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Laptop starts up but won't show Desktop?
My laptop will boot up, show the Dell screen, etc etc all the way up to the password. I enter the password, it'll say Welcome. Then the screen acts like it goes to my desktop, but the entire screen goes yellow. I can still see the mouse cursor, but it's like the entire background, taskbar, all my icons, everything is all gone and is replaced by a yellow screen, but again, only the cursor can be seen. Ctrl Alt Delete does nothing.
So basically, my laptop will work perfectly up until it tries loading my desktop. I have tried running it in Safe Mode and I also performed System Restore all the way back to February 1st. (It stopped working around February 11th) but it all just ends with the yellow screen. I've heard of whitescreen and the blue screen of death, but even if I google for an answer, nothing comes up regarding a yellow screen.
And I just tried it again, and it shut itself down at the Boot Menu or whatnot (f8 on startup) and I did it two more times. Managed to select repair computer, and it got to the User Select screen and shut itself down again.
So all in all, when I do manage to get it to startup, it goes to a yellow screen instead of my desktop. Otherwise, it just keeps shutting itself down.
Any advice would be great, thanks.
ejn63
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May 25th, 2010 05:00
Prime suspect would be a failing hard drive. F12 at powerup - boot to the Dell diagnostics and run an extended test.
xleahx3x
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May 25th, 2010 14:00
That's what I thought. I ran the diagnostics and it shut down about halfway through the testing.
ejn63
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May 25th, 2010 15:00
If the system shut down, was it overly hot?
kentrik
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May 25th, 2010 16:00
Does it do the same thing in safe mode? Like, does the screen always look yellow and washed out, or is that just something it does within windows?
It almost sounds like a video driver issue. If it does it in windows but NOT in safe mode, your best bet would be to try at a system restore and kick back to before the problem started. Sometimes a driver update will seriously mess with the system. I have seen it happen with a bunch of systems with ATI chipsets when they update their onboard video drivers. It locks up, changes funky colors, and will also force the system to restart.
If the system is forcing restarts, tap the F8 key a couple of times on boot to make sure that you can get in to the windows advanced options, and select "disable automatic restart on system failure". Then if it hits a blue screen, we might be able to determine what it is doing from there...
kentrik
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May 25th, 2010 17:00
Wow. Reading > me. Lol.
So even in safe mode, it's all washed out yellow, but on boot and loading screens, everything looks ok?
xleahx3x
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May 27th, 2010 02:00
Alas, still no luck. Sorry for the late response, by the way.
To answer some of the questions, the system wasn't overheated or anything of the sort. Just starts up, gets to a certain point, and sometimes it shuts down, sometimes it doesn't. But the furthest it goes is to where it turns yellow. Then there's nothing I can do. I have to shut down by holding in the power button.
Kentrik, yes exactly. Everything's fine all the way up until right after I type my password, then it says "Welcome" then fades out for a split second as if it's loading the desktop like usual and that's when everything just goes yellow, but I can still see the mouse cursor as it would normally appear. There's no taskbar, no icons, no start menu, etc. Absolute yellow and a white mouse cursor. (sorry I keep repeating myself, just trying to create a visual for you guys)
ejn63
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May 27th, 2010 05:00
What model system?
kentrik
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May 27th, 2010 10:00
I would definitely start off like suggested in the 32-bit diags. Run the HDD tests and see what it comes up with. If you have deleted the partition that they are on, you can always download them from support.dell.com under your system's drivers. (Captain Obvious, I know.)