Dell D610 laptop starts up with grey screen

hi,
i have a Dell D610 laptop, it starts up only till the F2 F12 boot screen then goes blank/grey?
i have used the cd for diagnostic testing and all works fine and the screen works too?
please can someone help with what this could be?
thank you very much

May be a hard drive problem. Are you getting any error messages or is it stuck at a blank screen?

Did the diagnostic check the hard drive?

no error messages blank screen
the diagnostic test i did was for boot startup and video then i did the quick test and everything seemed ok.
it has the 9 in a lock key lit which some say is just the numlock key lit up but even when i take it off it goes back on again when computer attempts to start...

If you have the install CD that came with the machine, boot from that. You may have to press F12 to get to the boot menu to select booting from the CD.

Once booted from the CD, try using the R for repair. See if your hard drive shows up. If so, you can use the chkdsk /r command to check the hard drive.

Disclaimer: I am not an admin or tech on this site.

boots from cd into diagnostics only options are test memory or test system...how would i check the harddrive? thanks

What other disks do you have? There is typically a dark blue 'Install Disk' that comes with Dells.

no dont have any others? can i download this anywhere?

I'd like you to try running chkdsk from an install CD.

I don't know where you can download one. You can use any Windows XP install CD to do this.

Can you borrow one?

ok will try what do i do? will it tell me if my hard drive is gone?

Yes. chkdsk is a program on the install disk that will check your hard drive.

Once you're booted from the install disk, type R to get to the Recovery Console. From there type chkdsk /r and hit the Enter key to let it run.

Note the space between chkdsk and /r.

it started then said if you continue could lose all data then it shut down and looks like im giving it in to repairs since its dead ....thnx for your help

Let us know what you find at the repair shop.

it was something to do with the battery and it going off in the middle of starting up that ruined the hard drive...

Did they replace the hard drive or just run chkdsk or possibly something else? Just curious.