Fixed disk failure

[mdedora]

I have a Texas Instruments Travelmate 4000E notebook computer with fixed disk failure. When I turn on the computer it attempts to boot, then flashes fixed disk failure-press enter to run set-up or F1 to continue. When I press F1 the message "no boot device available" appears. When I attempt to boot using #1 DOS floppy I receive an error reading fixed disk. The strange part is if continue to attempt to boot computer by turning machine on and off it will eventually work. The operating system is windows 95. It sometimes takes 20 minutes but once it boots all programs seem to work fine. I do not want to start replacing parts or formating disks until I am sure of the problem. Please help!!

[JohnRChu]

I had a similar problem with my PC. I found that a PCI card claimed the same IRQ number, 6 in this case. May check out through your device manager whether there is a conflict there.

[Jerkymom]

Since you're using a notebook computer, you probably haven't opened the case and dislodged any cables, so I'm ruling that out. Have you changed any settings in the BIOS setup recently? Incorrect BIOS hard drive parameters can cause fixed disk failures, but if you haven't changed anything I doubt that's your problem either.

Check in Device Manager for any conflicts, as John suggested. If none are showing, it's possible your hard drive is going bad. Run a thorough Scandisk on the drive to fix any errors. Close all running programs and turn off your screensaver while running Scandisk, or better yet, run it from Safe Mode if you can boot into it (which I realize may be difficult with your booting problem). If Scandisk fails, that's a pretty good indication that the drive is on it's way out.

You mentioned you can't boot from DOS disk 1. Have you tried booting with a Win95 startup disk? If you don't have one, you can create one by going to Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs, and choosing the Startup Disk tab at the top of the window. If you ever need to reformat or reinstall Win95 you will need the startup disk, so it's best to have one on hand.

Kim

[griffinspc]

Since you're running Win95 I'll assume it's an older machine. You may have lost the BIOS battery. Once the BIOS battery goes your machine can't remember where the important stuff is like your drive, that's the "boot device". When you access setup you have to run the locate HD and set it up. Try that and if it boots right then and then next time doesn't I'd bet on the battery.

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[Paleo Pete]

I've been thinking battery too, and if you don't have a start up disk and can't get one from a friend's computer, Boot Disk (http://www.bootdisk.com) has them available as downloads.

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