laptop just when t*ts up

[rich p]

The screen went blank, bleeped and came up blue screen with a terminal sounding error message

internal hard disk drive not found
To resolve this issure, try to rteseat the drive.

No bootable devices--strike F1 to retry reboot, F2 for setting up utility
press F5 to run onboard diagnostics.

Diagnostics just took me back to square one.

Any suggestions?

 

[rusky]

Remove & reinsert HDD??

 

[ACS]

Dead HDD, hope you have backups

or

power failure to the HDD. Loose cable perhaps

Only way to find out is removed the HDD and slave into another PC. How old is the laptop / HDD?

 

[rusky]

I would start by reseating the HDD but it's a long shot!

If it's dead, I've probably got a spare you can have.

 

[Norm]

I would start by reseating the HDD but it's along shot!

However unlikely it is that the BIOS reports the true error, but it would be a good place to start.

If it wasn't making any nasty noises before it went, chances are that the HDD should be ok.

Flip it over and you'll probably find a screw or two to undo which will allow access to the HDD. Try reseating the disk and making sure that the cables are properly connected.

It could also be something which only shows when the laptop is warm, so don't assume it's all ok if the thing does come up ok after you've left it for a while.

Oh, and about those back ups... you do make back ups, don't you?

 

[Crackle]

Just check the bios to see which drive it's looking for when it boots up, it may just have lost its settings.

 

[MacB]

Laptops do seem to get a lot of problems, we've now got two defunct ones. When I psyche myself up I'm going to have a go at soldering a new internal power supply on one and replacing the hard drive on the other.

Jane, was at Uni the other day, GTP course, and she reckoned nearly all of them had laptop issues. Power supplies and hard drives being the main problem followed by screens.

There are some good guides available online, I'd give that a go. Pick one that you can follow, lay everything out ready, kettle on and get set for several hours of cursing.

 

[Crankarm]

When I saw the title of this thread and the author, I honestly thought this would be a thread about him visiting a mucky site .

Sympathies and commiserations rich with the laptop. Hope you get it working soon. Sorry no advice to help you other than saying trying to sort it will be dead time. Work on any computer is dead time IMHO which I begrudge. There are better ways to shorten one's life.

 

[rich p]

I've just woken after a sleepless night last night on the fnrttc so I'm off to peoper bed and I'll revisit tomorrow. Cheers all.

 

[rh100]

It may not be the drive itself, although it seems the most likely cause. If you have a bootable cd you can try, then see if you can see the disk drive from whatever you boot into. It's possible the operating system has thrown a wobbly. maybe run a repair from an XP disk.

 

[rich p]

I've been through the online Dell diagnostic, taking out the optical drive then the hard driuve and iut would seem that it's the HD. Out of warranty but the hard drive was replaced under warranty 6 months ago. Do you think that that part is still warrantied?
Would I be better getting a new HD off Dell or could I get one somewhere else?

 

[MacB]

I've been through the online Dell diagnostic, taking out the optical drive then the hard driuve and iut would seem that it's the HD. Out of warranty but the hard drive was replaced under warranty 6 months ago. Do you think that that part is still warrantied?
Would I be better getting a new HD off Dell or could I get one somewhere else?

I'd try to get another freebie first, but hard drives are pretty robust. Is it the same sort of setup as a PC? as in needs cooling, correct power supply etc? I believe overheating can give a lot of issues so the root problem may be the fan unit.

 

[rich p]

I have noticed the fan whirring away like a dervish. I'm on the phone now arguing the toss!

 

[rich p]

I don't know if I did right or wrong but they said the replacement HD I had in September was only covered for 4 months I gave them my considered opinion on the quality of their product and how surprised I was that they had such little faith in their own hard drives and got a 3 year extended warranty for the price of two. I'm now £119 out of pocket but the engineer is coming tomorrow.
Good and bad, I suppose.

 

[MacB]

Seems a fair price if it keeps it going for 3 years, cheapo repair shops around here want £150 just to solder a new internal power supply.