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Thread: Is she dead?

  1. #1
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    Is she dead?

    I just bought a new laptop, but my old one that the wife uses seems to have suffered a possibly fatal glitch. This laptop is an olllllld one, at least 5 years old. You tell me:

    Worked fine yesterday, today:

    1) Boot up and the Toshiba splash screen is the first thing to come on screen as normal.
    2) After that, underscore blinks and it just quietly clicks over and over for about a minute then returns the mesage:

    "Invalid System Disk
    Replace the disk, and then press any key"

    Won't boot up.

    Won't boot up with a boot disk. It briefly runs the floppy then same as above. Underscore blinks and eventually, same message.

    Is she dead?

    I'd try to replace the hdd, but it concerns me that it doesn't seem to be even as getting as far as the bios, and doesn't try to boot off the floppy. Any idea of what can be done? I can't recall the key to get into the setup screen, but from what I can tell, it doesn't make it that far anyhow.

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    • Chicken

  2. #2
    Sounds like the hard drive. If it was a Mac you could run the whole thing on an external drive *snicker* but not the case with Windows. It could be slowing down the BIOS because when hard drives act freaky they aren't always detected right when the BIOS scans the IDE bus.

    As for booting off a floppy, make sure it's enabled first in the BIOS; also try booting off a Windows CD.
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  3. #3
    If it's already looking for bootup information, it's past the BIOS. Try pressing F2, F10 or Del to get into the BIOS and see if it's been reset .

  4. #4
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    5 years old? I'd say it's natural causes Don't worry about it and buy a new one

  5. #5
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    Re: Is she dead?

    Originally posted by Chicken
    I just bought a new laptop, but my old one that the wife uses seems to have suffered a possibly fatal glitch. This laptop is an olllllld one, at least 5 years old. You tell me:

    Worked fine yesterday, today:

    1) Boot up and the Toshiba splash screen is the first thing to come on screen as normal.
    2) After that, underscore blinks and it just quietly clicks over and over for about a minute then returns the mesage:

    "Invalid System Disk
    Replace the disk, and then press any key"

    Won't boot up.

    Won't boot up with a boot disk. It briefly runs the floppy then same as above. Underscore blinks and eventually, same message.

    Is she dead?

    I'd try to replace the hdd, but it concerns me that it doesn't seem to be even as getting as far as the bios, and doesn't try to boot off the floppy. Any idea of what can be done? I can't recall the key to get into the setup screen, but from what I can tell, it doesn't make it that far anyhow.

    Your hard drive is probably no good. It happens with those crappy IBM/Hitachi HD's. It's pretty easy to replace and they aren't very expensive. Try not to buy an IBM or Hitachi drive if you have a choice.
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  6. #6
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    Toshiba repair guy?

    You should have some system diagnostics available by pressing F1/F5/Fn/etc. at the splash screen. My old IBM (and it's predecessor from 1994) were both able to go into diagnostics and provide a better idea of what's up with the hard drive.

    Hope this helps,

    -Matt
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  7. #7
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    akash, I already bought a new one two days ago... for meeeeeee! I'm trying to fix this one quick before the wife gets any ideas!

    As far as I can tell (and what I thought originally), the hdd is dead. I tried to fix a current installation of Win2000 and it said it couldn't find a current installation (DOH!). Often it makes quiet clicky noises as if the hdd is trying desperately to move, but can't.

    I know this hdd is a whopping 2 GB drive (laptop came with 32MB of ram which I bumped up to the maximum 96MB heh). It isn't worth much to me, however it keep the wife off my computers!
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    • Chicken

  8. #8
    The 2 gig drives can be replaced with I think 8 to 12 gig drives now so don't throw it away. (I use to rebuild laptops after catostrophic calamaties... hehe)

    Water heaters exploding... power supplies frying and burning half the motherboard etc.. think of a laptop as a computer, and also realize there is a market out there supplying parts.

    If it's an all right laptop, then its a usable machine with some TLC, don't give up yet.
    dotGig
    <:<: [Fruit eating linux administrator]

  9. #9
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    I'm not giving up *yet* and will look for your suggested 8/12GB drive. not sure how I can find out for sure, though the wife seems to have gotten along with a 2GB drive, so I suppose an 8GB drive would do nicely.
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    • Chicken

  10. #10
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    Check with the Geeks.
    http://www.compgeeks.com
    They usually have some laptop hard drives at good prices.
    May also have some repair parts.
    Good company. I've been buying from them for years.
    They've also got some nice older IBMs at very low prices if you've got a full copy of W98 or 2000 you can install.
    Laura K.
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  11. #11
    There are parts channels that I used to use... generally your local (Hard core) computer store will have a vendor that simply can get just about anything.

    Its how they get "Buys" on large amounts of parts but essentially can get these hard to find parts rather easily.

    Its been a few years since I "Was tortured into a inconcievable amount of concetration rebuilding those blasted things..." but you shouldn't have trouble finding them. There is a market for em.

    I really can't remember the part outlets to check, but with some googling you might find part number replacements for your drive.

    The drives on the back of those pop out (I think) from a little plastic opening on the back.

    Now, a word of caution, on these drives there is a felt, or satin tug label (Connected on both sides of the drive case) and after awhile they can release when pulling the drive out.

    This is the procedure for the best results "Hahahha"

    with the monitor closed, hold the LT with the back facing down, and the drive opening facing down, with a pillow under the back, lightly (And evenly) tug slowly on the little "Rope".

    It should come free if the LT hasn't seena lot of heat, or the case isn't distorted in any other way.

    The drive once out is meant to come out of the aluminum looking sub case.
    dotGig
    <:<: [Fruit eating linux administrator]

  12. #12
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    Heh, I got the drive out (had to drill the screw out). Found a replacement for the exact same 4GB drive (I was mistaken before, it is a 4GB drive). They want $368 for it (HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!). Will keep looking for something much cheaper.
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    • Chicken

  13. #13
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    ebay Replacement?
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  14. #14
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    My vote is HD

    I'm not the best techy type guy in the world but when I saw you heard clicking sounds I knew it was the same or very similar to what recently happened to two desktop computers I have with maxtor hd's. They both ended up with bad sectors and finally died a slow and painful death.

    I did find this info however about how to recover Bad sectors with a low level format.

    http://www.computing.net/faq/contentdos/badsector.html

    Someone may want to dispute my opinion and that's fine I'm just relating it to my own recent experiences.

    Good Luck Chicken,

    Dennis

  15. #15
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    Heh this happened with an old Pentium 75 I used to have I tried everything, ended up taking it apart and my brother enjoyed all the chips and had fun using them as cars and people

  16. #16
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    You could always just lose the wife and keep the laptop.

    This is going to sound rather strange, but I do know some of those "hard drive data recovery" places keep the old defective hard drives and will send them off to refurbishers to get fixed up. Maybe they can put you in touch with the refurbisher, who can either fix your drive or get you a new one.
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  17. #17
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    Chicken,

    No Guarantee, but if you give me the model and serial of the toshiba laptop, I might be able to come up with a hard drive. We used to have a bunch of old Toshiba's in surplus.

  18. #18
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    Here's what you can try. Now that you have the HDD out of the laptop. Take the harddrive and seal it with plastic. Now out this in the freezer for about 10 minutes. Take out the plastic.
    Let it moisture go and then put it back.
    Trust me it is not a joke. Try it and it may work...

    If it does work tell. And I'll tell you the explaination for why it worked..
    Have a nice day
    Regards
    Amar
    A student once asked his teacher, "Master, what is enlightenment?"
    The master replied, "When hungry, eat. When tired, sleep. When you need care, come to bobcares....
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  19. #19
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    Amar,

    Good thought. I actually did this once to a clients drive that would not spin up properly. It functioned just long enough to ghost it. Then died shortly after. I won't reveal why it works, as it was Amar's idea.

  20. #20
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    Thanks svdorr,
    Actually, it is a simple thing.
    The head of the HDD and the platters are mechanical parts. When they do get together there is friction. Hence lubricants are put at the joint portion of the HDD head. With time these lubricants get hard due to usage. When we keep it in the freezer the ionic bonds break.
    Then when we start sometimes the movement of the head is back...

    I hope it works for chicken...

    Have a nice day

    Regards
    Amar
    A student once asked his teacher, "Master, what is enlightenment?"
    The master replied, "When hungry, eat. When tired, sleep. When you need care, come to bobcares....
    https://bobcares.in

  21. #21
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    Often it makes quiet clicky noises
    *is very nervous* my hdd also often makes that "clicky" noise... last time that happened I lost windows :'(.

  22. #22
    Instead of the freezer idea..... hahaha bobcares .... don't do that LOL

    Chicken, instead of causing moisture to be forced into the drive (Condensation on parts)

    Do this:

    Hold the drive up with your hand on the bottom, and twist your hand abruptly... counterclockwise, its the same thing as the freezer trick without the moisture hahhaa
    dotGig
    <:<: [Fruit eating linux administrator]

  23. #23
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    I just got a hammer and smashed it and rebuilt it

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