black screen death inspiron 9300

I installed build 5308 on my Dell Inspiron 9300 and have been running happily for 6 hours or so. Just now, the network went offline.. it was still plugged in but no traffic. So, i decided to reboot and the machine. After the initial progress screen, the system hung with a black desktop, the mouse moving and the white build number in the bottom right corner but would go no further. Unplugging network makes no difference, the machine has become unbootable. So i stuck my XP disk back in, and it rebooted and the network was fine. Looks like 5308 is still pretty flaky
James

It's not beta quality - still only a CTP build. Many issues such as this are on the Known Issues on Connect, but those that aren't, bug it and you'll see it fixed within the space of the next build.
-- Zack Whittaker Microsoft Beta (Windows Server R2 Beta Mentor) » ZackNET Enterprises: www.zacknet.co.uk » MSBlog on ResDev: http://msblog.resdev.net » ZackNET Forum: www.zacknet.co.uk/forum » VistaBase: www.zacknet.co.uk/vistabase » This mailing is provided "as is" with no warranties, and confers no rights. All opinions expressed are those of myself unless stated so, and not of my employer, best friend, mother or cat. Let's be clear on that one!
--- Original message follows --- "James E. Clarke" wrote in message

I installed build 5308 on my Dell Inspiron 9300 and have been running happily for 6 hours or so. Just now, the network went offline.. it was still plugged in but no traffic. So, i decided to reboot and the machine. After the initial progress screen, the system hung with a black desktop, the mouse moving and the white build number in the bottom right corner but would go no further. Unplugging network makes no difference, the machine has become unbootable. So i stuck my XP disk back in, and it rebooted and the network was fine. Looks like 5308 is still pretty flaky
James

Its possible that it was just taking forever to boot up, how log did you wait before you switched back to XP? Did you try booting in safe mode and open Control Panel > Solutions to Problems > View Problem History and find out which application or device failed? -- -- Andre Windows Connect | http://www.windowsconnected.com Extended64 | http://www.extended64.com Blog | http://www.extended64.com/blogs/andre http://spaces.msn.com/members/adacosta FAQ for MS AntiSpy http://www.geocities.com/marfer_mvp/FAQ_MSantispy.htm "James E. Clarke" wrote in message

I installed build 5308 on my Dell Inspiron 9300 and have been running happily for 6 hours or so. Just now, the network went offline.. it was still plugged in but no traffic. So, i decided to reboot and the machine. After the initial progress screen, the system hung with a black desktop, the mouse moving and the white build number in the bottom right corner but would go no further. Unplugging network makes no difference, the machine has become unbootable. So i stuck my XP disk back in, and it rebooted and the network was fine. Looks like 5308 is still pretty flaky
James

Zack.. I don't have access to connect.. i'm getting the builds from MSDN so not sure as to the correct route to report issues.
"Zack Whittaker (R2 Mentor)" wrote in message

It's not beta quality - still only a CTP build. Many issues such as this are on the Known Issues on Connect, but those that aren't, bug it and you'll see it fixed within the space of the next build.
-- Zack Whittaker Microsoft Beta (Windows Server R2 Beta Mentor) » ZackNET Enterprises: www.zacknet.co.uk » MSBlog on ResDev: http://msblog.resdev.net » ZackNET Forum: www.zacknet.co.uk/forum » VistaBase: www.zacknet.co.uk/vistabase » This mailing is provided "as is" with no warranties, and confers no rights. All opinions expressed are those of myself unless stated so, and not of my employer, best friend, mother or cat. Let's be clear on that one!
--- Original message follows --- "James E. Clarke" wrote in message I installed build 5308 on my Dell Inspiron 9300 and have been running happily for 6 hours or so. Just now, the network went offline.. it was still plugged in but no traffic. So, i decided to reboot and the machine. After the initial progress screen, the system hung with a black desktop, the mouse moving and the white build number in the bottom right corner but would go no further. Unplugging network makes no difference, the machine has become unbootable. So i stuck my XP disk back in, and it rebooted and the network was fine. Looks like 5308 is still pretty flaky
James

Andre.. i left it for more than half an hour so I'm assuming a driver must have fallen over. I'll try the safe mode thing though and report back
"Andre Da Costa [Extended64]" wrote in message

Its possible that it was just taking forever to boot up, how log did you wait before you switched back to XP? Did you try booting in safe mode and open Control Panel > Solutions to Problems > View Problem History and find out which application or device failed? -- -- Andre Windows Connect | http://www.windowsconnected.com Extended64 | http://www.extended64.com Blog | http://www.extended64.com/blogs/andre http://spaces.msn.com/members/adacosta FAQ for MS AntiSpy http://www.geocities.com/marfer_mvp/FAQ_MSantispy.htm "James E. Clarke" wrote in message I installed build 5308 on my Dell Inspiron 9300 and have been running happily for 6 hours or so. Just now, the network went offline.. it was still plugged in but no traffic. So, i decided to reboot and the machine. After the initial progress screen, the system hung with a black desktop, the mouse moving and the white build number in the bottom right corner but would go no further. Unplugging network makes no difference, the machine has become unbootable. So i stuck my XP disk back in, and it rebooted and the network was fine. Looks like 5308 is still pretty flaky
James

Same problem in safe mode, even with all possible hardware disabled in the BIOS as well
"Andre Da Costa [Extended64]" wrote in message

Its possible that it was just taking forever to boot up, how log did you wait before you switched back to XP? Did you try booting in safe mode and open Control Panel > Solutions to Problems > View Problem History and find out which application or device failed? -- -- Andre Windows Connect | http://www.windowsconnected.com Extended64 | http://www.extended64.com Blog | http://www.extended64.com/blogs/andre http://spaces.msn.com/members/adacosta FAQ for MS AntiSpy http://www.geocities.com/marfer_mvp/FAQ_MSantispy.htm "James E. Clarke" wrote in message I installed build 5308 on my Dell Inspiron 9300 and have been running happily for 6 hours or so. Just now, the network went offline.. it was still plugged in but no traffic. So, i decided to reboot and the machine. After the initial progress screen, the system hung with a black desktop, the mouse moving and the white build number in the bottom right corner but would go no further. Unplugging network makes no difference, the machine has become unbootable. So i stuck my XP disk back in, and it rebooted and the network was fine. Looks like 5308 is still pretty flaky
James

Ahh, go through your MSDN route to file bugs then :o)
-- Zack Whittaker Microsoft Beta (Windows Server R2 Beta Mentor) » ZackNET Enterprises: www.zacknet.co.uk » MSBlog on ResDev: http://msblog.resdev.net » ZackNET Forum: www.zacknet.co.uk/forum » VistaBase: www.zacknet.co.uk/vistabase » This mailing is provided "as is" with no warranties, and confers no rights. All opinions expressed are those of myself unless stated so, and not of my employer, best friend, mother or cat. Let's be clear on that one!
--- Original message follows --- "James E. Clarke" wrote in message

Zack.. I don't have access to connect.. i'm getting the builds from MSDN so not sure as to the correct route to report issues.
"Zack Whittaker (R2 Mentor)" wrote in message It's not beta quality - still only a CTP build. Many issues such as this are on the Known Issues on Connect, but those that aren't, bug it and you'll see it fixed within the space of the next build.
-- Zack Whittaker Microsoft Beta (Windows Server R2 Beta Mentor) » ZackNET Enterprises: www.zacknet.co.uk » MSBlog on ResDev: http://msblog.resdev.net » ZackNET Forum: www.zacknet.co.uk/forum » VistaBase: www.zacknet.co.uk/vistabase » This mailing is provided "as is" with no warranties, and confers no rights. All opinions expressed are those of myself unless stated so, and not of my employer, best friend, mother or cat. Let's be clear on that one!
--- Original message follows --- "James E. Clarke" wrote in message I installed build 5308 on my Dell Inspiron 9300 and have been running happily for 6 hours or so. Just now, the network went offline.. it was still plugged in but no traffic. So, i decided to reboot and the machine. After the initial progress screen, the system hung with a black desktop, the mouse moving and the white build number in the bottom right corner but would go no further. Unplugging network makes no difference, the machine has become unbootable. So i stuck my XP disk back in, and it rebooted and the network was fine. Looks like 5308 is still pretty flaky
James