Dell Inspiron 5160 - Wont start...?

[Johno]

Hey,

I have been using this laptop for a while now (Laptop name is in the title) but today for some reason, it is refusing to start up. It loads the bit where it says :

DELL F2 - Setup
F12 - Boot Menu


Then down at the bottom its the loading bar but when it reaches a specific place on this bar, it crashes. It does this EVERY time, I can leave it and wait yet it still does this.

Any ideas on what is up and how I can fix it?

I will try to post a picture but I can't seem to find my cable for my camera.

.:; Johno

EDIT:

[Stephen!]

BIOS error. Nothing you can do really apart from clear the CMOS which can be tricky on laptops

[Johno]

Hey,

Oh perfect... sounds like fun lol

Any idea how I could do this on the laptop?

.:; Johno

[Robbie]

Take out the CMOS battery inside for a while then pop it back in. Maybe you could contact Dell, or press Boot Menu and choose hard drive?

[Johno]

Hey,

I have no clue where the CMOS battery is located, and I can't boot from HDD as it says "Preparing for one-time boot menu..." and it doesn't load the boot menu until this screen has fully loaded.

.:; Johno

Take out the CMOS battery inside for a while then pop it back in. Maybe you could contact Dell, or press Boot Menu and choose hard drive?

[Xeros]

I have that on my inspiron 1501

i jus press a button like " Left arrow, Right Arrow, ctrl" one of the <- and it loads after awhile

[Johno]

Hey,

Is this maybe it? Its the only other area on the back of the laptop I can get access too (Minus of course the memory bay)

@Xeros - Ill give that a try



.:; Johno

[Robbie]

Thats the RAM ports.

[Technologic]

You need to find the cmos pin on your mobo and pull it then put it in again i think?

Flying guess here, don't trust me until you've spoken to somebody who is much better with pcs than i am lol ;]

[Johno]

Hey,

Yeah, there seems to be a spare RAM port here but its not the main memory bay. I'm talking about the bit with the little tab on it.

.:; Johno

Here is a picture of the laptop (the bottom of it) :