Compaq laptop problem [Hard Drive?] [Archive] - The PC Guide Discussion Forums

mikehende

08-24-2006, 06:20 PM

My cousin just brought over the Compaq Evo N610C which she had gotten from me a year or two ago. It was working fine as usual until the nephews started messing around with it, when she came home last night she turned it on and it would not go past the Compaq screen and the Hard drive was and still is making a "whirring" noise, I took out the HD, cahnged the boot order and placed the recovery cd in and it went through the the first 2 processes only see if that was working and it was.

I then changed back the boot order, placed the HD in and now there isn't any screen at all with the HD still making the noise, before telling my cousin to go get another HD, I wanted to check with you guys here first to make sure that the HD is shot, recommendations please?

mikehende

08-24-2006, 09:53 PM

Tried the Recovery cd, doesn't work so I have to "assume" that the hard drive is no good. What I am contemplating now is whether to tell my cousin to send it in to a laptop repair specialist or just buy a new hard drive? The reason why I am considering she send it in to a specialiat is becuase I don't know what caused this and I would hate to put a new drive in and the same thing happens, what would you techs do in this case?

azzey

08-24-2006, 10:03 PM

with the HD still making the noise Is the drive clicking?

Tried the Recovery cd, doesn't work so I have to "assume" that the hard drive is no good. Does it give you any errors?

what would you techs do in this case? I would take the hard drive and test it in a desktop computer with a Laptop-to-IDE converter (available for under 10$). If you have a spare laptop drive, you could swap it in to test. What happened for it to stop working?

mikehende

08-24-2006, 10:45 PM

No, the drive is not clicking, only that "whirring" noise. No errors on the Recovery, I am guessing because the recovery is not being able to run? Don't have clue as to why it stopped working, all we know is the visiting youngsters were using it last when this happened and they said it worked fine the last time they used it and shut it down [any wonder?]. I think the converter would be the best option here BUT what I just noticed is that the pcmcia card slot is not working too?

mikehende

08-25-2006, 11:53 AM

Regarding the converter, this is taken from an ad on Ebay

Q: Can I recover my data with this?
A: Yes. In most cases, the drive itself is working. So you can use this to copy the data

If a drive is shot, how can the data be copied, can anyone explain this please?

classicsoftware

08-25-2006, 06:44 PM

Paul Komski

08-26-2006, 11:59 AM

Check the BIOS setup. If the drive is not recognised there then (a bad/loose connection apart) it is very likely to be toast and if not recognised there no diagnostics will run on it.

mikehende

08-28-2006, 02:29 PM

You need to do the following:

Turn off the laptop
Remove the hard drive from the laptop
Note the manufacturer of the hard drive
Re-install the hard drive into the laptop
From a known working computer:

Go to the hard drive manufacturers Web site
Download the hard drive diagnostics for a floppy or a CD depending on the boot device in the laptop

Insert the CD or Floppy from step 5 and test the drive
Report the reults back here

This didn't work becuase I when I run a search on Toshiba's site for this HDD nothing comes up, tried calling a few different numbers for support for this hard drive and believe it or not, the number for the department that handles this which they gave me is disconnected, I got fedup and sent the unit to Hp for full checkup, appreciate the advice, will use it for future use, thanks.

Fruss Tray Ted

08-28-2006, 09:31 PM

Toshiba with customer support issues?

How about some model and serial numbers for your stuff to see if we can't do better.

A disconnected number? Yeah, right.

classicsoftware

08-28-2006, 09:49 PM

Please read my instructions and follow them. There is NO need to go to the Toshiba web site unless they manufactured the hard drive.

Turn off the laptop
Remove the hard drive from the laptop
Note the manufacturer of the hard drive
Re-install the hard drive into the laptop
From a known working computer:

Go to the hard drive manufacturers Web site
Download the hard drive diagnostics for a floppy or a CD depending on the boot device in the laptop

Insert the CD or Floppy from step 5 and test the drive
Report the reults back here

Paul Komski

08-28-2006, 09:56 PM

I got fedup and sent the unit to Hp for full checkup, appreciate the advice, will use it for future use
Looks like we need to see what they report but I would also reiterate for the future that you need to first check the BIOS setup to see that the drive is recognised there. The fact that it is in the boot order does not categorically mean that it is correctly identified by the BIOS.

mikehende

08-28-2006, 10:01 PM

Please read my instructions and follow them. There is NO need to go to the Toshiba web site unless they manufactured the hard drive.
[

You answered your own question, it is a Toshiba HDD. :)

Toshiba with customer support issues?

How about some model and serial numbers for your stuff to see if we can't do better.

A disconnected number? Yeah, right.

I went through a "few" numbers to get support for this HDD [toshiba mk4025gas] and ended up with nothing. Sent the laptop to HP today with DHL so all of this is moot point now but yes, if you guys can get "phone" support for this drive I will be surprised.

mikehende

08-28-2006, 10:10 PM

Looks like we need to see what they report but I would also reiterate for the future that you need to first check the BIOS setup to see that the drive is recognised there. The fact that it is in the boot order does not categorically mean that it is correctly identified by the BIOS.

Oh yes, this was the first thing I had done Paul, the problem here is that the Setup [BIOS] in that laptop does NOT show the "Drive Configuration" or a lot of the other options that I will see in my pc, when I called HP they said that this is how the BIOS or Setup is in that laptop and there is nothing I can do, it is a Compaq Evo N610C running an older version of XP Pro.

Paul Komski

08-28-2006, 10:21 PM

Compaqs are just so proprietary - every time!

You could grab a 2.5"/3.5" ide adapter and then it would behave like a 3.5" in a desktop. eg http://mcsx.co.uk/shop/hardware.php and its a handy cheap piece of hardware to own if dealing with laptop drives - even on an irregular basis.

mikehende

08-28-2006, 10:24 PM

I was thinking heavily of trying the converter, only reason I didn't was becuase of the other problem [pcm slot not having any power] and this was the main reason why I decided to send it in without any further HDD testing.

Paul Komski

08-28-2006, 10:29 PM

Incidentally:

"Toshiba does not offer a diagnostic utility for their Harddrives. The Hitachi (IBM) Diagnostic can be used to test these drives."

From Step 5 at http://mywebpages.comcast.net/SupportCD/DiagnoseXP.html which also has a link for the Hitachi utils.

mikehende

08-28-2006, 10:34 PM

Incidentally:

From Step 5 at http://mywebpages.comcast.net/SupportCD/DiagnoseXP.html which also has a link for the Hitachi utils.

Might explain why I couldn't find anything on the Toshiba site?

mikehende

08-30-2006, 01:13 PM

Just got the laptop back from HP, they replaced the HDD, here's what's they did:

Problem:
Blue screen [Hard drive]
Customer OS failure

Parts replaced/action taken:
Software Re-Brick
Hard Drive

What is a software Rebrick?

Paul Komski

08-30-2006, 05:12 PM

Software re-bricking is a reload of the software to its original factory/shipping configuration - usually using an OEM restoration image file.

mikehende

08-30-2006, 07:02 PM

Thanks for the explanation. What could I have done to have diagnosed the problems they found?

Paul Komski

08-30-2006, 07:13 PM

Possibly you needed to reset the CMOS or autodetect the IDE devices but the HDD needed to be visible in the BIOS setup before anything could be hoped to succeed.

After that you could have checked the drive with diagonstics, zeroed the drive with the same diagnostics, obtained a replacement recovery CD and restored you system with that - which is what it looks like was done when it was repaired.