Laptop start up problems

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by Peggsta, Mar 21, 2008.

  1. Peggsta

    Peggsta Bit Poster

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    Hi all,

    Hoping someone can help me with my pals laptop.

    It's a Compaq Evo N800W and it has stopped loading the OS. After the windows xp loading page, it displays a message, too quick to see what it was tho, then it restarts back to start up options.:blink

    I'm wondering if there is a way to make it show the message longer so I can go from there.

    Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
     
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  2. hbroomhall

    hbroomhall Petabyte Poster Gold Member

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    Can you get into any of the 'safe modes'? If so disable the 'reboot on error' feature so you can then read the error!

    Harry.
     
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  3. hbroomhall

    hbroomhall Petabyte Poster Gold Member

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    I've just noticed something on the F8 boot menu I hadn't realized was there! Select the "Disable automatic restart on system failure" option and you should be able to see the message.

    Harry.
     
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  4. Peggsta

    Peggsta Bit Poster

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    Thanks matey,

    Thats got the error msg showing now :D
    as follows

    UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME

    blah blah blah etc

    *** STOP: 0x000000ED (0x82384900, 0xC000009C, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)

    maybe I'll find what that means on MS website!!
     
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  5. hbroomhall

    hbroomhall Petabyte Poster Gold Member

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    It means that there is major corruption on the disk, or that it is failing.

    Do you have the 'Smartstart' or recovery CDs? You may need to use them.

    Harry.
     
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  6. onoski

    onoski Terabyte Poster

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    Use the windows xp cd rom as a boot up and select the r option for repair then run chkdsk / r in the command prompt.

    To be honest 9 out of 10 times this brings the system back to life. Lets know how you get on:)
     
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  7. delorean

    delorean Megabyte Poster

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    If any of the above doesn't work, boot from your XP CD, select the partition (assuming it can find one) and press R.

    This will run a Windows repair. This should solve the problem. Somewhere along the line the boot sector of your HDD got corrupted, hence it won't boot in to the OS.
     
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  8. hbroomhall

    hbroomhall Petabyte Poster Gold Member

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    It's a Compaq - so may not have one! Instead they tend to have a 'restore disk' in some form. Which is a pain because, as you say, repair may fix it.

    Harry.
     
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  9. Peggsta

    Peggsta Bit Poster

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    Thanks for all the help.

    Have been doing as onoski says above using my own xp disc to get into recovery console, since about 3pm.

    Chkdsk /r @ 56%, going very very slow since it reached 50% :dry

    I'll post results later.

    Thanks again all :)
     
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  10. Peggsta

    Peggsta Bit Poster

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    oops forgot to post results.

    Anyway, chkdsk only went to 50% then would jump to 75% and back to 50% and continue like that for many hours.

    I reckon the hd is goosed.

    Thanks for the help all.
     
    Certifications: None yet
    WIP: A+ N+ CCNA
  11. Bluerinse
    Honorary Member

    Bluerinse Exabyte Poster

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    Yeah, you're probably right but it might be worth trying a delete partition, create partition, format (not quick) and see if you can re-install windows from scratch. it may work fine, and if it fails again, then the hdd is fubar.
     
    Certifications: C&G Electronics - MCSA (W2K) MCSE (W2K)
  12. Raffaz

    Raffaz Kebab Lover Gold Member

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    Might also be worth downloading the HDD diagnostics utility from the HDD manufacturers website and running that to see if the HDD is definately damaged.
     
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