Kenneth,

Just some thoughts on how I might approach a problem like yours.  If your 
laptop has the System Recovery Options installed, I would try running chkdsk 
from there with the /R switch added (chkdsk C: /R).  You should be able to 
access System Recovery Options by pressing F8 during bootup.  (If System 
Recovery Options is not installed, you'll need to boot from a Vista 
installation DVD to access this.)  If you can determine the manufacturer of 
the HDD, you can download their diagnostic utilities and run them to see if 
the HDD is failing.  (Most manufacturers of HDDs have these utilities on 
their web site and typically in a form that makes generating a bootable CD 
for them easy.)  If you have some sort of operating system on a bootable 
disk, such as a linux "live" CD or a "Ultimate Boot CD for Windows" this 
should give you some idea if your other hardware (beyond the HDD) is working 
properly.  I would think that if you can boot up and run these alternative 
OS, which are run from the CD, then the problem resides on or with your HDD 
(i.e., corrupted files or failing drive).

Hope this is helpful.

John Sproule

------------- Original Message Below ------------

Date:    Fri, 30 Apr 2010 03:32:25 -0400
From:    Kenneth Davis <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Vista Not booting

hey y'all

im having trouble trying to boot my gateway FX laptop...it has been working 
for a good 2 years but now its not booting....it all started when i was 
playing Rfactor and it froze up on me. and ctrl alt del didnt even respond 
so i turned off the laptop with the power button...now it keeps trying to 
boot...it makes it all the way to the black screen load bar right before the 
vista logo comes up but then it goes into the transition black screen and 
stays then it restarts going to the windows repair thing. it runs though it 
and sometimes it attemps to repair it and then restarts and then the same 
thing happens...i dont think its a hard drive problem because i was able to 
get into the cmd prompt and i can see the files...i also totaly restored 
windows to factory default using the repair tool and still it does it...im 
starting to think it might be my video card because right when i turn it on 
and the gateway logo is on there is a couple really thin purple lines 
through it....if anyone can help me try to solve this prob it would be very 
helpfull...is it possible that the videocards heat paste is bad and could be 
affecting it in this way? 

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