laptop stuck on root menu

[feva]

yesterday my laptop stopped typeing, it got left alone till i came from work i switched it back on and the keyboard wouldnt work on any program, other than that the laptop was wworking fine,

i then reset it and it came up with windows root manager, and is asking for which operating system to start with (thats whats in the white bar, ie windows 7) but since the keyboard wont work i cant select any.

the laptop is a dell inspiron n5030

could anyone please hell me? i can take it back and get it swapped for a new one as its only 2 weeks old, but all my work files are on it so i would prefer to either to get it working again, or get it so i could take my files off first before i return it

[kellys_eye]

Check all the keyboard keys for one being 'stuck down'. If this happens it locks out the proper keypresses.

[Megaross]

If none of the keys are stuck down and the ribbon cable is seated correctly, some laptops allow you to use an external keyboard on startup, if nothing else you may be able to get to your files and BACK THEM UP!!!!!
Or you can take the hard drive out, plug it into another machine and transfer the files over.

[feva]

If none of the keys are stuck down and the ribbon cable is seated correctly, some laptops allow you to use an external keyboard on startup, if nothing else you may be able to get to your files and BACK THEM UP!!!!!
Or you can take the hard drive out, plug it into another machine and transfer the files over.

the files are back up but all my accounts are on them, so i would prefer to take them of before i take it back

il try the suggestions and get back to you

[Megaross]

Well it's easy enough to make an exact image of your hard drive and stick it on the new laptop if you have the right software/ tools.
You just need a second pc with enough space to hold an image of your current hard drive, when you get the new laptop you'll be able to go back to exactly what you had before.

[feva]

i bought a keyboard and ive got it working alright, but the keyboard on the laptop still wont work so im just trying to find the receipt to take it back only had it two weeks if that.

thankfully i hadnt had chance put everything i wanted on the things, so everything is still on my external hard drive.

[wine~o]

Dumb question I know...you haven't accidently locked the keyboard

[Screwmaster]

My opinion is that's not the keyboard.

If I look exactly to the picture "Chose an operating system to start. . . . .".
Do you have a CD into you CD drive? Another possibility is that your hard drive is ko.
Can you try to start your pc with a win installation CD?

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[Cannyfixit]

I got that screen last week it happened because my laptop froze so i held the power button down when it restarted i pressed F8 and got the option to start windows normally its been ok since

[joinerjohn]

Even with a bootable CD in the CD drive, the keyboard should still work as intended. My keyboard still works even if I disconnect the internal HDD, so the computer couldn't possibly boot. Had a problem with mine last month where the HDD packed up working (not detected) Bought a new HDD and put that in . Without an OS the keyboard still worked. Managed to download Ubuntu to a USB stick on another computer and get it to boot off that, then installed this to my new HDD.

[tombarry]

I suspect that your laptop has been repaired by now- but dell if still under warranty will repair/replace it for you
But it looks like the bios needed sorting