Vista hangs at loading bar

[superdave1984]

I have googled till my head hurts. Somebody brought me Dell Inspiron 1318 that had a CD stuck in the drive. It wouldn't boot past the loading bar screen, no Windows logo. Slot load drive and it was jammed. Got a new drive and installed. Still no boot. Downloaded a Vista recovery disk and popped it in the drive. It boots to the disk, but it's in GERMAN. Now I can't get THAT disk out. I hit the eject button and it stops spinning, but doesn't eject. So, since it won't boot to Windows, safe mode, or any other option, how do I get this German disk out without taking this thing apart again? The owner has no disks that came with it and she has already sent it to Dell once and they sent it back unfixed and with a nice bill since it was out of warranty.

EDIT. It's a slot load CD drive and the entire laptop has to be taken apart to remove the drive. PITA.

 

[superdave1984]

UPDATE: Got the disk out, found an OEM copy of Vista and booted to that. I get the loading files screen, then back to the same thing as before. No option to repair or install. Is this a bad OEM disk? Or wrong version? Disk is Vista Business, laptop has home premium. Shoot me please.

 

[kmote]

Could be wrong, but I didn't think vista had a repair mode...

Shoot me please.

*Click Click Boom*

 

[carnageX]

Repair Install For Vista - Vista Forums

Looks like you're SOL if all you have is an OEM disc.

 

[superdave1984]

GAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!
I got a Dell OEM disk, no joy. I can boot to disk, it loads files, then back to windows loading bar like before. Got a legit copy of Vista, tested it on another computer, worked fine. Put it in the laptop, same as the other disk. I booted to Knoppix, got data off. WTF!?

 

[superdave1984]

More non joy. Put in a new hard drive, same thing happens. This is killing me. I feel like my avatar.

EDIT: tried popping my my XP disk, loads files like it is going to install, then the blue screen that says "Setup is starting Windows". And that's it. Just sits there.

 

[superdave1984]

OK, after more Google I discovered something. During the beginning of setup when it asks to hit F6 to install third party drivers, hit F5 to bring up a screen to choose option standard PC i486. And it went through and is now formatting. Hope it works.

 

[kmote]

Hope it works.

Fingers crossed. I would have binned the laptop by now.

 

[superdave1984]

XP went in just fine. However, when I popped in the Vista disk to install it as an upgrade, I got an error because of the BIOS change I made. Back to the beginning.

 

[superdave1984]

SOLVED!!! It was an $8 ribbon cable that connects the buttons above the keyboard for the CD drive to the motherboard. Replaced it, installed Vista. Works fine. Thank you God!