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Question

BSOD on windows 10 -- unable to do anything

Oct 2, 2015 11:11AM PDT

Hi all,

My mom has an Dell Inspiron N5050 which she recently upgraded from windows 7 to 10. Today it said it was updating and not to restart it, but after several hours of a black screen she decided to force off and on again. Now it will only say "preparing automatic repair" and "diagnosing your PC" before leading to the blue screen.

Can't figure out how to get into safe mode, F8 does nothing. Can't use system restore (no restore points), can't use reset pc or "startup recovery" (they give unspecified errors), "Startup Settings" claims it can get me into safe mode but upon restarting I'm brought back to the old blue screen with no new options. Is there something I can do from command prompt? I tried "msconfig" but it won't recognize it.

Also ran the Dell diagnostic test from setup (F2) which reported no problems.

Any ideas?

Thanks so much.

Discussion is locked

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Answer
Boot up a Windows 10 DVD/USB and see if it can repair.
Oct 3, 2015 7:30AM PDT

Mind you just last month same issue and it was a failed HDD that passed all diags. Really painful to diagnose but it failed again after a wipe and reinstall.

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Answer
Reinstall Win 7
Oct 3, 2015 11:42AM PDT

from your System Image Disc's that you created and leave it alone.