Laptop issues! Help please!

closed

Being 2 years old doesn't mean you might not be able to get it fixed for free using the sale of goods act.

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/shopping/consumer-rights-refunds-exchange

Do you have any external drives available, CD/DVD/Floppy or usb flash for running a hard disk diagnostic or data recovery software from

http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=606&sid=3

http://www.paragon-software.com/home/rk-express/download_old.html

If you end up buying a new hard disk, putting W7 back on would be more sensible than XP (which might not work anyway)

http://www.addictivetips.com/windows-tips/install-windows-7-from-usb-drive-requires-2-simple-steps/

W7 has a system image backup function, unfortunately too late now, as your data may be lost - it might still be there, you need a diagnostic boot disk, or usb hard disk caddy to find out for sure.

russell_e

Given that the boot option screen lists the hard drive, it's very unlikely to be the motherboard.

Since it's a Western Digital drive, you need to test it with the manufacturer's diagnostic software from here hxxp://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=702&sid=30&lang=en

we need to find out why the DVD is not showing in the boot options too.

Basically, once you have run the simple diagnostics, you will be told if you need to run the advanced test. This may fix errors & allow you to keep using the drive. If it does give errors there's a very good chance that it's under warranty with Western Digital.

You can create a return online & ship it back to them for replacement (you may want to go for the advance replacement option as you will then have the drive quicker & have the correct packaging to return the faulty drive in!)

As the lappy's 2 years old, it won't have a recovery DVD so you'll have to try & get a Windows DVD from somewhere!

russell_e

If the Western Digital diags shows no errors, it's probably just a corrupted Windows install & could be fixed by the Windows recovery options.

Maz

Hi everyone,

Well, the weirdest thing has happened.

Out of desperation, I hooked my lappy up with my daughter's cable etc, plugged it in and normal service has been resumed. Inspired by this, I connected my own cable up and it's still working ok.

A mystery to me, just when I thought all was lost!

Really grateful for all your help, you're a bunch of superstars and very generous with your advice.:beer:

Figment

That's good news...... but...... before doing too much more:

• backup all of your data (documents, music, pictures etc.) to an external device.
• Download and run Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for Windows - instructions are on the linked page.
• Restart the laptop, press F12 to bring up the boot menu as post what it looks like now.
• Test the DVD drive works

Leo2020

Yes, defo do a back up. I still think there is a problem with the HDD. Often you will have problems with your hard drive before it completely dies. Sometimes they can come back to life (so to speak) before failing again.