Laptop/Computer Issues

[Poolsean]

Non-Pool related...

My Dell D-600 goes through the normal start up but never gets to the log on screen. In fact, it goes to a blank screen and only the mouse appears.

During start up, I can get into diagnostics and the only "Fail" I get are IDE read error.

From what I read, this leads to a hard drive problem.

It's a Toshiba 30 GB HD.

HELP?????? Am I in the right direction?

What else can I check?

Sean

 

[Guest]

What operating system? Are you able to get into the computer bios?

 

[DeckSgt]

One step that might help would be to hold down F-12 during/immediately after the Dell splash screen. This should get you into a boot menu, and the option for either safe mode or other boot options, such as booting from your CD-rom in the event you have a rescue disc. Are you running windows or a Linux distro ??

 

[sefrlw]

Hit F12 during the BIOS init and it should bring up the boot menu. One of the options is diagnostics. Run them. Disk drive should pass or fail. If it passs then you might try running a CHKDSK with the drive hooked up to another PC. If fail then get a new disk and reload.

 

[Tdog]

I had a similar problem with my Gateway laptop running XP. It would boot up, show the flash screen, and then nothing. After doing hours of research on the internet, I found out that a bootup file was missing and causing the entire thing to crash. All I had to do was burn the file to a disk and tell the computer to boot from the disk. Unfortunately, I don't remember what or how I did it (couple years ago), but I do know that there is a forum somewhere that explains how to do it. I will look when I get home and see if I still have it in my favorites.

 

[Poolsean]

Thanks for the feed back.

I'm running Window 98. It's an older Dell D600.
I can get in to the BIOS and did a diagnostic. It came back with fail on Read IDE.
I tried the safe mode, and it would get to a point where it shows safe mode on the four corners of the screen, but nothing else except the mouse pointer, which I can move around.

Everything else on the Diagnostic passed.

What do you think? HDD?

 

[sefrlw]

Thanks for the feed back.

I'm running Window 98. It's an older Dell D600.
I can get in to the BIOS and did a diagnostic. It came back with fail on Read IDE.
I tried the safe mode, and it would get to a point where it shows safe mode on the four corners of the screen, but nothing else except the mouse pointer, which I can move around.

Everything else on the Diagnostic passed.

What do you think? HDD?

BINGO. If you have data on it you want to recover do not turn it on again until you are ready to recover the data. Get one of these. http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/category/category_slc.asp?CatId=470 or one similar. Take the HDD out and hook it up to the laptop after you load the new HDD. Then you can copy the data you need. There are no gaurantees on recovery though. Things that can help, a small fan blowing on the disk is usually a great precaution. If the drive is not seen by the pc there are other things to try. Will go into that if needed.

Replacing the disk. Remove the single screw holding it in. It is located on the bottom of the maching near the headphone and mic jacks. Carefully pull the drive out. 4 screw hold the drive in the carrier. Once you take those screws out take the HDD out of the carrier and carefully remove the "spade" connector from the old drive. Go slow taking it off. I have guy here that I know every drive he touches. He is always is a hurry and he bends the pins all the time. Put the connector on the new drive. Reinstall and reload.

FWIW I do this every week with at least 1 D600 and D610.