Vista Laptop will not Start Up -Help!

Samson1

Have a dell xps m1330 running Vista, less than 2 yrs old. It refuses to start up & gives warning message "Interactive Logon Process Initialization has Failed. Please consult the event log ..." & gives this warning on a loop.I have tried the obvious - System Startup repair: finds no problem; Tried System Restore to 3 separate dates: it goes through whole process, confirms System has been restored to that date, but on re-start its back to warning. Have run full Diagnostics lasting hours: found no problem. Have tried to start in Safe Mode: just comes back with warning. Have googled this - nothing other than above out there.

Any ideas please. Help!

leninbenjamin

that's really really weird.

My only suggestion would be to buy a caddy to put your HDD in, and backup the files to another computer, then just reinstall the OS. Maybe someone with more of a clue will come along.

Perhaps a mod might move this to the windows forum?

In_tuition

Do you have anything important files you need? if not, do a system restore of the C drive, it will revert the laptop back to it's factory settings.

Samson1

Yea - its my daughter's laptop & she has a lot of college stuff on it she does'nt want to lose.

Samson1

Sorry if this is the wrong forum. If someone can / should move it, please do.

In_tuition

Do you have the Vista disc?

Samson1

Yes I have. Used it to try to restore to a Restore Point.

In_tuition

Have you tapped f12 on start up and selected boot from cd/dvd drive?

Bodan

There is a fix for it, but it is pretty complicated. You will need to have another vista machine to open the application error log in order to find out which file is causing you problems. And then, all you need to do it replace the bad file with the equivalent on your working vista machine.

I copied this from another forum where it is reported to have worked.

Open up a command prompt from your recovery options and copy C:\Windows\System32\winevt\Logs\Application.evtx to an external disk. Get on another computer with Vista and open up Application.evtx with the Event Viewer. Find the error where SideBySide is the source in the event log and it should say something about an error in some manifest file. Now go back to your computer and replace that file on your C drive with a copy of that file from your recovery partition or recovery disk. Restart your computer and it should work.

Its tough if you are a newbie, but Microsoft dont makes these things easy!

I should point out that the problem file/file's you are looking for in the log will more than likely be located in the C:\windows\winsxs\manifests\ folders.

Samson1

Yes have done that. Allows me to try to restore to a restore point & options as above but none of that I have tried works.

In_tuition

let us know how bodan's advice goes.

In_tuition

Have you checked that your bios is in correct order?

Samson1

Bodan wrote: »

There is a fix for it, but it is pretty complicated. You will need to have another vista machine to open the application error log in order to find out which file is causing you problems. And then, all you need to do it replace the bad file with the equivalent on your working vista machine.

I copied this from another forum where it is reported to have worked.


Its tough if you are a newbie, but Microsoft dont makes these things easy!

I should point out that the problem file/file's you are looking for in the log will more than likely be located in the C:\windows\winsxs\manifests\ folders.

Thanks In_tuition & thanks Bodan. This sounds promising but maybe I will have to get someone that understands it ! ? I will have access to another Vista machine but I take it that it does'nt mean I connect them? Just use the other one to look this up on it?? And then use the Command Promt on the damaged one?? If I can't find someone tha can do this for me during the week I will try having a go at it next weekend. Once again thanks. (Oh and as for "Bios being in right order" - if that means that it should first try to boot from hard drive - that seems to be correct on it.

In_tuition

Samson1 wrote: »

Thanks In_tuition & thanks Bodan. This sounds promising but maybe I will have to get someone that understands it ! ? I will have access to another Vista machine but I take it that it does'nt mean I connect them? Just use the other one to look this up on it?? And then use the Command Promt on the damaged one?? If I can't find someone tha can do this for me during the week I will try having a go at it next weekend. Once again thanks. (Oh and as for "Bios being in right order" - if that means that it should first try to boot from hard drive - that seems to be correct on it.

What Bodan has said looks like rocket science but it's not. If you come on here someone will take you through it, it's really pretty straightforward, now whether it will work is another thing.

this seems to be the thread that Bodan is referring to.

Samson1

Bodan wrote: »

There is a fix for it, but it is pretty complicated. You will need to have another vista machine to open the application error log in order to find out which file is causing you problems. And then, all you need to do it replace the bad file with the equivalent on your working vista machine.

I copied this from another forum where it is reported to have worked.


Its tough if you are a newbie, but Microsoft dont makes these things easy!

I should point out that the problem file/file's you are looking for in the log will more than likely be located in the C:\windows\winsxs\manifests\ folders.

Bodan - have read this over & over & think I follow it now. Will give it a go at weekend. Again - many thanks.

Bodan

Yeah, you dont need to connect the two. Basically, copy over the Application.evtx file to your good Vista Machine. Open the log and find where the error's are located. You may have lots of them, but you are mostly interested in the ones from the manifests folder. Then, copy back the same file/files from the good vista machine and replace them with the bad ones.

The command prompt is used for copying the files from and to the folder on your broken vista machine.

Bodan

Samson1 wrote: »

Bodan - have read this over & over & think I follow it now. Will give it a go at weekend. Again - many thanks.

No Prob's, Good luck. I hope you manage to fix it!