Help!! Crash, Bang!!

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Rachelbaby

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Hey people,

I did the dumbest thing! I dropped my sons laptop - a Phillips x55 -
I picked it up and felt the whole thing vibrate and make a lound whirring noise.
Now all I get is a black screen with the message 'Insert Boot Media in selected Boot device and press a key'

This may as well be written in Outer Mongolian to me!!

Can this be fixed or am I going to have to part with my cash for a new one?

Any ideas?
 
Rachelbaby said:
Hey people,

I did the dumbest thing! I dropped my sons laptop - a Phillips x55 -
I picked it up and felt the whole thing vibrate and make a lound whirring noise.
Now all I get is a black screen with the message 'Insert Boot Media in selected Boot device and press a key'

This may as well be written in Outer Mongolian to me!!

Can this be fixed or am I going to have to part with my cash for a new one?

Any ideas?
Click to expand...


Ok fear not...Easy to fix...Chances are when you dropped it the hard drive has moved..I did this myself a few weeks ago...Flip the laptop over and you should see two different covers that can be removed...One for the memory and one for the hard drive..Hard drive been the bigger cover of the two...Remocve the screws and cover and make surte the HDD is seated properly...Give that a try and see what happens
 
Thanks loads for the advice, I tried what you suggested - everything seemed to be in it's place, I removed the HD and replaced it just in case.

Still getting the same message, it also says PXE - E61: Media Test failure, check cable. PXE-M0F: Exiting PXE ROM

It did take quite a knock so I wouldn't be surprised if I have totally ****** it up.

Lol, I can't bleave what a clumsy cow I am sometimes.
 
Rachelbaby said:
Thanks loads for the advice, I tried what you suggested - everything seemed to be in it's place, I removed the HD and replaced it just in case.

Still getting the same message, it also says PXE - E61: Media Test failure, check cable. PXE-M0F: Exiting PXE ROM

It did take quite a knock so I wouldn't be surprised if I have totally ****** it up.

Lol, I can't bleave what a clumsy cow I am sometimes.
Click to expand...


Ok that error you are getting now is pretty much what you'd get if you were booting from a network...Switch the computer off then on again...When it comes on hit F2 until you enter the BIOS...When you're in the BIOS have a look around until you get to where you can alter the boot sequence...See if anything has changed there..It should be set to boot from the HDD first..If it isn't set to boot from the HDD then change it so it is, then save, reboot and see if you have any joy then..Fingers crossed you are in liuck...
 
Madxgraphics said:
Ok that error you are getting now is pretty much what you'd get if you were booting from a network...Switch the computer off then on again...When it comes on hit F2 until you enter the BIOS...When you're in the BIOS have a look around until you get to where you can alter the boot sequence...See if anything has changed there..It should be set to boot from the HDD first..If it isn't set to boot from the HDD then change it so it is, then save, reboot and see if you have any joy then..Fingers crossed you are in liuck...
Click to expand...

I'm afraid the F2 thingy didn't seem to work - still getting the same error message - no such luck unfortunately.
 
The most common failure of a laptop is due to the hard-disk. Generally a hard-disk (hard-drive) can only sustain shocks of upto 10Gs worth. This means the most common death is caused by.... a un-cushoned drop from 30cm of higher.
My prognosis is that the platters and/or heads of the hard-disk are damaged.

Unfortunatly if you get it working again by reloading the O/S it won't be long untill it fails again, when damage like this occures it's like cancer, it just gets worse.

The only solution is to have a transplant.... replace the hard-disk.
After this has been replaced, enter the bios, detect the new drive, select it to boot from cd/dvd and reload the O/S.

Luckily laptop hard-drives have fallen considerably in price over the last few years. I personally recommend that you obtain a replacement with no less the 5400rpm and more cache the better... I would go into details on why but all I'll say is it's due to bottlenecks/lag.

If the laptop was under warrenty the majority will say that it's now void due to the drop, so don't have hopes of a free replacement/repair, however it's always worth a try.
If they are going to charge you I advise doing it yourself or taking it to a local computer dealer for it will normally be cheaper.

DIY price - £30 to £100 depending on the type of hard-disk you get.... I recommend something around the £45 area (if you see lots of pins on the hard drive interface you need a IDE hard-drive, if you see a thinish plastic strip with metal contacts then you need a SATA style, the size of the replacement needs to be 2.5").

Local dealer - expect to pay upto 40% on the replacement hard-disk and an hour labour... DO NOT pay more than this for labour, most of the reload is unattended and so if they put down more than hour then they are cow-boys.

Manufactorer - expect the longest wait for repair and for it to be returned to you as if it was turned on again for the first time. Chances are the total payable will be over £200 but you will recieve a manufactors warrenty and guarentee on the work.

If you know someone who knows a bit about computers then option 1 is you.

If your still unsure just reply here.
 
Last edited:
Thanks loads Jaling and Madxgraphics you've both been very helpful.

Jaling, I will try replacing the HD as you suggested.

I'm so glad I posted, chances are that I would've ended up buying a brand new laptop.:)
 
definitely sounds like the hard drive is knackered

should be able to get a replacement reasonably cheap, just make sure you have a restore CD or you'll have to find a copy of windows to use to do the install and use the serial on the bottom of the laptop
 
Glad to help

:D Now bak to my forest migration from 2000 to 2003 :wall:
Exchange, A/V, Backup, SAN, Firewalls, VPNs, GPOs, Proxies.... the list goes on... I may be busy for a while :(
 
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