Harddrive Not Found Error

[Elwood]

I am trouble shooting a Dell Laptop (Inspiron 5160) over the phone and wanted to seek some suggestions. This message is given upon startup frequently and occasionally it will boot into windows and work for some time. Eventually, it will crash and give the same error. Replaced the HDD and get the same message. Hardware Diags are inclusive which makes the problem intermittent, but continual. Dell tends to think the MoBo is defective and wants $400+ to run tests and put a new one in. :eek: :eek: :eek:

I would like to see if anyone had some suggestions.

My thoughts are reflashing the BIOS, replacing the MoBo battery. Other than that, I cannot think of much else to try.

As always, any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Regards

[Rick]

I would stay way from flashing the bios.
Doing so on an unstable system is very VERY risky

I would start with a good dusting and cleaning
Even laptops get plugged with dust bunnies

Then while you have the case open
Check the connections.


if the new drive gives the same errors after a good cleaning and airflow test
Then it may well be the M/B and your stuck.

I have also seen an error LIKE this one on a dell laptop that had a cr-rom drive failing
Until the cd-rom drive failed completely it was a pain to boot.
Then would run half the time with out hassles

But when the cd-rom went DOA it killed the whole system.
No boot, even the post failed as long as the cd-rom drive was in the unit