Re: No boot on XP laptop

On 9/17/2010 10:44 PM, ahall@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
Ben Myers<ben_myers@xxxxxxxxxxx> writes:

On 9/17/2010 10:32 PM, ahall@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
Christopher Muto<muto@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:

On 9/17/2010 3:29 PM, ahall@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

One of our laptops suddenly stopped booting to windows.

I went into the bios, and enabled full diagnostics at
boot time. no issues reported.

I booted into the Dell Diagnostics, and did the full check
on the hard drive and optical drive. No errors reported.

I tried to boot to windows safe mode, it froze after loading
the isapnp.sys driver file.

I booted to dos to examine isapnp.sys and pciide.sys which
a google search told me loads after isapnp.

Dos could not find the c drive.

Should I try a repair install of XP? Another hard drive
diagnostic tool?

Any help would be highly appreciated...

Thank you,



do you have a blackberry or any other usb device connected to it via a
usb cable?

PS It is definitely trying to boot to windows, as I got half a screen
of boot info before it hung when trying to boot to safe mode.



I've dealt with several laptops lately with dead or dying CMOS
batteries. The first symptom is incorrect date/time. The next
symptom can be anything, especially when the drive parameters in the
CMOS are fubar.

The BIOS setup reported the correct time.

Also, do not rule out a failing hard drive. Dell diagnostics and
Microsoft chkdsk scratch the surface in testing the disk. Run the
manufacturer's diagnostics and also HDAT2 to examine the SMART
parameters, looking for reallocated sectors and sectors pending
reallocation, both a sign of a drive going bad... Ben Myers

I will try that. No C drive in DOS made me wonder --- the Safe mode
boot did indicate some C drive reading, and a full one hour hard drive
Dell test found no bad sectors. Will I find the HDAT2 software via
google? Will it work from a DOS system floopy? I am not sure who made
the hard drive, but I can probably figure it out from the BIOS setup
pages.

Thanks,



Yes, google for HDAT2. There are floppy and CD ISO downloads.

Some laptop BIOS setup screens tell all, including drive mfr. Others, especially Toshiba and HPaq, tell you next to nothing. Worst case, you'll need a small Philips head screwdriver to remove screws from the drive bay and examine the label on the drive.

Toshiba is the ONLY major drive mfr that does not provide a free download of drive diagnostic software.

Toshiba has rapidly become my most unfavorite manufacturer in the computer industry, altho their CD-ROM drives were once excellent... Ben Myers
.

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