Hi everyone,

I am new to this forum and joined to try and get an answer to a problem I have with my laptop (Dell Latitude D620, Windows XP Professional, SP3). I realise this has been covered in older posts but nothing listed in them has helped me.

I had a battery issue last week, which resulted in my laptop having a blue screen (Unmountable_boot_volume) error. This was resolved by replacing the battery and repairing windows using a Dell XP reinstallation disc via the Recovery Console.

The laptop ran well until this am, when my wife took the laptop over to her printer to print off a Powerpoint slide and also load said slide to her USB memory stick (don't ask why she didn't just load the file to memory stick and take that to her own laptop and printer!?). On rebooting the laptop when I got to my workshop, the laptop failed just after the Windows XP boot (splash) screen, resulting in a black screen with just the cursor arrow visible.

On reading hundreds of forum threads I have unsuccessfully tried the following:
1) F5 on reboot and tried reboot in 'Last know good configuration', 'Safe Mode', Safe mode with prompts etc. all end up with black screen (note: safe mode options result in safe mode being visible in each corner of monitor)
2) F5 on reboot 'Enable VGA Mode' ends with black screen
3) Loaded windows from reinstallation disc and have gone through whole repair console process again (using chkdsk /r). I selected 'installation 1' whilst doing this, even though I wasn't sure how many installations were actually on there?
4) From recovery console I have also tried FIXBOOT and FIXMBR (as per suggestion on MS support ref: Q314503) wityh no change
5) I have plugged in a monitor and used fn F8 with no change
6) I have looked for the monitor on/off switch but I think the D620 monitor is managed via the locking mechanism ie. it doesn't have a switch in or near the hinges?
7) I rang Dell support and they went through the hardware diagnostics suite, with everything passing. They have suggested I contact the Dell Software Support team but the cost for this is not included in my warranty

Not tried:
I have not worked out how to rollback the startup, other than the 'Last known good configuration' option in the Windows Advanced Options Window?

Apologies in advance for this long message but I wanted to include as much information as possible.

Please help as although I backed up my docs after last weeks issues, my pictures and other software is still on there and I would prefer not to wipe them.

Many thanks in advance!

Does an external monitor show the same black screen?

Thanks for reply, yes the external monitor showed the same as the internal one.

Use the Dell XP recovery disc to repair XP. Follow these instructions:
XP Repair

Hi, thanks for this link, it was a lifesaver as it showed me how to do a repair without using the restore console (I'd seen that suggested on an earlier link but didn't know how until you showed me this). I have followed the instructions as per the 19 stages. Not everything happened exactly as the walkthrough described and the windows splash screen hung at stage 11 (after reinstall) but on rebooting the computer all appears to be back up and running! I am seriously relieved!!

I am currently running a virus scan (Using my Avira Premium Security) and also installing the 47 Windows Updates. My software and data appears to be intact but not checked everything as yet.

Quick question - now I am back into my computer, is there a way I can find my registration / licence keys for my XP installation? I do have the original disk with key information somehwere but I think it's buried in the attic and unlikely to be found until I move house. This might be useful to keep on record if I have to do a rebuild again.

Many thanks again for your help...seemed simple in the end but a massive headache when it happened. Hopefully I will report 100% success once I've been able to run everything.

Warren