[ronsh]

i have a dell studio 1555 laptop i turned it on the other day i have a black screen with a message that says a disk read error occured press ctrl+alt+delete to restart. ive tried that several times and nothing happens. so i called dell they sais it sounds like its the os so they sent me a reintallation dvd to reinstall windows vista.i got it today and tried installing and nothing is happening can anyone help me?

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Hello ronsh,

We're sorry to hear about your Dell notebook problem.

When you were speaking with Dell, did they have you run Dell Diagnostics as a check on your system hardware and hard drive specifically?

• If no, then my recommendation is to first run Dell Diagnostics, Custom test, Hard drive.
  • Please report any errors.
• If yes, and the diagnostics found no problem with the hard drive, then with the new installation DVD inserted, are you pressing the F12 key when the Dell Logo is seen at startup? That should produce a Boot Menu. Select DVDROM and press <Enter> to start the installation.
  • You may see a "Press any key ....." message to start from DVDROM, if so, strike a key (i.e. Space Bar).

[bchurch]

Hello ronsh,

We're sorry to hear about your Dell notebook problem.

When you were speaking with Dell, did they have you run Dell Diagnostics as a check on your system hardware and hard drive specifically?

• If no, then my recommendation is to first run Dell Diagnostics, Custom test, Hard drive.
  • Please report any errors.
• If yes, and the diagnostics found no problem with the hard drive, then with the new installation DVD inserted, are you pressing the F12 key when the Dell Logo is seen at startup? That should produce a Boot Menu. Select DVDROM and press <Enter> to start the installation.
  • You may see a "Press any key ....." message to start from DVDROM, if so, strike a key (i.e. Space Bar).

[ronsh]

yes i did all that and it still doesnt do anything keeps bringing me back to the same error page

[bchurch]

Hello,

Just so that I am understanding the situation correctly, the hard drive did "Pass" the Dell Diagnostic test and you have no response to pressing the F12 key and selecting DVDROM as first boot.

I would next enter BIOS setup and set the DVDROM as first boot. Save changes and restart. Try the installation media again.

If it still doesn't boot from DVD disc, I would next question whether the DVDROM drive is functioning.

There may be a hidden recovery partition on your hard drive. Here is the Setup Manual (PDF file zipped) for your computer.

• Refer to page 65. Follow instructions and try: Dell DataSafe Local Backup.
• If that's not available, try Dell Factory Image Restore (page 68).

[ronsh]

it responds doimg f12 and brings me to that dvdrom but when i hit enter on that it brings me back to the error page and what is a bios setup

[ronsh]

i just did it again and i noticed that dvdrom does not appear on the list it has hard drive removable devices network cd/dvd/cd-rw drive diadnostics and <enter setup> i can pick and of those and it just brings me back to tthe error page

[bchurch]

On the F12 Boot menu, you want cd/dvd/cd-rw drive to boot from a DVD disk.

Does a light come on the DVDROM drive and can you hear the drive spinning when a disk has been inserted?

[ronsh]

yea i can here it spinning but it doesnt do anything

[bchurch]

ronsh,

It's possible that the DVD laser is dirty. You could attempt to clean it with a little alcohol and a lint free cloth. The laser is easy to access in a notebook. It's usually a little round glass lens.

It's also possible that the DVD laser is bad. The recovery media that Dell sent you could be bad (not unheard of) although not very likely.


You could try a system recovery from the hard drive (post #4) if that option is available to you?

[ronsh]

there is no tray that you put the disk on its just a slot you insert in system recovery isnt possible it wont let me do anything everything ive tried it just brings me back to that same error page

[bchurch]

I see what you mean. I found a picture of the DVDROM.

Is your computer still under warranty?

Check to see whether the Dell installation media are on CDs or DVDs. Sometimes it will say around the middle, near the hole. If not put them into another computer and check the size via My Computer or Windows Explorer.

[ronsh]

it is a reinstallation dvd

[bchurch]

Hello,

It appears that the DVDROM drive isn't working.

We could further test the drive by creating a bootable Live Linux DVD. If it doesn't work with the Live Linux DVD, then it would be further confirmation that the drive was bad. I recommend using a DVD disk to create the Live Linux DVD because there are two lasers in the drive; one reads CDs, the other DVDs. We know that it is not reading your recovery DVD.

If you have a computer with a DVD burner and a blank recordable DVD disk, I can post instructions for creating this "test disk" if you want to try.

Your other option is to attempt a system recovery as outlined at the bottom of my post #4.

[ronsh]

i dont kmow how i would do a system recovery when i cant get the laptop to do anything everything i try to do it just brings me back to the same error page.and yea i will try to do the dvd thing you i have a cd-r cd and i have cd-rw one which one would i use?

[bchurch]

You will need a blank DVD record-able disk, not a CD record-able disc, as explained in my previous post.