Wife's laptop will not load Windows

[Darwin333]

1. Overview of the problem
   Wife?s laptop freezes when loading windows and crashes when I try to run the recover disk.
   
   
2. Full description of the problem and symptoms
   
   Wife was using her laptop and it suddenly crashed, as in just turned off. No error no BSOD, it just simply quit working. It posts just fine but freezes the moment the windows splash screen comes up. The splash screen is barely visible on the screen. Same thing when I try to last known good config. When booting into safe mode it freezes on mup.sys. When I try to run Toshiba?s recovery disk it will finish loading the first set of files (presumably the drivers) say please wait, and after 10ish minutes the laptop powers down. The screen never changes from the ?please wait? screen. Basically the same thing when I tried my XP Pro disk (legit) except it freezes after the drivers load at the blue screen that says ?Windows is loading?. The laptop was plugged in during all of this.
   
   
3. Did it work normally at one time, or has the problem always existed?
   Has worked great for well over a year.
   
   
   
   
   
4. I already tried these steps:
   • Ran memtest. No errors.
   • Ran a cpu burn in to see if the cpu might be overheating. Ran it for 30ish minutes with no issues.
   • Reset bios to default.
   • Tried the recovery disk (see above)
   • Tried a Win Xp Pro disk (see above)
   • Tried each stick of RAM by itself, got the same results.
   
   
5. My software:
   • Windows XP Media Center Edition. It?s the wife?s laptop so I haven?t used it in 4 or 5 months. I can?t be positive about the updates installed but the last time I used it I made sure it was set to auto-update.
   • AVG
   • Sygate
   
   
   
6. My computer
   • Toshiba Satellite P105-S6124
     
   • Specs
     
   • No peripherals where in use when it crashed or during the troubleshooting process.
   
   
7. Other information that might be relevant
   I am pretty handy with computers. I have built a few dozen, including all of my own, and have never had an issue that I couldn?t eventually fix. I don?t have a lot of experience with laptops though. It?s still a rather nice laptop so if I HAVE to bring it to a shop to get it repaired I will but that?s the last option.
   
   I have tried to be as thorough as possible. If you need any more info just ask.
   

 

[XxPrOdiGyxX]

Try removing the drive and hooking it to another computer with an adapter. Then run chkdsk on it. I prefer to use Acronis Disk Director. This should basically find if there are any file system errors and move any bad data off of bad sectors. I believe a lot of people recommend SpinRite; but I've, personally, never used it. I should probably give it a try.

 

[RebateMonger]

Yeah, it sounds like a failing hard drive. Run the drive maker's hard drive diagnostics utility full test and see what it says.

 

[robisbell]

you may have to open it to inspect the heatsink(s) and fan to make sure they are not clogged.

 

[Darwin333]

Thanks for the replies. This laptop is going to drive me crazy (or the wife will).

The HDD is made by Fujitsu and I can't find a diagnostic program for their SATA drives. A buddy of mine has PC doctor so I booted to it and it passed all the HDD diagnostic tests. Toshiba has a diagnostic program and the HDD fails every single test right off the bat. I am thinking that has to do with Fujitsu not having a diag. program for SATA disks.

I also ran the full load benchmark in PC doc for 10 minutes without problems so I can't imagine that it would kill from heat just by trying to load windows.

Should I just go buy a new HDD and give it a shot?

 

[Dahak]

if you want to give fujitsu's diags a try they are located Here
there is a windows one or a dos one. I prefer the dos one and seeing as you cant get into windows on that machine would be the only way

Even though its says ATA/IDE drives it works perfectly fine on there sata drives too

 

[Darwin333]

Ran the manufacturers diagnostic, both the quick and comprehensive tests, and it came back with no errors.

Could the HDD still be the problem?

Any other ideas?

 

[Slowlearner]

Everything seems to indicate its the HD that failing. Even if it is out of warranty, Toshiba has set up a repair relationship with local shops in every major metro area, see if there is one in your area.

 

[robisbell]

could be AC Adapter and battery failing and power drops below minimums, would need to have someone test the adapter with and without load, and also the same for the battery.