laptop problem...

tharlanjr

tharlanjr

NAXJA Forum User
Location
EAST COUNTY
Seems like there are a lot of people having problems with their computers lately so I figured I would post my problem.

I have my parents old laptop computer, its a Compaq Presario M2000 with window's XP Home Edition.

About a week ago it stopped booting all the way. It will go to the Window's XP screen then to an orange Compaq background ad just stops there.

It won't load in any of the safe modes. It didn't come with any back up disks.

Any idea's on what I can do?


Thanks
 
Find a buddy with a copy of xp home and reload from scratch. When it asks for the cd key put in the one on the sticker that should be on the bottom of the laptop.
 
CD's that come with a retail computer are usually recovery discs which will not work. It’s possible they have a full copy of windows xp home. Read what it says on the disc or boot from it.

When you have a non booting notebook that only shows the splash screen usually it's a bad hard drive or corrupt system files. The way I would fix it is pull the hard drive put it in a desktop computer check if the drive is responsive and run chkdsk. If files seem to be intact put it back in the notebook. If it does not boot use the system restore files. Still no boot depending if the hard drive seems bad back it up replace it and reinstall windows. Probably easier said than done.

I think there is a recovery option if you hit f11 during startup to wipe it out and start over.
 
I can get into "PhoenixBIOS Setup Utility" when pressing f10, but f11 doesn't do anything for me.

I think all my parents have are recovery disks.

I am running a "Hard Drive Self Test" thats in the utility section, see what happens...
 
Set boot priority to your cd drive in bios (or press f8 or f12 or whatever your bios uses)
1.First try repairing windows.
2. Try reinstalling windows
3.Test your hard drive.
This is a good time to have 2 hard drives so you can recover the lost data from the old one. Or another computer and one of these thingys http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812156102 (I love it)
4. Recover what you can.
5. Reformat
6. Reinstall drivers
7.You should be back on your favorite site in no time! Hard core Rock krawlin!
 
tharlanjr said:
I can get into "PhoenixBIOS Setup Utility" when pressing f10, but f11 doesn't do anything for me.

I think all my parents have are recovery disks.

I am running a "Hard Drive Self Test" thats in the utility section, see what happens...
Click to expand...
If you have a recovery disk for that computer, it should have the OS on it, specific for that computer. Try booting from the recovery disk. You may have to go into the bios to change the boot order so that it boots from CD first, but it may never have been changed, so just try a cold boot with the recovery disk. Most of these will give you a file repair option that does not require reinstallation and reformatting. You could try that first, and see if it works. Nothing much to lose.
 
Compaq/HP usually come with 2-3 disc's one for booting and the other that has the OS on it, the first one boots it and preps the HD then calls for the second one.
 
sorry to hijack, but here's another laptop problem;

dog chewed power cable, on PC side of power supply (12vDC I would guess)
picked up laptop not noticing chewed cable
noticed few small sparks, sound of shorting out
before I could do anything the screen went black
haven't been able to turn it on, do anything since
battery is fine, but cable is done and tossed out


I've got a new laptop already, but was thinking after maybe its a simple fix and can use both.
 
Beakie, exactly the same thing happened to a friend a year or so ago. I ended up with a free laptop, with what seems to be a fried motherboard. I never figured out what happened, but once that pooch bit the cord, it was all over. I got a good deal, because I had a similar laptop with a bad keyboard. I put his hard drive and keyboard into mine, salvaged a bunch of files for him, and in return got to put the two machines together into one good one that I kept.

I suspect that if the thing really has gone black, you're out of luck. But if it's a goner anyway, you might check to see if there's some kind of fuse or fusible link that could be replaced. Many laptops can be approached by figuring out how to get the keyboard out, usually after snapping off the plastic between it and the hinges. Underneath might be something visible. I found nothing identifiable on the one I got, but maybe you'll get lucky.
 
thanks,
I actually replaced the mobo in this pc a few years ago. it's 4 years old I got my moneys worth out of it, but it was pretty high end in its time... was trying to salvage it for media or whatever it may be good for.
had HDMI & s-video outs, but if a new mobo is cheap it may be worth it to get fired up again anyway.

will search for some answers on google too.

thanks
 
well cancel my last.
figured I'd take it apart again now that it's pooched, got it all apart, cleaned it up, back together, tried the power button and it fired up.

so now I need to figure out what its good for... other than a spare laptop.
 
Tharlanjr if you decide to connect the hard drive to another computer I like a more basic approach. Something like this http://www.startech.com/item/IDE4044-25-to-35-IDE-Hard-Drive-Cable-Adapter.aspx just a straight cable adapter less things to go wrong. Cheap is good you get a short the card will burn up before the hard drive.

The all-in-one ide sata usb adapter may work but I've fried hard drives with them before. When you distroy someone's data one time you never do it again.
 
Mesh said:
Tharlanjr if you decide to connect the hard drive to another computer I like a more basic approach. Something like this http://www.startech.com/item/IDE4044-25-to-35-IDE-Hard-Drive-Cable-Adapter.aspx just a straight cable adapter less things to go wrong. Cheap is good you get a short the card will burn up before the hard drive.

The all-in-one ide sata usb adapter may work but I've fried hard drives with them before. When you distroy someone's data one time you never do it again.
Click to expand...


Yea, I have a bunch of those statech adapters.
 
Mesh said:
When you distroy someone's data one time you never do it again.
Click to expand...

Really I've recovered quite a few hardrives with it and never "distroyed" any.
 
Go to newegg and sort by bad reviews. I don't know what it is about those all-in-one usb things. External hard drive carriages seem to be reliable if you want a usb option.
 
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