I’m afraid I have had a mega major breakdown with my new silver Dell desktop, I cannot log on or even access safemode. A black screen with an ominous sounding message: “NTLDR is missing*. is alll that appears, there is no Windows Vista logo even. I wonder if I have been hacked after last month losing £840 from my online bank account, whether there is a connection. Or is it just a very nasty bug? I’m hoping my local IT technician will find a solution asap.
Despite that, and being stung today with a £120 fixed penalty ticket for stopping in a yellow box for more than 5 seconds when I drove my mother to Wembley Arena recently for the Strictly Come Dancing tour, I am feeling very positive and upbeat, and enjoying working on my new projects with NIAB – the National Institute of Agricultural Botany. They are undertaking some fascinating ground-breaking research which you will hear about soon.
I’m even looking forward to my role as Toastmaster this evening, the most demanding role at Cambridge Speakers’ Club, to prepare me for my major public speaking challenge later this month when I chair a discussion with the Archbishop of York and Cambridge entrepreneurs before an audience of 300.
I have a lucky black cat, I refuse to believe I will be struck by a third bout of bad luck and my bottle is definitely half full, despite my major headache. However, it will mean lighter blogging while I focus on getting my PC running normally again, let’s hope for a miracle.
And thanks to Tim Almond for his supportive email, he heard about my dificulties on Twitter posted via my mobile phone.
Update 6 Feb: Black Monday turned into my own Super Tuesday as my IT technician solved my major headache. He managed to get the computer back into safe mode and used systems restore. He also ran some virus checks and found a few unwelcome visitors lurking about.
During the evening, I surpassed all personal expectations with my Toastmaster role. I found I enjoyed this role the most so far as I like organising and managing events and, even though there were a few hiccups, it went smoothly overall and considerably boosted my confidence about my forthcoming public speaking challenge.
Good luck this evening. Hope nothing else goes wrong for you!
Have you tried contacting Dell support Ellee? The computer should still be under some sort of warranty.
This site may help http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000465.htm
first thing to check is to make sure no CD is in the machine.
It also says:-
This issue has been known to be caused by a loose or fault IDE/EIDE cable. If the above recommendation does not resolve your issue and your computer hard disk drive is using an IDE or EIDE interface. Verify the computer hard disk drive cable is firmly connected by disconnected and reconnecting the cable.
also:-
It’s possible your computer’s hard disk drive may have a corrupt boot sector and/or master boot record. These can be repaired through the Microsoft Windows Recovery console by running the fixboot and fixmbr commands
Ellee sorry to hear about your problems…as Geoff says I think i would be in touch with dell by now..
This is a common error, if you have the Vista DVD (hopefully supplied with laptop), put this in the drive, reboot, as soon as the laptop starts up, press F11 or F12 to get Boot Menu. Select to boot off CD/DVD drive.
When it finishes loading vista off the DVD it will allow you to click on ‘Repair’. Bingo.
What a nightmare for you, Ellee! I hope you wow them this evening.
What an awful computer problem. Even Marvin’s answer sounds scary.
Hi, Ellee. I was worried earlier when I saw you hadn’t posted. So sorry you have had all these problems. But I admire your spirit and wish you good luck from Sicily.
Haha. It’s not scary. You can’t go wrong with those instructions! It’s so easy 🙂
Well it’s all over now but I’m sure you were a great success. What’s with these new Dells. Matt Murrell is having problems with his new Dell too.
We wondered what you were up to. I hope Marvin’s solution works for you.
Isn’t it terrifying when our pcs break down? ell done on the Toastmasters, Ellee!
Thanks everyone for your support. It’s nice to know I am missed if I take an unexpected break, which is why I write a post if I am going to be absent for a while. It’s a great relief to have my computer back, I am lost without it and need to make lots of back ups and regard this as a warning. I now have lots of catching up to do, as well as a lengthy dental appointment.
How did you get it fixed Ellee? It would be nice to know which solution you used , for people googling this error..
Glad to see everything worked out well Ellee 🙂
Geoff, I did write an update on the front of my post. All the guy did was a systems restore once he managed to get into safe mode. He doesn’t know if there is a problem on the hard drive. The fact that I was using a usb memory stick may have caused the problem which led to me unable to get anything on screen other than those letters.
Fingers crossed, it’s still going ok.
Thanks for your advice. I did phone Dell helpline and forwarded the info to my local technician, who was already coming up trumps.
I hope you are enjoying your snowboarding, it’s almost time to put the sun lotion on here.
£120.00 for stopping on a yellow box?
What’s the world coming to
I guess we can no longer all live in a yellow submarine.
So did your mum enjoy the Strictly come dancing tour
So Elle, you got anything to do with those GM potatoes. Will future EU legislation insist on square potatoes, or square crips?
Glad your IT man got rid of the bugs on your computer. I really must catch up with you soon an enjoy a Toast.
Ellee: You and I are the unfortunate ones who have been forced into Vista. I find it slower. When blogging, one must add photos last. I miss XP Home and Professional. A bit like being asked if I need a VW Beetle to drive to work or a Lamborghini Gallado? I’ll take the Beetle!
What a run of bad luck.
A broken computer, a traffic fine, fraud …
now a headache too ! I’m not surprised. These things normally come in threes so you’re owed some good karma.
Here’s a kiss to make it better.
x
Well done Ellee. Now we all say, I told you so and you don’t care that we do.
Glad its sorted Ellee… I know the stress these things cause with having a pc thats not 100% and a laptop thats VISTA say no more, but somehow we always manage…