Vista shut down, will only boot in safe mode.

[Robertw]

Running Vista Home Premium, 32 bit, Service Pack 1, on an Acer L100 w/1 gig memory. I was on the internet when the computer shut down. Now it will only boot in safe mode. I have restored to the last working date, which it did successfully, but did not solve the problem. Also, the Disk/DVD drive doesn't see anything you load into it. I haven't loaded anything new nor any upgrades except my daily antivirus updates (AVG). Does anyone have any suggestions?

[jason2074]

Is there any error occurred posted after booting? Try using windows disc to repair if it will recover on safemode. Or you can go to microsoft website for your certain issue.

[Robertw]

There is no error code. I only have a recovery disc made at puchase, no Window disk, but I can't use any disk anyway becasue the drive won't read anything.

[jason2074]

Is your DVD drive's tray still functioning(opens,closes)? When you insert an audio or video cd does your dvd drive blinks(green) while it reads the cd?Check your device manager. Go to Start, Control Panel, Click on System, Click Hardware, then Device Manager. Click on the + sign beside DVD/CD ROM drives. It will show you your current dvd drive. Check if there's any red or yellow mark on icons. Right-click on your dvd drive to show certain information/options: Update, Disable, Uninstall, Scan for Hardware Changes and Properties. Click on Properties to see the status of your drive(General Menu:This device is working properly. ).

[Frejoh466]

Have you tried Disable all startup programs? Start => Type "Msconfig" => Startup => Disable all => restart your computer. If it then start we know you have a problem there, then use google.com and type a name and see if it is safe to start.

[Robertw]

The drive tray opens and closes properlay. There are no warning indications on the drive in device manager/hardware. Under properties it says the drive is operating normally. I disabled all items in the start up menu and rebooted, but it didn't change anything. It's not attempting to read the recovery disk when it's in the drive at start up.

[patio]

Do you have the DVD drive set as the 1st boot device bin the BIOS ? ?

If so and it still does not work either the DVD or the drive itself is to blame...

[Robertw]

I don't remember how to look at bios, but I assume it goes to the disk drive first. I just disconnected the disk drive and tried to boot, no change.

[Allan]

http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000192.htm

[Robertw]

OK, in bios it goes to the hard drive first and the disk drive 2nd. This appears to be the default settings.

[Allan]

Change it.

[Robertw]

Changed bios to 1st boot  - [CDROM]
                           2nd boot - [Hard Drive]
Says it is trying to boot from the CDROM drive first, but with the recovery disk in there, nothing happens and it continues to the hard drive and shuts down as before.

[Allan]

1) Did you save the bios change on exit?
2) Are you certain the recovery disc is bootable?

[Robertw]

I did save the bios change on exit and went back to verify it saved ok. The recovery disc is one I made when I purchased the computer per the instructions that came with it. It is supposed to be bootable and is supposed to contain the "restore to the original state' software in place of a Windows disk.

[Allan]

Okay. At this point the only thing I can suggest is that you try that disc in another computer just to see if it is actually bootable (just boot to it and then remove it and reboot - don't let it do anything) or try booting to a different disc in your system that you know is bootable.