Given the "it's broken" I think we'll have to plow ahead with what I run into and hope not to upset you.
1. The CD/DVD didn't boot.
a) I get out the CD/DVD lens cleaner, use it and then re-try the boot to the Vista DVD.
b) If 1a fails then I swap in a new DVDRW drive (these are under 20 bucks!) and try again.
More about 1b. Many consumers will dig in their heels on that and what more diagnostics, can you fix my drive? and more. As you get more seasoned on the service desk you learn to nod a lot and take it through step 1a, test with other bootable CDs and show them your USB DVDRW working and move again to swap in the new drive.
2. The webcam light. Doesn't mean much.
3. Was there any response to that F8 KEY (see google) and SAFE MODE?
Bob
Hello! My computer was working fine today but we've had heavy storms. Today during a storm we had a couple of power outages. The first power outage lasted around a minute or 2 and I returned the computer on and it loaded just fine. It did, however return to the loading error screen and gave me options from which to choose. It shut down on me a couple more times (because we had around 2 more outages that lasted a few minutes each) and each time I tried to reload it but the outage shut it down again. Basically, my computer was shut down around 3 times in an irregular way. I've tried starting in Safe Mode (regular and using networking) but it gets stuck on a driver. When I choose the option of starting it from the last known good configuration it takes a very long time to load and then after it can't load, it restarts itself and takes me back to the loading error screen. I've tried booting from a CD/DVD and it gets to the loading windows files screen, but instead of loading my Windows Vista Installation cd, it goes back to the loading screen. This time however, it does start my webcam (the light comes on), however, when it stops loading the screen just goes black and it stays there. I'm not sure what to do because it won't even let me boot startup repair. I don't hear any weird noises from my hdd like clicking or anything. Any help?
Thanks!

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