Laptop won't boot. HP telling me to take it to BestBuy?!?

[Fis]

My wife has a HP ZV6000 notebook computer that is just out of warranty. It runs on WinXP SP2. The laptop suddenly started bringing her to the advanced boot screen when she tries to turn it on (with choices to start in safe mode or "last known good configuration, etc.).

No matter which boot mode is selected, the laptop churns for a minute then drops you back onto the same screen.

Hard drive test says the hard drive is ok. However, I took the drive out of the laptop and installed it in an external reader (a portable reader from Hyperdrive), and it did not appear to recognize the hard drive at all.

The only option HP has presented is to run a recovery program that will wipe the hard drive clean. Of course she has not backed up her files for a long time and wants to avoid that. HP advised her to take the hard drive to BestBuy where they could recover the files before it is wiped clean.

Are there options that we are missing? I always thought it was possible to boot to Windows from a disc.

 

[robisbell]

when was the last time the system was opened up by a HP tech and cleaned? sounds like hardware failure, possible motherboard failure. would suggest you call local computer shops in your area and see if any of them could at least disassemble it and look for and damage and also do a general cleaning. I would also suggest you look at ebay for a motherboard for that laptop or start shopping for a replacement laptop outright.

 

[Old Hippie]

I took the drive out of the laptop and installed it in an external reader (a portable reader from Hyperdrive),

I'm not sure what a portable reader is, but for a chance to recover her data, I'd try installing the HD in an external case connected to a known working machine.

 

[Fis]

Sorry I was trying to say that's what I did. I have an external enclosure by HyperDrive (it has card slots and also functions as a card reader).

 

[thegisguy]

Sounds to me like the hard drive is DOA. You could alway send the hard drive off to a data recovery company to have the data recovered, but that is going to cost you.

 

[jackschmittusa]

robisbell

Suggesting buying a new mb without knowing it is bad is nothing short stupid. We know you replace parts willy-nilly when you don't have a clue, but it's not a very good idea to buy parts to do that.

 

[robisbell]

Jack, you were told to either focus on helping the OP or to kindly keep your comments private per system admins. thanks.

OP, like I stated, need to have the system opened up and cleaned and reassembled to see if it was because of clogged heatsinks, that's the 1st step.

 

[Pulsar]

Originally posted by: robisbell
Jack, you were told to either focus on helping the OP or to kindly keep your comments private per system admins. thanks.

OP, like I stated, need to have the system opened up and cleaned and reassembled to see if it was because of clogged heatsinks, that's the 1st step.

That is completely, patently, wrong. Stop posting if you can't help him.

He did the first step exactly correctly. Installing into another computer to see if the drive was recognizable is always the first step if a drive stops working.

You are not going to get a heat issue when you can't even boot the computer. He probably had it turned on for all of 30 seconds. Dust in the heat sinks will not cause that.

If your bios has a boot by USB option, you could always put a small operating system on a usb key, install the hard-drive back into the laptop, then boot off usb to see if the data is there. That may be your next step.

Unfortunately, at the point where the drive is unreadable, you're kind of shot. It obviously turns on or it wouldn't start loading. Have you tried booting to command prompt and running scandisk /f on the c:?

 

[Fis]

Thanks. How do I do that? (Not that savvy -- just know enough to be dangerous)

 

[jackschmittusa]

robisbell

Sorry, but I thought it wise to save him from your help. That is being helpful.

How can you not find it helpful when I tell someone there is no need to follow absurd advise?

 

[robisbell]

Pulsar, Jack, base don the vague info the OP posted I gave the best advice, I have done this long enough to have seen pretty much everything at least once, the HDD diagnosticvs are fine, no idea what this reader is (external HDD enclosure??), no idea if the system was infected, I always start with the obvious on a laptop, and work from there. I told you Jack, you were told to keep your personal comments personal, the public forum is for actually helping people that ask for it. jack, which you do not do, you were given time to show how good you think you are and you did not fix any problems, nor give any accurate help. I will be placing you on ignore till you can stop hiding, and being a jealous lil twit.

p.s. jack, I would have told you that but since you are so afraid of everything, I have to leave this here.

 

[jackschmittusa]

robisbell

I didn't get personal at all, but you sure are!

You got time off before for running off at the mouth. Looks like you are trying to do it again. Good luck.

Your supposition that everyone is jealous of you is a joke right?

By-the-way. You are the one that started with the blocking PMs, or did you forget?

 

[PieIsAwesome]

Sounds like the HDD is shot. By "churns" do you mean actual sounds?

Even if the HDD is dead the computer should be able to stay on unless it has some sort of fail-safe. If you have another computer you can always try downloading, burning, and using a linux live disc, like Ubuntu, to help rule out other hardware problems.

 

[Pulsar]

Read about bootable CD's here.

http://vlaurie.com/computers2/Articles/boot.htm

 

[thegisguy]

Following Pulsars lead...

If I were you I would download a copy of Knoppix. It's a fully bootable version of Linux. Try booting to your CD/DVD drive to rule out other hardware. However as I said before if your drive didn't get recognized when you installed it into an external drive, it's probably the source of your problems.

Keep us posted.

 

[Fis]

Great reference. Going to try starting it up. Thanks.

 

[faxon]

one question i have is, when you put the drive into another system, was it simply unreadable or did the system not even recognize the device at all? if it recognized it you could try using the chkdsk command in CMD to check the disk for errors and try to repair these errors. if the drive is completely unrecognizable though i would go with the bootable CD/USB key idea and see if you cant read it in its original system, so that you can try and pull data off of it.

as for robisbell's advice, i dont know where he learned to fix computers, but trying to replace the motherboard on a laptop with a disk read error seems completely illogical. if anything i would only take the system apart to make sure that nothing has come unseated and clean contaminated matter out. dust is generally nonconductive, but i have run into situations where i was doing case mods, and the metallic dust in the air actually collected on the back of horizontally aligned cards in the PCI bus of my motherboard and shorted them out. though unlikely, it can happen.

to lead up on what he was saying though, do you have another drive that is compatable with the system? if nothing else you have been advised to do thus far works, i would try replacing the drive and reinstalling windows to see if the rest of the system still works, and sending the drive in to a data recovery service. if the system exhibits other errors or abnormal behavior, or if the drive is almost instantly corrupted, then i would consider other hardware related issues, such as a bad SATA/PATA controller.

 

[Fis]

EPILOGUE:
Booted from an XP Disk. Ran CHKDSK/R. Laptop started up fine.


EPILOGUE PART 2:
Called HP to get my wife's $99 back. They told us that the motherboard had been recalled and they would send us a box to ship it back for replacement. After talking to 6 different people finally got somebody who apologized for the ridiculously bad support she had received and refunded the money as well. Oh yes, and he also said to ignore the box when it arrived because the motherboard problem was only related to WiFi and did not apply to the serial number range for her specific laptop.

:disgust:

Thanks to all for your help. I learned a few things.

 

[thegisguy]

Well Glad it's up and running. Also glad they gave you your $100 back.

 

[Soundmanred]

So you didn't need a new motherboard or pay to have it cleaned by some experts or just buy another laptop?!?
Thank God you don't take everyones advice and only those who know what's going on.