Help my shiney new laptop won't boot-up!

[Dundee]

[quote=Mary]Why? the screen stays on it just keeps on saying disk read error.

QUOTE]


I reckon it might be a disk read error!

c

[Garf]

There are loads of things that can cause that error. But Assuming that MAry hasnt changed the boot sequence to boot from a banana rather than the hard drive, and assuming she hasnt been mucking around with the MBR etc, then my guess is the drive.

that being said, assuming you have no initial joy with Dell, I will go past your place on Sunday Mary, on the way back from Xmatelot's wedding in Plymouth, so do shout if you want me and mrs Garf to drop by and have a look at it for you.

Gareth

[calski]

Hi

I tend to agree with the others who said it's a hard drive not being sat properly. When the girlfriend dropped her laptop, cracking it, it wouldn't boot and had a very similar error. I had to take out and reseat the hard drive. Hey presto! It was ok...

You haven't dropped it have you

Be honest...

By all means though, ring Dell or better yet, take up Gareth on his offer of PC support! Good on yer Gareth!

calski

[dry suit diver]

Originally Posted by MATTBIN

You havent downloaded something orrible from the Internet have you?
Guys would a really malicious virus wipe the hard drive?

Matt

you better beleive it, there are some nasty things out there and some dodgy viruses too!!


in reply to the original problem give it a shake(NOT TOO HARD) if its the drive not seating then it might go back in place and work ,then ring Dell and tell them its fubbared. i had a compaq with same problem but it was out of warranty when i gave it a good rattling but it did fix it temporarily so took the thing apart and fixed it on a permanent basis.

[jlwarlow]

Fingers crossed it's not too serious. A mate at work bought a dell lappy and was installing software at work when 6 hours later it turned off and wouldn't turn on. Dead as a dodo. Sent it back to Dell and a few days later got it back with a note saying the mother board was dead and had been replaced. Another guy at work just had the hard-drive in his dell lappy replaced as it was screwed - but his is a work machine and he's a developer so much disk crunching compiling code. Home use shouldn't use the disk as much as his so it should be OK. Contact Dell, you may have to send it back but hopefully the disk and your CV will be fine.

[Mary]

Hand on heart with a guide guide pledge I haven't been downloading anything dodgy from the internet unless you count all the crap you guys spout on here

Thank you all so much for the advice.

Have spoken to Dell. It appears my hard drive is buggered despite decent up to date virus stuff, no downloading of two lesbians and a goat and not dropping it.

It's less than a month old so no problems with the warrenty, and boy am I glad my mum paid the extra (don't know how much) for collect and return. They are coming to collect on Monday. (they would have sent me out the hard to drive to change myself with loads of instructions if I'd won't but considering I couldn't even get the screws undone on the relevant panel not such a good start.

Just as well i also have my little sis's laptop whilst she's doing a ski season

Garf thanks so much for the offer, hopefully you will have a lovely uninterupted drive back to the big smoke with only a few traffic jams along the way. Enjoy the wedding.

ttfn

Mary

[Diving Dude]

Originally Posted by Mary

..........................no downloading of two lesbians and a goat ...............................
Mary

Purely to see if it'll crash my hard drive, can you post a link to the above.

[abucksdiver]

Matt, Dry Suit Diver,
Although it is theoretically possible for a virus to wipe a Hard drive, very few (if any) do... If your goal is to infect every PC on the planet, removing everything including your virus from each infected 'puter tends to limit the spread...

DSD, you are right, though, about all the nasties out there....

Andrew

[dry suit diver]

Originally Posted by abucksdiver

Matt, Dry Suit Diver,
Although it is theoretically possible for a virus to wipe a Hard drive, very few (if any) do... If your goal is to infect every PC on the planet, removing everything including your virus from each infected 'puter tends to limit the spread...

DSD, you are right, though, about all the nasties out there....

Andrew

not if your virus sends itself out via email /company intranet etc first
happened to the network at one place i worked at not long after i left strangely enough(i wasnt me but the rozzers did call on me)

a virus is still just a set of instructions for the computer to follow

[D.D.J]

Originally Posted by Rob Evans

Eeek, sounds nasty. Stoopid question first - does the laptop have a floppy drive and is there a floppy disk in it?


EDIT: Nice one Garf, beat me to it. Faster and more informative

same suggestion that i was going to say, sorry to hear about it though. i can only imagine how gutted you are. best of luck. i ll have my fingers crossed for you