Laptop not booting from cold

try and boot in journal mode. if possible, film the output and post a screenshot of the last screen before it crashes. if there is a blue screen, post that too.

are you in a domain ?

>> try and boot in journal mode. 

How do I do that on a windows laptop & dose it require admin privileges? 

https://www.pcworld.com/article/2984712/how-to-enter-windows-10s-safe-mode.html

same process as here except you will pick debug and/or journal mode in the options rather than safe boot.

in journal mode, windows creates an ntblog.txt file. in debug mode, most information is printed on screen.

it would also help if you can expend on how far the boot seems to go through

Hi,

this is a known issue if you do a UEFI boot with a disk formatted as GPT. Using MBR instead should solve this.

Cheers

hmm ?? i was under the impression uefi was meant to work with gpt.

why would it work the second time ? or later the same day ?

Hi,

Yes it is but I had several cases just like this where it shuts down for no particular reason. It might be related with the one-minute shutdown that occurs when running the Bitlocker recovery screen in UEFI mode which is a documented built in feature. The system behaves differently when using the MBR partition style.

Cheers

Hi
I very much doubt I  have BIOS access
I can't access disk manager to check how HDD is formatted
Right click on C:\ > Properties suggests File System is NTFS

>> this is a known issue if you do a UEFI boot with a disk formatted as GPT. Using MBR instead should solve this. 

can you show me? I'll pass it to System Manger

I'll try to boot in safe mode in the morning

not safe mode : debug or journal mode. i included the safe mode link because the process is the same for safe and debug.

you can tell the formatting type of the drive in the disk's properties in diskmgmt.msc. you should also see whether there is an efi partition there.

for a recent problem i suggest you do a system restore to a date it was ok
you can then check the impacted softwares

Hi trevor1940,

>> this is a known issue if you do a UEFI boot with a disk formatted as GPT. Using MBR instead should solve this. 

I knew I read about it somewhere in the past. It took me a while to find but it's documented here so it might be related as the one-minute shutdown is a built in feature.

Cheers

Don't have permission to access diskmgmt.msc 

I attempted to start in debug or journal mode  as per the link this potentially could of got me into a world of pain
On restart it asked for Bitlocker recovery Key

I had no option but to get out of this boot normally
 

this shutdown occurs when you do not input the key. it occurs after exactly 60 seconds and not 3 or 4 minutes. the next boot works... i doubt this is the issue.

you said "it passes the bitlocker" then stalls and shuts down after 3 or 4 minutes. how far does it go ? what is on screen at that time ? what results did journal mode produce ? are you in a domain ?

sorry, we cross posted

can you at least expand on how far the boot sequence goes ? are you in a domain ? and do you have privileges to open the event viewer ?

After Bitlocker the DELL screen appears if boot is going to be successful there is a spinning wheel under the DELL symbol

At first attempt of the day the there is no spinning wheel  and shuts down after 3-4 minutes

If you don't enter Bitlocker code it will also shut down

Domain: yes
I'm working from home login is via proxy 

event viewer:  Yes  What am I looking for?

Hi,

Is your BIOS firmware up to date? If not then I'd update at the earliest convenience

Furthermore just to be sure it's not related to my previous posts you can also disable the one-minute shutdown feature to see if you notice any changes in behaviour.

Open an admin prompt and issue:

bcdedit /set {bootmgr} bootshutdowndisabled 1

Select allOpen in new window

Cheers

what about a system r estore?

event viewer:  Yes  What am I looking for?

any messages logged at the time of boot. given the additional information, i am not expecting much.

from what i gather, the issue occurs after bitlocker in unlocked and before windows begins to start up.

it is fairly possible i am wrong and a bitlocker key is pulled from the domain. if you do not enter a bitlocker key, and you know that is the case, we need to focus on something like a network timeout while grabbing said key.

if you have access to the BIOS, dell computers often feature a log and you should also be able to disable fastboot, quickboot, or whatever the feature is called. there may also be a feature that explicitely disables the splash screen. ( fastboot both disables the splash screen and enables a few extra tests ). this is likely to let you see in real time what is going on and identify what fails.

>>it is fairly possible i am wrong and a bitlocker key is pulled from the domain. 
I don't think it is because if I disconnect the cat5 I can still boot
I'm using this Laptop has a host to login to AZURE VM
To update windows I have to login locally disable the proxy settings otherwise the system can't update

I don't have admin privileges so can't open an admin cmd prompt

Not sure if I can or should enter the BIOS
 
>>event viewer:   any messages logged at the time of boot 

There is an error after a Bitlocker 2nd entry however the times are too close together

Tomorrow morning I'll record when I turned it on / enter Bitlocker key to see if both entries are recorded 

do try the bios as well. worst case scenario, you will be prompted for a password you do not have. disabling the splashscreen should make the error visible. a raid card initialisation for example

Morning:  
At first boot 
I was able to enter the BIOS  Predictably  I was unable to change anything without a password
On exiting the laptop booted OK
There was nothing in the event log

The next cold boot  will be on Monday

so simply entering the bios and leaving without making changes prevented it from failing to boot ? weird indeed -^
let's see monday... not sure you will be able to debug much without admin privileges

No luck this morning there was nothing in event prior to second boot

can you answer that question, please ?

so simply entering the bios and leaving without making changes prevented it from failing to boot ?

There is an error after a Bitlocker 2nd entry however the times are too close together

post that. not "an error"

Hi  not tested going into  BIOS again I can do tomorrow

There was 2 Error after bitlocker 1st about unexpected shutdown on Friday 2nd volmgr Dump file creation failed 

volmgr Dump file creation failed

that might be a hint.
maybe windows tries to create a dump file before unlocking properly the drive...
does it occur every day ?

I'm closing this! with the level of privileges I have I'm getting no where
It needs to be sent back to the office for proper diagnostics which I was hopping to avoid

Thanx for your help

sorry we could not be more helpful.
feel free to post whatever information you grab when they get to the bottom of this.
many cheers.