Bad laptop problem!

[PapaBear]

I'm working on a laptop for a friend. I replaced the inverter to solve a black screen problem. That did the job just fine, but now there's an even worse problem! I decided to do a boot time Avast scan. Very early in the scan, it said something about a file being corrupted or something (I know. I should have wrote it down), and it froze.

Now, when I try to boot up, I can hear fans or something running, but it never boots, and I'm pretty sure the hard drive isn't doing anything. I never get a drive light. If I take the battery and hard drive out for a while, and try again, it starts to boot. But when it gets to the blue screen with "Windows" in the middle, it freezes. If I try to reboot, it completely fails to do anything again, until I take the battery and drive out again for a while.

HELP!!!

[Reynolds]

I'm working on a laptop for a friend. I replaced the inverter to solve a black screen problem. That did the job just fine, but now there's an even worse problem! I decided to do a boot time Avast scan. Very early in the scan, it said something about a file being corrupted or something (I know. I should have wrote it down), and it froze.

Now, when I try to boot up, I can hear fans or something running, but it never boots, and I'm pretty sure the hard drive isn't doing anything. I never get a drive light. If I take the battery and hard drive out for a while, and try again, it starts to boot. But when it gets to the blue screen with "Windows" in the middle, it freezes. If I try to reboot, it completely fails to do anything again, until I take the battery and drive out again for a while.

HELP!!!

Can you boot to a disc?

[PapaBear]

Can you boot to a disc?
You mean from a disc? I have the battery and drive out now for a while. I was thinking I might try to boot with the XP disc in next time I try.

[Reynolds]

You mean from a disc? I have the battery and drive out now for a while. I was thinking I might try to boot with the XP disc in next time I try.

Or try booting into safe mode.

[PapaBear]

Or try booting into safe mode.
I always forget. That's done by tapping F8, right?

[PapaBear]

Dammit! I've had the battery and drive out for an hour, and it still won't boot. SHIT!

[KnoxHarrington]

Download and create an Ubuntu live bootup disk and see if the system will boot up from that.

[hunnerbun]

What kind of laptop is it? I just had a similar issue with my HP Pavillion. It was fine in the morning, left it running went out, came home to a black screen and it cycling and trying to boot. Took battery out put it back in and had the same issue. When I called HP the first thing they told me to do was remove the battery then hold down the power key for 20-30 seconds. I don't know why but when i replaced the battery it still wouldn't boot. We also tried booting in safe mode and a couple of other things but nothing worked. I ended up sending it back to them and had to have the system board replaced. Apparently some HP laptops came with a faulty chip in the system board (mine has had this issue twice, both times I sent it back and it was covered under warranty).
Don't know if this is the same thing that is happening to you but it might be worth a look.

[Death Metal Moe]

Sounds like a Mobo issue to me, personally. I know that doesn't really give you a direction to go in, sorry. I haven't done any real big work on laptops so I'd just be interested to hear the story of how this went.

I hope one of those boot discs works for you.

[KnoxHarrington]

Sounds like a Mobo issue to me, personally. I know that doesn't really give you a direction to go in, sorry. I haven't done any real big work on laptops so I'd just be interested to hear the story of how this went.

I hope one of those boot discs works for you.

If it's not starting up at all, I'm thinking motherboard too. If it's the hard drive, it would at least attempt a startup.

I'm finding having a Ubuntu live startup disk around is such a great diagnostic tool. Like I've been having trouble with my Ethernet card not being recognized by my system running Windows 7. I started it up into Ubuntu using one of those disks, and the Ethernet connection fired right up. Which confirms nothing is wrong with my Ethernet card, the cable, or the router/modem; it's something fucked up in Windows itself.

[boosterp]

Download and create an Ubuntu live bootup disk and see if the system will boot up from that.

^ this first. Ubuntu will not load anything but you can run the OS from the CD and it is not bloated like Windows.

What kind of laptop is it? I just had a similar issue with my HP Pavillion. It was fine in the morning, left it running went out, came home to a black screen and it cycling and trying to boot. Took battery out put it back in and had the same issue. When I called HP the first thing they told me to do was remove the battery then hold down the power key for 20-30 seconds. I don't know why but when i replaced the battery it still wouldn't boot. We also tried booting in safe mode and a couple of other things but nothing worked. I ended up sending it back to them and had to have the system board replaced. Apparently some HP laptops came with a faulty chip in the system board (mine has had this issue twice, both times I sent it back and it was covered under warranty).
Don't know if this is the same thing that is happening to you but it might be worth a look.

Sounds like a Mobo issue to me, personally. I know that doesn't really give you a direction to go in, sorry. I haven't done any real big work on laptops so I'd just be interested to hear the story of how this went.

I hope one of those boot discs works for you.

These are correct. My Acer lappy with Ubuntu is 4 years old and I had to replace the BIOS memory battery which is a great task to do, and your god help you if you miss a step in putting it back together.

[styckx]

Umm. Boot the XP CD

Recovery Console

FixMBR
FixBoot

Reboot. Done..

lol @ Ubuntu. He had a corrupt file, not a power surge, where is this bad mobo crap coming from?

If that doesn't fix it, it was a critical file needed to boot Windows. Still not a mobo problem.

[PapaBear]

It was an up and down night. Most times, it wouldn't do anything at all (including trying to boot from disc). Just for the heck of it, I tried booting with no hard drive in at all, and it booted to the system page. So I turned it off, put the drive back in, and it booted fine. It worked for a little while until I made the mistake of plugging shit in. Then it froze again and wouldn't boot again.

A little later, I'm going to try again, (hoping that it boots) and just reformat XP.

[Fallon]

Fucking up a computer is such an awful feeling.

Good luck.

[Death Metal Moe]

Umm. Boot the XP CD

Recovery Console

FixMBR
FixBoot

Reboot. Done..

lol @ Ubuntu. He had a corrupt file, not a power surge, where is this bad mobo crap coming from?

If that doesn't fix it, it was a critical file needed to boot Windows. Still not a mobo problem.

You know, you don't have to be a dick about it.

The Ubuntu was a good idea, it would have shown the mobo was OK but the Windows install was probably fucked. It's a very basic process of elimination that computer folks use.

And not everyone has Windows discs to repair and boot from. I personally have seen VERY few Windows repairs work so I don't even bother to try it anymore.

[Death Metal Moe]

It was an up and down night. Most times, it wouldn't do anything at all (including trying to boot from disc). Just for the heck of it, I tried booting with no hard drive in at all, and it booted to the system page. So I turned it off, put the drive back in, and it booted fine. It worked for a little while until I made the mistake of plugging shit in. Then it froze again and wouldn't boot again.

A little later, I'm going to try again, (hoping that it boots) and just reformat XP.

If it boots consistently without the HD I'll say HD. It's just the intermittent nature of your problem that keeps saying Mobo to me personally. I don't know, I hope you reformat of Windows works. I just recently had a problem of a bad Windows install so maybe it did the same thing mine did and wrote one or two bad files to the disc.

Good luck. Let us know the outcome plz.

[PapaBear]

I just find it odd that the whole thing started with a problem during a boot scan with Avast.

[Death Metal Moe]

Yea, that is unusual. A HD can die at anytime, maybe it died under the stress of a scan? I hope not.

[Fallon]

You know, you don't have to be a dick about it.

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[styckx]

You know, you don't have to be a dick about it.


Yes I do. The most basic of shit wasn't even done yet and people are saying it's a bad motherboard.

A very large amount of the time hardware is never the issue with most computer problems.

"I can't boot"

"REPLACE YOUR MOTHERBOARD!!!!!@#!@!!!!"

If that was the basic logic of figuring out computer problems I wouldn't even be posting this as we'd still be getting around the dreaded

►☺₧╣•☻←♂K◙⌐▓↑ NO CARRIER

[boosterp]

You know, you don't have to be a dick about it.

The Ubuntu was a good idea, it would have shown the mobo was OK but the Windows install was probably fucked. It's a very basic process of elimination that computer folks use.

And not everyone has Windows discs to repair and boot from. I personally have seen VERY few Windows repairs work so I don't even bother to try it anymore.

I agree with the Ubuntu move, hence why I said to try it first. And based on the age of the machine, if older hence my second comments.

Many computers like HP no longer come with actual Win disks but have a small partition where a compressed image lies. If you can not boot, do not have a boot disk made, then you can be fucked. Also, under a Linux start up CD one can retrieve that partition and create an .iso out of it.

Using Window's own repair tool is so nOObish of a move, many times this fails because it does not repair what may be broke, all it does repair is essentially the MBR.

[Death Metal Moe]

Yes I do. The most basic of shit wasn't even done yet and people are saying it's a bad motherboard.

A very large amount of the time hardware is never the issue with most computer problems.

"I can't boot"

"REPLACE YOUR MOTHERBOARD!!!!!@#!@!!!!"

If that was the basic logic of figuring out computer problems I wouldn't even be posting this as we'd still be getting around the dreaded

►☺₧╣•☻←♂K◙⌐▓↑ NO CARRIER

I don't know where you read "We're in over our heads here, just get a new motherboard before the sky falls." We just said we thought it was a motherboard but the process of elimination should still take place. Hopefully it's just software but it doesn't sound like it to me.

Testing with Ubuntu is an excellent idea in the arsenal of a tech.

[PapaBear]

It continues to try to boot if there's no hard drive, but won't if the hard drive is in there. I think that pretty much narrows it down to being a bad drive. Wouldn't you think? And again... I can not try booting from a disc when the drive is in. Is it possible to boot from a disc without the hard drive in?

[boosterp]

It continues to try to boot if there's no hard drive, but won't if the hard drive is in there. I think that pretty much narrows it down to being a bad drive. Wouldn't you think? And again... I can not try booting from a disc when the drive is in. Is it possible to boot from a disc without the hard drive in?

Go into BIOS and change the CD/DVD drive to be the first to boot and move the HD down the list. Many made for Intel boards use Award BIOS, so it is simple.

Then boot with your choice of OS, run a fdisk under Linux (if using that to boot) and you will find out if the HD is bad.

[PapaBear]

Damn. Now it's doing nothing again. I don't understand why it works sometimes without the drive, then it doesn't again until I try again later!

[boosterp]

How old is the lappy?

[PapaBear]

Dell Ispiron 1150. I think it's from 2004. What gets me is, everything was working fine (though it was slow and had a lot of problems that Spybot found) until it had the black screen problem. Fixing the black screen was easy. But all hell broke loose soon after that fix.

[boosterp]

Do you have another lappy to test the HD, can you get into BIOS?

[PapaBear]

Do you have another lappy to test the HD, can you get into BIOS?
That's the frustrating part. If it was a desktop, I could test anything. I have absolutely NO laptop parts here. I know I was able to get into the bios (on the occasions that it lets me) enough to see the screen with the system clock and shit, but I didn't explore to see if I have total access. I'm hoping it will let me do that again in an hour or so.

[Death Metal Moe]

The intermittent part of that still worries me but you said it CONSTANTLY boots to a load screen without the drive right?

If that is the case I'd say HD. You said you replaced an inverter. I know I've heard instances of bad power fucking the HD up eventually, and if the thing is that old it could have had power issues for months or years.

I'd say HD man.

[PapaBear]

but you said it CONSTANTLY boots to a load screen without the drive right?
I thought that was the case at first, but it didn't the last time I tried. I'm letting it sit for a while before I try again.

[boosterp]

Beat it with a fucking hammer.

[PapaBear]

Beat it with a fucking hammer.
I can NOT fail! I never fail!!!!:wallbash:

[boosterp]

I can NOT fail! I never fail!!!!:wallbash:

Do the Linux thing, it will not install, bots from a CD, and you can run a fdisk to check the HD.

[Death Metal Moe]

I thought that was the case at first, but it didn't the last time I tried. I'm letting it sit for a while before I try again.

And this "sitting awhile unused makes it work" thing make me think of some sort of overheating issue. Sounds like you had it apart, was everything clean in there? All the fans working efficiently?

[Reynolds]

Did you try anything with the RAM?

[PapaBear]

Did you try anything with the RAM?
Yeah. It's new RAM that was put in about a month ago. But I still tried swapping it out just to be sure. I think I'm going to have to give up at this point.:banning:

[Reynolds]

Yeah. It's new RAM that was put in about a month ago. But I still tried swapping it out just to be sure. I think I'm going to have to give up at this point.:banning:

Any different message or anything if you just remove the hard drive and try to boot?

[PapaBear]

Any different message or anything if you just remove the hard drive and try to boot?
No messages. It won't boot at all. Nada. Zilch.

[Reynolds]

No messages. It won't boot at all. Nada. Zilch.

Might actually be a motherboard problem then for some reason.

When you unplug the battery, and power cord, did you hold down the power button for like 5 seconds to discharge all the power from it? I never have to when power cycling something, but I've read that it does help to drain everything.

[ToiletCrusher]

Bad laptop.

Be gooder.