Laptop hard drive problem

aaronrkelly · 19-September-04, 11:00 PM

I have a customers lappy here thats giving me problems. The problem is 5 out of 6 times it will pop up the "pick a device to boot from" menu from the BIOS instead of booting to the HD. If you select HD it does nothing. If you turn it off and then back on a few times it will boot just fine.

I have already checked the hard drive - its checked out OK.

Next step will be poping the cover of the bottom and making sure the drive is fully plugged in.

After that Im out of options - if its not the above Im thinking the IDE controller on the mobo is in the process of going out......not exactly fixable.

Its a Gateway (dont have model number) P3 800 (I think) running Windows ME. I hate to tell him to trash the laptop but its looking that way. If its any indication of Gateway build quality the floppy drive quit working within 2 weeks - he didnt get it fixed cause he didnt use it anyways.......idiot. Definitlely the biggest POS laptop I have ever seen. Oh well, if he junks its I will salvage the wee drive out of it for a portable drive - can never have to many of those.

Got any other suggestions???

YohanSpritz · 28-September-04, 05:38 PM

Hmmm, on an IBM Thinkpad with a Pentium 3 I had to pull the CMOS Battery and boot it just once to clear CMOS before I could even get the boot options and then after replacing the CMOS Battery, I had to set the BIOS to the "setup defaults" (as a starting point) to get it to boot from a hard-disk.

aaronrkelly · 28-September-04, 06:20 PM

I replaced the hard drive just for giggles as I had a spare 40 GB lappy drive in my closet of goodies. I then installed Win XP and restarted it ever 10 mins or so for 8 hours while I was at work.......problem appears to be fixed for now. Apparently the drive was on the way out, gotta love intermittent problems. He has not called to complain of the problem yet so Im assuming its fixed.

19-September-04, 11:00 PM		#1 (permalink)
aaronrkelly Apex Tech God	Laptop hard drive problem I have a customers lappy here thats giving me problems. The problem is 5 out of 6 times it will pop up the "pick a device to boot from" menu from the BIOS instead of booting to the HD. If you select HD it does nothing. If you turn it off and then back on a few times it will boot just fine. I have already checked the hard drive - its checked out OK. Next step will be poping the cover of the bottom and making sure the drive is fully plugged in. After that Im out of options - if its not the above Im thinking the IDE controller on the mobo is in the process of going out......not exactly fixable. Its a Gateway (dont have model number) P3 800 (I think) running Windows ME. I hate to tell him to trash the laptop but its looking that way. If its any indication of Gateway build quality the floppy drive quit working within 2 weeks - he didnt get it fixed cause he didnt use it anyways.......idiot. Definitlely the biggest POS laptop I have ever seen. Oh well, if he junks its I will salvage the wee drive out of it for a portable drive - can never have to many of those. Got any other suggestions???

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28-September-04, 05:38 PM		#2 (permalink)
YohanSpritz I need to Confirm with email	Hmmm, on an IBM Thinkpad with a Pentium 3 I had to pull the CMOS Battery and boot it just once to clear CMOS before I could even get the boot options and then after replacing the CMOS Battery, I had to set the BIOS to the "setup defaults" (as a starting point) to get it to boot from a hard-disk.

28-September-04, 06:20 PM		#3 (permalink)
aaronrkelly Apex Tech God	I replaced the hard drive just for giggles as I had a spare 40 GB lappy drive in my closet of goodies. I then installed Win XP and restarted it ever 10 mins or so for 8 hours while I was at work.......problem appears to be fixed for now. Apparently the drive was on the way out, gotta love intermittent problems. He has not called to complain of the problem yet so Im assuming its fixed.