Hello. I'm hoping for some insight with my problem computer besides buying a new one at this time. It is a Dell Laptop Inspiron model 1501. A number of posts have mentioned similar problems to mine, but each situation is different. I bought this one as a 'refurbished' model thru Dell, and it has always had unexplained instability issues and rebooting itself after locking up with the screen. Aside from this, it has been a good machine.
A year or so ago, I bought an after market battery. Everything was fine up until recently. At start up I would see a message stating: "Warning: Battery cannot be identified. The system will be unable to charge this battery. Press any key to continue." I was ignoring these messages. Windows Vista eventually would not boot up successfully. I would select to 'run windows normally' rather than 'start up repair'. So now after booting windows in 'normal' mode, several days the computer fails to boot Windows Vista at all. I can get past the Dell logo and a POST at start up. I pressed F12 and did the Diagnostics. At one point an error code was received soon after that read:
Error Code 0221, Message Error Code 2000-0221, MSG: Chipset Interval Timer Failed!
Another diagnostic test did not produce any errors.
I need to mention at this point that I have taken out the battery and set it aside thinking that this may allow me to get the operating system back up and running without the battery creating a problem, if it is a problem at all.
I can get to a screen to do "Start Up Repair", but it asks some questions that I have not seen in the past. The first of which is to select a language for the keyboard. After this screen I am presented with a dialog box named "System Recovery Options". The text reads "Select an operating system to repair and click next. Only Windows Vista operating systems are listed and can be repaired'. And further below: "If you do not see your operating system listed, click load drivers to load drivers for your hard disks." If I click "Load Drivers" another dialog box appears with "system 32" named. If I click on the folder with the name "Driver" there is nothing seen in these folders.
I was able to resurrect another dead computer of mine. I hope with some expert insight from others within this forum I might be able to at least retrieve my files off of this laptop.
I look forward to your reply.
Thanks,
Bulldog07