Problem with samsung laptop (Vista)

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Hi guys,

Wondering if you could help me with this one as i am baffled. Relatives laptop will not start, even to the vista screen. However if the CD drive is open it has no problems but is a bit slow. I was thinking of reformatting the hard drive but thought i wont be able to due to it not starting with the Vista CD in the drive. It's hard drive is partitioned into two seperate drives with vista installed on one of them. Anyone experienced a problem like this before and could advise me on best course of action?

Regards

Darren

 

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Can you give us a bit more info like the make and model of the laptop.

Does the power light come on ok?
Does it do the same thing wether it's plugged into the power adapter and running from battery?
Has anything been changed recently?

Do you get any error codes or beeps when it is switched on and goes through POST?

 

It's a samsung R60 model intel duo 2.00 ghz 1 gb RAM

It does the same thing weather its plugged in or not and will only go through fully to desktop when the disk drive is open.

When it is closed it hangs on a black screen after showing mobo screen (where you can F2 enter BIOS).

And nothing changed recently.

Boot process is
IDE CD: TSSTCorpCD/DVDW
IDE HDD: Hitachi HTS541616J9SA00

No disc in drive and only boots when CD drive is open.

 

So what happens when you change the boot order so that it checks the HD first?

 

Comes up with the picking list and states at top "recent hardware or software change may have caused problem and asks for disc" which she has lost.

Picking list safe mode
With networking
start normally etc.

 

what did she do? change hardware, flash bios or add some software?

 

Tinker indeed, and probably the reason but i know she wont admit to anything which is where i fall flat cos i have to check as much as possible whilst it works haha. No system restore points created, could i restore to factory settings?

My first thought was a problem with CD drive as when its open and gets to desktop etc and a disc is inserted it doesn't read it atall.

So i cant reformat it.

 

If a system restore doesn't work then you may have a bit of bother because if you attempt a wipe at any point that disk will have the motherboard drivers on it so you will need those first (probably from the manufacturer). You may be able to contact the manufacturer and ask for a restore disk to be sent if that is the disk she lost.

Also if she has downloaded a program which has caused this boot into safe mode and uninstall it and do a virus scan whilst your there.

 

Unfortunately sparky it does not boot into safe mode, i can only get it to boot with drive closed into last known good configuration.

GBL when I say she doesnt have discs i mean the vista disc, however there are two discs here and im hoping one has all the drivers on it. Also the CD drive doesnt respond and cant pick up this Anti virus CD im trying to install on here to do a scan (yes she doesn't have one).

Memory diagnostic picked up no errors.

Found it has restore point in mid oct. Trying that and see how it fares, if not I'll check the event log and look for anything helpful in there.

 

Im working on a samsung right now. You mention it has 2 partitions on the laptop. One of them will be the restore partition. When you turn the laptop on press F4 and this should take you to the recovery section

 

Mid oct restore point didn't work.

Saved her documents etc and doing full restore using method Raffa suggested. All Games etc. i have the disks and CD keys still infront of me here so will be able to put what its used for back on, including a security suite.

Fingers... head shoulders knees and toes crossed this time if possible

 

Unfortunately didnt work, its been restored but the problem still persists. Can get it into safe mode with cd drive closed however cannot open it.

Any thoughts?

 

Bad cdrom driver

 

This would suggest a hardware issue to me. Possibly a faulty DVD drive or maybe the cable is loose on it.