no idea whats going on with my laptop. Its been stuck on start up with the msg "Getting windows ready. Don't turn off you computer'.... for over an hour. Its a Dell Ltitude e5430 running windows 10. Does anyone know what to do for this problem?

zizzy41 - 2021-03-17 15:59:00

Have a nap and look at it tomorrow.

spyware - 2021-03-17 16:03:00

Can take ages, just walk away.

lilyfield - 2021-03-17 16:40:00

Patience, young grasshopper

king1 - 2021-03-17 16:55:00

That's an old computer. The process could take a couple of hours or more.

nice_lady - 2021-03-17 17:49:00

I think what you do is remove the battery then hold down the start button for3 minutes to run down the internal battery and then plug back into mains then reboot.

stylus1 - 2021-03-17 19:46:00

pull the choke out

gph1961 - 2021-03-17 19:52:00

stylus1 wrote:

I think what you do is remove the battery then hold down the start button for3 minutes to run down the internal battery and then plug back into mains then reboot.

even though it says "Don't turn off your computer"...

It's probably installing a feature update, that can take several hours on older hardware. Better to wait a good few hours or so before pulling the plug on it

Edited by king1 at 8:08 pm, Wed 17 Mar

king1 - 2021-03-17 20:03:00

stylus1 wrote:

I think what you do is remove the battery then hold down the start button for3 minutes to run down the internal battery and then plug back into mains then reboot.

That's if it just won't start. DO NOT do this in the middle of an operating system update unless you want to soft brick the computer. Bad advice.

Edited by nice_lady at 8:10 pm, Wed 17 Mar

nice_lady - 2021-03-17 20:10:00

I once had a near new work computer do that for over 6 hours. Rang up tech support and they said to just turn it off and on again. It worked.

tygertung - 2021-03-17 20:42:00

tygertung wrote:

I once had a near new work computer do that for over 6 hours. Rang up tech support and they said to just turn it off and on again. It worked.

and probably appropriate advice given it had been going for six hours...

Edited by king1 at 10:39 pm, Wed 17 Mar

king1 - 2021-03-17 22:37:00

I think it is very mysterious that the Windows 10 updates take so long whereas it seems to be quicker on other systems. Sometimes a Windows 10 update seems to take longer than installing Windows 10.

tygertung - 2021-03-18 08:09:00

tygertung wrote:

I think it is very mysterious that the Windows 10 updates take so long whereas it seems to be quicker on other systems. Sometimes a Windows 10 update seems to take longer than installing Windows 10.

well the feature updates also have to be aware of and deal with user customizations, settings and data so that could probably explain it. On old hardware it can take a long time, especially if there are issues with the hard drive.
Win 10 is a feature rich OS, probably 15-20 gigabytes uncompressed - you know the old saying about comparing apples with apples...

king1 - 2021-03-18 08:28:00

king1 wrote:

It's probably installing a feature update, that can take several hours on older hardware.

Funny how people think old hardware suddenly loses power or something...it's like saying your car suddenly can't do 100kph cause you've owned it 20 years.
Slow is always a software issue, usually bloat in Windows.
Or slow internet....that can hold up the updates....

lythande1 - 2021-03-18 08:36:00

lythande1 wrote:

Funny how people think old hardware suddenly loses power or something...it's like saying your car suddenly can't do 100kph cause you've owned it 20 years.
Slow is always a software issue, usually bloat in Windows.
Or slow internet....that can hold up the updates....

Rubbish, not saying that at all... there was no mention of progressively getting slower... some hardware profiles that have had windows 10 upgrades on them, probably shouldn't have in the first place. Mechanical hard drives, small ram, bad sectors etc all compound this.
"slow" is a relative concept anyway, one person's slow might be fine for another... I'd love to see you explain that aspect of "slow" in a purely software way...

Edited by king1 at 9:17 am, Thu 18 Mar

king1 - 2021-03-18 09:15:00

It might be a case of poor programming when the windows system was designed. It isn't the programmers' fault, their employer won't want them to spend time optimising it.

tygertung - 2021-03-18 21:40:00

tygertung wrote:

It might be a case of poor programming when the windows system was designed. It isn't the programmers' fault, their employer won't want them to spend time optimising it.

You really need a sponsored content disclaimer

Edited by king1 at 10:12 pm, Thu 18 Mar

king1 - 2021-03-18 22:10:00

Have you tried "The Old Thump"? That used to work on an old TV when it had bad reception.

Edited by wrf1 at 11:10 pm, Thu 18 Mar

wrf1 - 2021-03-18 23:09:00

king1 wrote:

You really need a sponsored content disclaimer

No, just bad updates.

tygertung - 2021-03-19 07:08:00

lythande1 wrote:

Funny how people think old hardware suddenly loses power or something...it's like saying your car suddenly can't do 100kph cause you've owned it 20 years.

I've had this Commodore V6 for about 13 years and the motor definitely doesn't have the power it used to, when I bought it I marveled how it would still be accelerating at the end of the passing lane uphill. Getting the motor overhauled would be half the value of the car and wouldn't add much value because the rest of the car isn't in brilliant condition. Pieces of plastic break bit by bit. Friends say I should buy a new car.

gyrogearloose - 2021-03-19 07:56:00

Does Apple Macintosh have the same problem with the updates or is it only Windows?

What I find surprising is that when I boot into a Windows 7 installation here, that it is still doing the updates, despite it being EOL and unsupported, apparently.

tygertung - 2021-03-19 08:01:00

tygertung wrote:

No, just bad updates.

there is not really enough information available to speculate as to cause - a bad/failing hard drive could potentially cause the same problem. But you keep blaming windows, i'm sure someone will try linux one day...

king1 - 2021-03-19 08:17:00

tygertung wrote:

Does Apple Macintosh have the same problem with the updates or is it only Windows?

I'm sure there was thread on here awhile back from someone who upgraded there LINUX distro and things stopped working properly.

There is also a slew of posts online about how updates have borked a linux based system - but let's not let facts get in the way of your personal crusade

Edited by king1 at 8:29 am, Fri 19 Mar

king1 - 2021-03-19 08:22:00

tygertung wrote:

Does Apple Macintosh have the same problem with the updates or is it only Windows?

What I find surprising is that when I boot into a Windows 7 installation here, that it is still doing the updates, despite it being EOL and unsupported, apparently.

My W7 never updates.

Note: Updating to W10 is really just a bloatware exercise. Only good thing is WSL2 and being able to spin up Ubuntu boxes in seconds. Really impressed by that, but nothing else.

Edited by spyware at 11:50 am, Fri 19 Mar

spyware - 2021-03-19 11:48:00

I am not on any crusade. Does the Apple Macintosh have the same symptoms as the Windows 10 with the updates? I don't have an Apple machine.

tygertung - 2021-03-19 16:30:00

tygertung wrote:

I am not on any crusade.

lol, only thing i'm not sure of is whether it's an anti-Microsoft crusade or Pro Linux

Edited by king1 at 5:35 pm, Fri 19 Mar

king1 - 2021-03-19 17:31:00

gyrogearloose wrote:

I've had this Commodore V6 for about 13 years and the motor definitely doesn't have the power it used to, when I bought it I marveled how it would still be accelerating at the end of the passing lane uphill. Getting the motor overhauled would be half the value of the car and wouldn't add much value because the rest of the car isn't in brilliant condition. Pieces of plastic break bit by bit. Friends say I should buy a new car.

An engine loses power over time due to wear and tear. A computer doesn't do that.

nice_lady - 2021-03-19 18:42:00

tygertung wrote:

I am not on any crusade. Does the Apple Macintosh have the same symptoms as the Windows 10 with the updates? I don't have an Apple machine.

worse, they arbitrarily decide your hardware will no longer recieve software updates based on when apple made it. On both ios & OSX.

Edited by bitsnpieces2020 at 10:59 pm, Fri 19 Mar

bitsnpieces2020 - 2021-03-19 22:59:00

Yes of course, but does it have the same thing where you have to wait for hours when starting up?

tygertung - 2021-03-20 07:42:00

nice_lady wrote:

An engine loses power over time due to wear and tear. A computer doesn't do that.

Processors have a throttling feature to provide thermal protection, if the sensor on the core exceeds the temperature set in the bios it will throttle down to avoid damage.

Dust is one cause, also failure of the thermal paste. You might hear the fan going hard but the variable speed can also be a feature in the bios that you can disable. So it might not be obvious that a computer is throttling, aside from the user feeling it's not as fast as it was when new.

gyrogearloose - 2021-03-20 08:52:00

tygertung wrote:

Yes of course, but does it have the same thing where you have to wait for hours when starting up?

when there's an update to apply, potential hard drive issues, 10 years old. Any OS can take a long time to boot.
Trying to normalise an unusual circumstance though really only highlights your own bias towards MS/Windows, otherwise known as a 'crusade'.

Edited by king1 at 9:36 am, Sat 20 Mar

king1 - 2021-03-20 09:33:00

I am wondering if it is normal across all modern operating systems, or is it just Windows which does it? I only have Windows machines (XP, 7 and 10) and machines running varieties of Linux. I have no Macintosh machines.

Saying I have a personal crusade against Windows is untrue, as I have several Windows machines.

tygertung - 2021-03-20 11:31:00

Hey Ziggy I have the same problem.
Dont turn it off
Let it go thru process as it does take awhile sometimes. Just be patient.
Last time it took 3 hours. I went out & came back & was still running.

Edited by ferrit47 at 11:59 am, Sat 20 Mar

ferrit47 - 2021-03-20 11:55:00

Mine did the same thing.. three days later... still nothing. I reckon I'd waited long enough. it just 'died'.. bought a new one.. what a pain in the backside... runs Windows 10 and nothing is free. No word program, no spreadsheet.. I have bought so many programs over the years.. Photoshop, Publisher.. and all for nothing, I object to keep paying over and over for basically the same thing.

wingpoint - 2021-03-24 19:03:00

wingpoint wrote:

Mine did the same thing.. three days later... still nothing. I reckon I'd waited long enough. it just 'died'.. bought a new one.. what a pain in the backside... runs Windows 10 and nothing is free. No word program, no spreadsheet.. I have bought so many programs over the years.. Photoshop, Publisher.. and all for nothing, I object to keep paying over and over for basically the same thing.

There are indeed excellent alternative FREE programs which run on Windows 10 and will do all you want with Office docs etc. Word/Spreadsheet - not problem - try Libre Office. Free and compatible to about 98% with Microsoft office docs. As for other programs such as Photoshop, Microsoft office, and others it's often possible to extract the install liscence key, (assuming you've lost or forgotten it), and then find the install file online and reinstall the program on a new computer.

You can find out about such things at places like -this ! Free message board advice. Great eh.

Edited by nice_lady at 7:19 pm, Wed 24 Mar

nice_lady - 2021-03-24 19:16:00

The G.I.M.P. is a good free open source alternative to photoshop.

tygertung - 2021-03-24 19:58:00

wingpoint wrote:

Mine did the same thing.. three days later... still nothing. I reckon I'd waited long enough. it just 'died'.. bought a new one.. what a pain in the backside... runs Windows 10 and nothing is free. No word program, no spreadsheet.. I have bought so many programs over the years.. Photoshop, Publisher.. and all for nothing, I object to keep paying over and over for basically the same thing.

perhaps you should start keeping copies of installation files and license codes etc. Most of them will be easily installable as long as you have license info to hand...

king1 - 2021-03-25 09:26:00