Any hardware geeks/gurus on duty???

[Talltom1]

I'm sweating bullets at the moment....

I've got a Compaq laptop, about 2 years old. It's operated flawlessly until yesterday.

Last week, I noticed that, for no apparent reason, occassionally it would drop the wireless connection to my router.

Without warning, yesterday, the computer simply froze up completely. Nothing worked, the screen still displayed, but everything was frozen in place.

I unplugged the computer, removed the battery for a reboot.

Reboot - brings me to the "Fix Startup Process-Recommended" screen. This works, but is always unsuccessful.

I've been able once or twice to use System Restore, successfully, however, it has not cured the problem.

Now - today....when I try to power up, it will run for about 2-3 seconds, then power off, repeatedly. Continuing this, it will eventually stay on, and attempt to boot up, unsuccessfully.

On a few occassions, the startup messages have said, "no Operating System Found".

My hard drive doesn't make the apparent sounds of distress...

Any thoughts??? Or suggestions?

Gratefully awaiting your suggestions.

Talltom

[shaddai]

My guesses:
A.) It could be getting ready to dump the hard drive, and just hasn't done it yet. The drive is just 'glitchy' but still works most of the time. The MBR section of the drive is a little confused sometimes.
B.) It could be your CMOS battery (the thing that makes bios remember settings) is dying & bios has lost track of where the hard drive is.

Boot up works like this:
1.) Bios says 'the HD with the operating system is here'
2.) HD (through the boot records) says, 'Yup, the OS is over here'
3.) The OS takes off & starts the machine.

An endless reboot means it's gotten lost in that process & is trying to make itself work by starting over from the beginning...they don't learn from their mistakes like some people do.

I'd attack it like this: Google on how to replace the bios battery on your particular laptop, replace it (a few bucks, take the old one with you to Radio Shack, or somewhere they sell watch batteries), then reset the bios to defaults with the bios jumper, re-point bios to the HD & reboot to see if it wakes itself up. If it doesn't, I'd guess the drive is done. Replace it & start over..

Todd

[steveweber]

I used to be a network admin and have worked on a ton of computers....I'd bet $50 the hard drive is just about gone.

[Talltom1]

Todd,

Yer awesome. Thanks for taking the time to give me a detailed response. I will definitely pursue this.

Thanks

Tom

[shaddai]

I'm kind of thinking the drive's on it's way out too, but a few bucks to check the cmos first will rule the bios out completely.

You're welcome by the way.

todd

[John Cabral]

Yeap my money is on the hard drive. If its not physical damage and just that the boot sector is corrupt due to a number of things you may be able to turn the old drive into a backup drive by buying a USB case for drive.

When my HD on my Compaq died that's what I did. Was able to keep all the info that was on it and 4 years later its still going strong.

[JonMills]

Originally Posted by Talltom1

I'm sweating bullets at the moment....

I've got a Compaq laptop, about 2 years old. It's operated flawlessly until yesterday.

Last week, I noticed that, for no apparent reason, occassionally it would drop the wireless connection to my router.

Without warning, yesterday, the computer simply froze up completely. Nothing worked, the screen still displayed, but everything was frozen in place.

I unplugged the computer, removed the battery for a reboot.

Reboot - brings me to the "Fix Startup Process-Recommended" screen. This works, but is always unsuccessful.

I've been able once or twice to use System Restore, successfully, however, it has not cured the problem.

Now - today....when I try to power up, it will run for about 2-3 seconds, then power off, repeatedly. Continuing this, it will eventually stay on, and attempt to boot up, unsuccessfully.

On a few occassions, the startup messages have said, "no Operating System Found".

My hard drive doesn't make the apparent sounds of distress...

Any thoughts??? Or suggestions?

Gratefully awaiting your suggestions.

Talltom

Usually that is a hard drive problem ( did tech support for many years )