Laptop Issue (1 Viewer)

[Kujah]

Turned on my laptop today, but a blank screen with a flashing cursor appears on the upper left-hand side. I think my HDD might be the cause of the problem, but I'm not sure.

Help please

 

[z600]

Take your harddrive out and brush the contact points for dust, if that doesnt work, there's a chance its dead

 

[Kujah]

What'd be the major causes of a HDD failure?

 

[mr_brightside]

Did you drop it?

 

[Kujah]

Did you drop it?

No.

 

[em_516]

possssssibly a stupid response but is there anything in your disc drive? i get a screen like that when i turn my computer on with a cd still inserted

maybe an obvious thing that you would check, but sometimes people forget the obvious things *shrug*

 

[Kujah]

Well, connectors can be knocked loose by general moving around and stuff. I'd check all of those first. This happened once with my video card, and all I had to do was take it out and reconnect it. I was so proud I actually fixed something for a change =)

Everything's fine with the connectors. Nothing's out of place.

possssssibly a stupid response but is there anything in your disc drive? i get a screen like that when i turn my computer on with a cd still inserted

maybe an obvious thing that you would check, but sometimes people forget the obvious things *shrug*

Yeah, I opened my disk drive. Nothing was in there.

 

[Kujah]

No

 

[S1M0]

What'd be the major causes of a HDD failure?

Power surge or something that would interrupt the power supply in the computer.

Hmm....check the hdd, make sure its bolted on right. Or try getting a new laptop hdd.

 

[Acaanpca]

It could be a dead hard drive, dead hard drive controller, corrupted software. Is the laptop still under warrantee? If so just take it back to where you got it and let them sort it out.

 

[Bacilli]

Turned on my laptop today, but a blank screen with a flashing cursor appears on the upper left-hand side. I think my HDD might be the cause of the problem, but I'm not sure.

Help please

When you switch on the laptop, do you get a post screen and bios options? Also, what brand laptop?

 

[Kujah]

When you switch on the laptop, do you get a post screen and bios options? Also, what brand laptop?

Yeah, but the buttons that I'm only allowed to rpess when I've booted up the laptop are F10 for Bios and ESC for changing boot order.

I have a HP Compaq.

 

[Z66R2V]

Sounds like you have a dead HDD.

Is it under warranty? If so, they can replace it. If not, then you shouldn't have too many issues getting it replaced on your own.

Do you get a message like "Boot disk failure, or no system disk inserted" or something similar?

 

[Kujah]

Sounds like you have a dead HDD.

Is it under warranty? If so, they can replace it. If not, then you shouldn't have too many issues getting it replaced on your own.

Do you get a message like "Boot disk failure, or no system disk inserted" or something similar?

There's a blank screen with a flashing cursor when I boot it up.

When I try to put my recovery disks in, then that message that you one stated occurs.

I'm going to call a HP service engineer soon. Hope they fix it

 

[MuffinMan]

Should be a dead hdd, sounds like you have a warranty though. Even if you don't notebook hdd's are becoming quite cheap now, so you can just replace it (with probably a better one). Hope you get it fixed soon though

^^ Hahaha you live near me

 

[Bacilli]

Ok, you need to enter the BIOS and tell me whether or not the HDD is recognized in there. Even if it is, unless you know what you doing, I would take your own advice and contact Compaq's Service Centre. The fact that it's not being recognized when the recoveries are loaded indicates that the HDD is dead. However, it can also be caused by a loose wire within the laptop itself, or a contact requires re-soldering within the HDD. Either way, unless you know what you're doing, I wouldn't recommend busting it open and playing around with things.

One last question, when you turn the laptop on, do you hear the HDD firing up?

 

[withoutaface]

To check if it's a HDD problem grab a linux live CD and see if it boots.

 

[Kujah]

Ok, you need to enter the BIOS and tell me whether or not the HDD is recognized in there. Even if it is, unless you know what you doing, I would take your own advice and contact Compaq's Service Centre. The fact that it's not being recognized when the recoveries are loaded indicates that the HDD is dead. However, it can also be caused by a loose wire within the laptop itself, or a contact requires re-soldering within the HDD. Either way, unless you know what you're doing, I wouldn't recommend busting it open and playing around with things.

One last question, when you turn the laptop on, do you hear the HDD firing up?

1. BIOS Screen- My HDD isn't recognised.
2. When my laptop's booted on, its basically silent. I don't think that's too good =(

 

[Bacilli]

HDD is dead. But, just to be certain, contact HP/Compaq and ask for their opinion.

 

[Kujah]

It's only 3 months old and my HDD's died? Need to have serious talk with Compaq :angry: