Windows 7 fails to startup

[BRUTAL]

Hello,
Today I was using my laptop for about 20 minutes, then it suddenly turned off by itself, and attempted to reboot. It then told me that windows had failed to startup properly, and I kind of had a bad feeling where this was going.
I let Startup Repair run 3 or 4 times, and it did not fix anything. I can type out the repair/error logs it displays if anyone can use that information to help me.
I also tried system restore at two different restore points, there was no positive outcome.
Any suggestions on what I can do?

 

[Slapshot136]

have you tried the system repair from the install CD?

 

[BRUTAL]

Unforunately, I do not own a installation CD because I bought my laptop online off dell.com, and they don't give you one I guess.
At the moment I am backuping up all my files through Dell DataSafe, as I am preparing to restore my laptop to factory settings if I have no other options.
Edit:
So I successfully restored my laptop to factory settings, and I just got the same problem once again. T_T
Does this mean the problem is out of my hands, and needs an actual technician to fix/replace a part of my laptop?

 

[Dave312]

You can download the Windows 7 iso's from here: http://techpp.com/2009/11/11/download-windows-7-iso-official-direct-download-links/. Just burn it to a disk to give yourself a Windows 7 DVD (you will still need your serial to complete an install). I would recommend running a repair install from the disk before resorting to going back to factory settings.

 

[Varine]

Dell uses a recovery partition which is a huge pain in the ass. I know almost nothing about them (I tried using it once, pissed me off, gave up and made a disk instead).

http://www.geekpolice.net/t7661-dell-system-recovery-partition-hotkey-instructions-dell-pc-restore

I would download the OS and burn it to a disk; you should be able to use the license key that came with your laptop to activate it. Install the new OS alongside the old one (all the files will be put into a new folder called Windows.old or something), and there are tools to transfer all of your files into the new OS (you'll have to reinstall some things still though).

You might have gotten a rootkit or something. Can you get on through Safe Mode or Debug?

 

[BRUTAL]

Thanks for the link Dave, I'll let that download and try it out once it is done; while that is downloading I'm going to attempt using the dell recovery partition that Varine described.

To answer your question Varine, when I try booting in safe mode, It still will fail to startup properly and prompts me to the startup recovery screen.
What is a rootkit though?

Edit:
I was looking through the details of one the the Startup repairs that just finished now, something caught my eye that may be of some help.

Root cause found:
----------------------
Boot criticial file c:\ci.dll is corrupt.

Repair action: File repair
Result: Failed. Error code = 0xa
Time taken = 4992 ms

Repair action: System Restore
Result: Failed. Error code = 0x1f
Time taken = 181741 ms

Repair action: Systemfiles integrity check and repair
Result: Failed. Error code = 0x490
Time Taken = 775949 ms

 

[Varine]

It's a virus of sorts that takes over low level access to the computer. Typically it blocks off things like administrative access, so even though you're an administrator you can't get onto things like System Recovery. Some of them are worse can get into BIOS, but I've never actually seen them. They're also used for security sometimes (Sony used them to stop people from ripping CD's a while back and then had some lawsuits over it).

What you described kind of sounds like one, but I'm not qualified to really give advice on how to repair them. There are programs that will do it, but they're not something to do lightly as they can seriously fuck up your computer, and as you can't get onto it, then you can't run them anyway. I would have you go to somewhere like majorgeeks.com or techsupportforum.com, there are people that took classes on it there that can help you with it.

My advice would be to install a new OS, though, as you can't really get onto to it to do anything. Windows 7 has a GUI installation I believe, so if you're not that familiar with doing so it won't be quite as daunting as the older installs that used command-line interfaces. Just don't reformat the disk, and you can install W7 and should be able to log onto that one. There will be a screen that comes up when you start that asks what OS to boot from, choose the new installation and then you can transfer the files, remove the old OS from the boot.ini, and delete it.