Does anyone here do laptop repairs?

Originally Posted by foxyinleather

Yes if it is hardware then I would leave it alone, however if it is software I would suggest wiping your laptop after you have tried the re-install/repair off the original operating system. I have a Killsys disk which would wipe your system in seconds, hmmm could do some really damage in lots of places with that (Used to use it when I was teaching IT.) You would then need to load your operating system etc... and see if that works. A friend of mine had a similar problem with theirs but couldn't get into the F8 options (safe mode etc...) I checked the hardware all seemed fine, so I put in my Killsys disk (as a last resort), wiped it clean, loaded a new operating system etc... and that worked . Call it cheating if you like but if it is a quick fix and works then it is worth it

If he has the original CD and has that as a boot device in the BIOS, it shouldn't matter what is on the HD as it will go for the CD ... but if it needs forcing as the HD is playing silly bu66ers your widget sounds a gem!!

True and yes my widget is a gem could be quite lethal too

I quite like widget gems, haven't seen them in the shops for years.

Originally Posted by Lozzo

I quite like widget gems, haven't seen them in the shops for years.

yes and if you put them in your laptop then it def wouldn't work ROFL

the noise you are hearing could be the hard drive.......which is not expensive to replace.....and I'm happy to help if you need a replacement

Yeah, tbh the "ribbit" noise sounds like a hard drive issue. Either partial bad sectors or suffient bad sectors to kill it for good. Given that it gets into the boot process is a good thing, means part of the drive is working at least.

Either way, you're probably looking at a rebuild, ie. loss of all information on there and start from scratch again (obviously there are recovery tools that can retrieve info but best to give the worse case scenario), but a disk repair tool (hell even Scandisk would probably do it) should be able to mark the bad blocks and then you can reload Windoze and everything else. Or, should the disk prove terminally fubar then it's just a case of another 2.5" drive (can probably find one around £100, been a while since I looked, they're more expensive than 3.5" drives), take the old one out, remove the adapator plate from the old one, stick it on the new one, insert new drive. And again rebuild Windoze.

I get my PC bits from www.microdirect.co.uk

you can get a HDD for a max of £50.....

http://www.microdirect.co.uk/(34303)...h-5400rpm.aspx

Originally Posted by 600+

the noise you are hearing could be the hard drive.......which is not expensive to replace.....and I'm happy to help if you need a replacement

+1.

Sounds like the disk is crunching. In the past this has happened because the spindle inside has collapsed. New laptop hard drives are pretty cheap, and easy to fit in most cases.

TBH, the whole issue sounds like it's hard drive related. It'll boot as far as the Windows splash screen, then hangs. Replace hard drive, and maybe pull data off the old drive.

SoulKiss, you have my address, if my suspicions are right about the hard drive, stick it in the post to me. I have a mate that has a vacuum environment and owes me a favour. Offers there to get what I can off the magnetic discs & stick it on CD/DVD.

Originally Posted by 600+

I get my PC bits from www.microdirect.co.uk

you can get a HDD for a max of ?50.....

http://www.microdirect.co.uk/(34303)Western-Digital-160GB-Scorpio-25-inch-5400rpm.aspx

It could be that it just has corrupted data on it and a format/repair and he is ok ...

Anyway, he is not gonna want to spend ?50 on an old nail of a laptop ... If it is that, I've got an old laptop hard drive I can give him ...

Its only going to be a tiddler, but if all he wants in an OS and a perhaps a PDF reader on there, then I don't see that as a problem

Originally Posted by Blue_SV650S

It could be that it just has corrupted data on it and a format/repair and he is ok ...

It could be, yes, but that doesn't explain the frog that's apparently trapped inside it!