screen,blinking cursor....might be a problem with PloP itself (or in combination with Dell's laptop)
linmar22
4 Posts
0
November 11th, 2011 03:00
Well the problem was there before i tried PloP. So PloP isn't the problem here. I wish I could unscrew the darn thing but that would probably render the warranty void. I've heard an idea that the currently installed version of Win7 could have corrupted the BIOS somehow (Sounds like pure BS to me). But taking into account that I updated the BIOS, that would probably eliminate that idea. Removing a memory module to see if theres too much of it for the new version of BIOS is probably a bad idea too, because the problem was there before i updated it. Thank you for the reply.