Thread: Laptop Won't start

OK guys:

I haev tried everythign but a boot disk... A friend has a laptop tat she gave me to try and fix. When it starts up it goes to the startup screen (Push esc for setup or F10 for...) and then goes to a blank screen with a _ in the top left. Computer is totally unresponsive from there. I have tried to run the HDD check from the Setup screen and it fails...

nay help would be apprectiatd. Are there any boot up CDs that I can download to check the HDD or at least get into safe mode? I have a feeling that the HDD is bad.

I do not have the VISTA Original CD....

FAW

If you can access the BIOS, most of them will allow you to check the HDD from within the BIOS.

Originally Posted by laggyNgroovy

If you can access the BIOS, most of them will allow you to check the HDD from within the BIOS.

When I do that the check Fails...

Then you are likely correct, the HDD has gone bad. If the BIOS can not read any information on the HDD, I'd wager the drive has gone bad physically, not a corruption issue. Possibly the controller card has gone bad, but it won't help you much even then.

You can try going to Frys, Microcenter or whatever your decently stocked PC store of choice is and get a USB drive converter. $20ish. It will allow you to take the HDD out and plug it in to a working PC via a USB cable. If you get lucky, you may be able to manipulate it from there. If by some miracle you do gain access to the drive, I would immediately go about saving whatever is IMPORTANT. Not backed up photos, not backed up school papers, not backed up password files, not backed up contact lists (are you seeing a pattern here?)

Took the HDD out...Hooked it up to my i7 (just to scare it... And could read the dirve fine... I think that the controller is bad in the laptop... It can't even find a HDD when I try to do a re-install of Vista. It says (No drive found to install Vista)...

Crazy....