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Question

Laptop is stuck on black reboot screen. Help?

Sep 13, 2016 5:56AM PDT

Alright. So I turned on my laptop yesterday around 5pm and it worked fine for at least half an hour or so, and then airplane mode suddenly turned on and no matter what I tried, I couldn't turn it off (nor could I turn wi-fi on).

Around 8pm, I started a reboot in what I assume is safe mode (where I keep all of my files) but it is now 6am the next morning. It's been stuck on this black screen with a small white loading circle for at least 5-6 hours now and I don't know what to do.

I'm not sure if I just have a ton of files on my computer and that's why it's taking so long, or if it's stuck and I need to fix it somehow. Can anyone please help me?

Discussion is locked

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Answer
Re: reboot
Sep 13, 2016 6:07AM PDT
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Re:reboot
Sep 13, 2016 6:21AM PDT

Doing this won't damage or erase any of my files? I am just being cautious about this and double checking because I have a lot of my photography and videos on my laptop that I don't want to lose.

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Re: reboot
Sep 13, 2016 6:34AM PDT
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Re:reboot
Sep 13, 2016 7:10AM PDT

So would it be safe for me to force a shut down for right now (via the power button) or should I wait and use the disc to reboot? It's just that it's 7am and I haven't slept yet and I don't want to go to sleep and leave my laptop on for several more hours.

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You've asked for a prediction.
Sep 13, 2016 8:37AM PDT

No one can be absolutely sure but 99.99% of the time I can power off without loss. That 0.01% can happen and if the machine is hung you have little choice.

Just wondering. After decades of folk losing content, why no backup of what you can't lose?

As to the Linux, we never learn Linux. Here's my advice on that a few years back. Read that and get a more current version than I advised.
http://tips.oncomputers.info/archives2004/0401/2004-Jan-11.htm