Fixing a broken laptop

[PoxTheSmall]

I was given an IBM Thinkpad by my mother. Essentially, I suspect that the HD is fried, but I'm not totally 100% sure. Would I just take this laptop down to some computer shop and have them run some diagnostics on it or what?

The main symptom is that it'll turn on, but it won't actually boot up into anything. and there won't be a prompt, although you can tell that the thing's on.

[spyder913]

nothing on the screen? does it make any beeps?

if nothing is showing up and there is no beep (or many beeps) it's not likely a harddrive issue

[Figtoria]

I'm sure you could take the part to a local store they should be able to diagnose it for you, but if you have a boot floppy and an o/s cd you could just try fdisking and reformatting the drive yourself, then loading the o/s.

[]LoL[Harm]

Following along with what Spyder is saying if it doesn't even beep or show the IBM splash screen or any other pre-operating system test (POST) then there's a chance the Motherboard/BIOS is a goner and that won't be economically practical to repair.

[PoxTheSmall]

Yes, it boots up, shows the screen then a cursor appears and just sits there blinking but you can't type anything or do anything at that point.

[spyder913]

oh okay so the OS or HD is hosed most likely. If it resembles windows at all than you can try reformating/reinstalling.

[Roscoes_C&W]

Have you tried blowing on it in the vent area or blowing into any sort of cracks? Generally, using a blowing/tapping system will correct these issues. Try blowing into the cracks where you notice heat coming out and also tap apon the top of the laptop, start with gentle taps and work your way up to close fisted punches.

[Rooster]

Download the Maxtor hard drive tester (makes a floppy disk).

It will test any hard drive - pretty reliable too!

[Riddick]

I'm with Roscoes. If there are any removeable peices then take them out, blow on them and put them in so they are just barely in so when you close the lid it just barely fits.

If it worked for Nintendo then it will for IBM.

[Figtoria]

I totally agree about the Maxtor diag disk - great tool.

It's a waste of time though if you haven't at least tried a wipe & reload first.

[Rooster]

Why not run the test first before you go through the install process?

At least the quick test...

[bloodreign]

you can also see if it will boot into safe mode.
safe mode will rule out if you have some software conflicts.

hit f8 while it's booting up and it should give you a startup menu
choose safe mode without networking

if it doesn't boot up to safe mode, try the diag disk that roo mentioned above.

[Figtoria]

I would totally fdisk and then oformat /q the drive. That way it will show you if there are bad sectors before you go through the whole o/s load. If there's bad sectors - chuck the drive and buy a new one - it's not worth the hassle.



Why not run the test first before you go through the install process?

At least the quick test...

[PoxTheSmall]

Okay, here's the scoop.

I got the laptop back from my buddy, pugged in the power cable and turned the thing on. It goes to a splash screen with the Thinkpad logo and it says somewhere on it IBM Thinkpad...after that, it gives a message that essentially sums up as "uable to find drive, please hit any key to try again" or something like that...

[Elvtin]

:ooer:

format/reinstall. :fuct:

[Dape]

So what happened???

[Eiru]

I am starting to work on Thinkpads because the company I work for uses them. We see a lot of 'no os found' and 'unmountable boot volumn' errors. A quick thing to do (if it's a question of contact between the HD and the laptop shell) is reseat the drive. In T23s and T30s, the HD is normally on the left hand side, behind the cover that sits over the sound jacks. T40s have the HD on the right side. Normally, it's 1 screw and the HD slides out like a drawer. The other thing that might work (if it's a question of bad sectors) is to plug in a Windows install disk, boot from the CD, run the recovery console and do chkdsk /r. Othewise, yeah, I fourteenth what everyone else says: flatten and rebuild.

FYI: I totally recommend Thinkpads for the home user with tech experience because, unlike SOME laptop makers, IBM.com has just about all the documentation you could ever need on it's laptops, including exploded parts diagrams and part #s for every concevable replacement part.

[Figtoria]

I love ibm laptops, I've had several and they're a dream to work on. Tough as nails, too.

[Boom]

Did you try asking it nicely to work?