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May 13th, 2025 19:57
Inspiron 660s, Drivers, Bios, and Restart
I have been trying to fix my family's computer for awhile now and I'm not sure what else to do. I am trying to fix its issues so it can be usable for everyone again. It is an Inspiron 660s that we got around 2012. OS windows 10
I will start with the initial problems and then what I tried to do.
The first 2 problems I noticed were restart problems and a very slow hdd on startup and idle. I first went and updated to the newest windows update at the time then doing a disk cleanup and defragment/optimize through windows. I heard reinstalling windows can help so I did that while keeping personal files. That seemed to fix the slow hdd for the most part.
There were still restart problems though. I will click restart through windows, it will go through its process, shutdown then come back up to a dell screen and sit there forever. I can press the power button to turn it off then again and it turns right back on. This happens with at this point nearly every restart.
I went looking into it and tried a few things. I installed support assist and found its on an old bios A07. Tried updating it through the application but would fail at installing. I then replaced the cmos battery, tried again and it still failed. I also ran diagnostics, tested ram, and reseated the cpu, this part was later but nothing was wrong nor did it work on updating the bios.
I looked at forums of other people having problems and there was only one that sounded like mine but its "fix" did not work. I tried manually installing drivers, chipsets, and bios updates. I tried bios A12 and A13(maybe also A11?). This still did not work. One error I believe I got was something about me controller. I ran some commands in cmd but ran into problems there. I then couldnt update windows anymore. So I just decided to reinstalling windows again and post here.
Right now I have reinstalled windows and installed support assist again as well as windowsdesktop-runtime-8.0.15-win-x64 because SA told me to.
I have a new hdd to transfer data if need be.
Got any help for me? If you need anymore info about device please ask me.
<Private data removed from public view. DELL-Admin>
anne_droid
3 Apprentice
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655 Posts
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May 13th, 2025 21:07
Hi
If you can remove your Service Tag please.
""I can press the power button to turn it off then again and it turns right back on.""
This is typically an errant program that is either too slow to turn off / shutdown and causes a restart.
OR corrupt in some other way.
There is an option to ignore this and just shutdown, but I cannot find it as I am in W11, sorry.
But that is what it is.
anne_droid
3 Apprentice
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655 Posts
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May 13th, 2025 21:14
Found it....
System Failure
Automatically Restart is TICKED (checked) untick.
It doesn't cure the problem just hides it.
Maybe there was a system log that recorded the error before the re-install?
Any way now you know.
SpaRamen
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May 13th, 2025 21:39
@anne_droid Hello, I cannot tell if you are telling me to have it checked or not. It was already checked so I unchecked it and tried to restart. Problem still persisted.
In case of confusion, I press restart, a blue screen saying restarting appears, finishes loading I assume then disappears to black, after wards the screen is black then comes the dell screen that I get stuck at when restarting.
I dont think I can edit initial post
anne_droid
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May 14th, 2025 08:46
@SpaRamen
Hi
So the reference to the "controller" suggests it may be the onboard controller for the storage devices, and if so, it is a replacement main board I believe.
I would run a live Linux Mint from a USB and see if that boots repeatedly and cleanly. This removes the current OS and storage device from the equation.
Do you have the space to then fit a new SSD or similar and ultimately use that with a fresh install of W10?
SpaRamen
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May 19th, 2025 17:56
@anne_droid sorry for the late response. I have to figure out how to do that but thats what the internet is for. Yes, I have a replacement HDD that I believe will fit.
SpaRamen
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July 1st, 2025 19:56
@anne_droid Hello I finally got to test with linux mint. I flashed a version of linux onto a usb then changed it to the first boot drive. I tried using the provided option to restart in linux and still ran into the same problem. So I should assume it is a problem with the motherboard itself?
anne_droid
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655 Posts
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July 2nd, 2025 09:30
@SpaRamen
Hi
If you can get Mint running, then there is Gparted which is a graphical 'partition manager'.
That may resemble mine.
The only other quick test is really "testdisk", which is a recovery program that lists all the drives it finds.
Something like......
Terminal
sudo apt install testdisk
sudo testdiskUsing TestDisk:When TestDisk starts, you’ll see a text-based interface.
Select “No Log” .
You will then see a list of available disks.
Use arrow keys to select the disk you want to analyse or recover.
Follow the on-screen prompts to analyse partitions, search for lost partitions, or recover files.
Then I would feel comfortable in assessing it as failed if neither of the above have any positive effect.
(edited)
SpaRamen
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July 2nd, 2025 18:39
@anne_droid I am not sure what the procedure is once I've analyzed using teskdisk. Also I only have xcfe version of Linux mint on the flash drive, and I'm not sure how to proceed with GParted either. I'm okay with using either.
SpaRamen
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July 2nd, 2025 18:45
@SpaRamen this is from a quick analyze in teskdisk
SpaRamen
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July 2nd, 2025 18:47
@SpaRamen here is how far I was able to get in gparted. I may need a different version of Linux mint or fully install it to use.
anne_droid
3 Apprentice
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655 Posts
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July 2nd, 2025 22:23
Hi
All I can tell you is that you have a viable Storage Device.
Several 'Recovery' and "Diagnostic" partitions are present.
I am guessing that the actual boot system is convoluted and/or corrupted, which is why testdisk is reporting it cannot be recovered because it has probably been overwritten.
Unfortunately I cannot tell you how to unravel it.
Sorry, but I don't want to give false hope or dead end instructions.
bradthetechnut
7 Technologist
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8.9K Posts
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July 3rd, 2025 02:26
@SpaRamen A few things to try:
Unplug all external peripherals except for keyboard, mouse, & monitor. See if it will now allow you to update BIOS. Some PC's are like that.
Upon powering on, repeatedly press F12 a few times for Boot & Diagnostics menu. Arrow down to Diagnostics and run it. See if the HDD comes up.
Load a new HDD/SSD (preferably SSD) with Win10. If the restart problem is still there, then it might be an MB problem.
Win10 performs better on SSD's. Boots, restarts, and updates all work faster and better.