Hi. Yesterday, my laptop only decided to boot after about 5 attempts. I hear the fan starting, keyboard lights turn on, but before anything appears on screen, the fan stops and the computer seems to be hibernating, except that nothing wakes it up, so I have to reset.

Today, (among about 20 attempts) it only went as far as the screen asking whether to boot Windows normally, or "using last working configurations" or Safemode etc. but couldn't complete the boot up process.

Is there anything I can do besides using the reinitialising disk? Do I lose all my files?

I presume that you've got the mains power plugged in? I'm not saying that you're an idiot and you're trying to just run it from a dead battery but I have seen similar power-related problems with laptops in the past.

Unplug the mains power, remove the battery, re-connect the mains power and try it again.

If that makes no difference, unplug the mains power, put the battery back in and then try it again (without the mains power).

Any better when you've only got one power source?

If not, are you able to borrow a similar power supply from somewhere? Note that it must have the same power configuration (volts and amps).

Thanks, but I was quite in a hurry to get this over with, so I went over to where I bought it (the morning just before your post). I did try either power source alone.

I saw my computer behave at least 3 or 4 different ways after turning it on, including a few times that it worked if put mechanical pressure on the underside and then crashed (Alt-Ctrl-Del not working) as soon as I let go (I unbelievably managed to do some extra backups this way).

When I turned it on at the shop, the white-on-black screen showed a new message that apparently (quite believably) stated my motherboard had to be replaced.

Luckily, I had bought the store 3-year garantee (it's been 2 1/2 yrs...). I am still waiting for it though, it had to be shipped to the manufacturer.

Glad to hear you invested in an extended warranty - there are some things you can buy like kettles, toasters, etc where it's really not worth dishing out extra money for a warranty on something if you won't be too devastated if it packs up after a couple of years. But for complex expensive items like laptops, it's often worth paying that bit extra - a replacement motherboard in a laptop charged at full price could easily cost $800 (that's what Dell quoted me a few weeks ago).