Computer help

Stuart Ablett

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Tokyo Japan
OK, I have a laptop that we are having trouble with.

I keep getting a blue screen of death, after start up, XP does not seem to load, and I get a message that says something to the effect of "The Drive can not be mounted". It would even NOT start in safe mode.

After several tries, I have got it back, up and working, but I fear there is something WRONG.

I've not added anything to the computer in the way of hardware, or software (neither have my kids, or my wife, I checked) and this happened this AM when we first started the computer.

In the past, too many times to recall, my wife's bonehead sister has come along and turned the computer off, by holding the power button down, to save electricity. I know, I know, I've threatened the little creep with bodily harm, but she is a nut on that stuff, she works for the city government, and they are fanatical about that kind of stuff....... She does not have privileges on our computers, as she got on one before, and proceeded to download a whole bunch of Trojans, viruses, etc. that took me a week to clean up, so our computers self lock.

Anyway, I'm thinking we need a new HD.

What do you guys think?

Cheers!
 
Been there, done that. Problem is it's hard to trouble shoot from long distance but does sound like it could be a HD problem. It's a shame you don't have a spare to try because it could be the Mother Board too. Do you know anyone that tinkers and you might could borrow a HD from? Even a small one would work for this. Just pop it in and put on an OS and see what happens.

Fought with a desktop that is destined for my shop that I was convinced the MB was bad. It turns out it was a bad memory stick.
 
Stu...........Maybe someone else will have a better idea but....It's possible the HD got corrupted. You might try putting in a bootable cd or floppy...booting to it and reformatting your HD and reloading software.....Otherwise it appears to me that your HD might be toast. On the large computers we use with CT and MR scanners...that's what I'd try. Good luck! Hope there is a cheap fix!
 
My thought too, hardware. Probably hard drive. XP is pretty reliable and sorta 'self repairing'. After a couple boots, if you can boot, it should be OK. That's not the case with yours. Too bad.
 
Well, I'm using this computer right now, as I type, but like I said, earlier it would not run even in safe mode, I must have restarted it from the Blue screen of death 6 or 8 times, now it is running fine.....? :huh:

HD are cheap, I'll swap one out and see what happens.

We bought it used about a year ago for CHEAP, so I'm not too upset about it.

Cheers!

Oh, one more thing, it was running REALLY HOT too (plugged in, not on the batteries).
 
If it's overheating that can cause problems. My tablet PC has lost it's fan I think. In the summer in the truck running GPS without the air on it will lock up and it's just painfully slow. Shut it off and 10 minutes latter it's fine. Till it heats up again. You may be onto something there.
 
Don't know if this will help you, but I get the blue screen of death about once a month. I unplug all the USB connectors and power up/down and that always fixes it. I think something times out and XP isn't smart enough to get around it.....:dunno:

Good luck and if it does come back up, make a backup first thing!
 
Don't know if this will help you, but I get the blue screen of death about once a month. I unplug all the USB connectors and power up/down and that always fixes it. I think something times out and XP isn't smart enough to get around it.....:dunno:

Good luck and if it does come back up, make a backup first thing!

This seems to have solved it, I did all of this, without really knowing why, but it just seemed like a good idea to unplug everything and try it again, it worked! :thumb:

I'll check on the fan and stuff later, the laptop is shut down for the day, I'm heading to the Dungeon to try got get some more done on my minor reno.

Cheers!
 
Stu, et. al.
There is a battery on the motherboard that will eventually go dead. It is what powers the SDRAM and other crit functions when the system is shut down. This has happened to me with a CPU that I replaced, let rest and replaced the battery. It works great now and is a DB server for some of my work.
 
... I get a message that says something to the effect of "The Drive can not be mounted"....

That's certainly curious terminology on a Windoze machine. Since when did MS start borrowing Unix type terminology (mounted)? Just because of the mounted phrase, I'm wondering if the error message isn't due to a problem with a drive that allows removable media (CD or DVD)? Have you tried changing the drive boot order in the BIOS startup screens to see if you can get the thing to start without checking a CD or other drive first?
 
I had that same error message once and had very similar issues. After a few weeks of frustration and intermitant use the HD starting making grinding noises. I replaced the HD with a new one and its been working for 2-3 years without problems.....except the cd drawer that wouldn't open.....Good Ole claw hammer took care of that problem :thumb:
 
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