Hard drive problems?

[--weezl--]

I know some of you know a lot about computers and what not... here's thesitiation, a friend of mine used to buy electronics at auctions, and sell it for a profit, fixing what is needed to be fixed as required, he fell out of it with a bunch of stuff left over, including this laptop. he no longer has time to sell it all, so he's getting me to do it for him. The laptop in question is an averatec e1200 (i'm sure no one has heard of it) it boots part way, does an averatec logo screen, starts the startup self check, and comes to a doss screen that says:

Intel UNDI, PXE-2.0 (build 082)
Copyright (c) 1997-2000 Intel Corporation

For Realtek RTL8139(x)/8130/810X PCI Fast Ethernet Controller v2.13 (020326)
PXE-E61: Media test failure, check cable
PXE-M0F: Exiting PXE ROM

Reboot and Select proper Boot device
or Insert Boot Media in selected Boot device and press a key_


after opening the computer up, and listening to the hard drive with a screwdriver on the ear, I can hear a few sets of clicks in the drive, as it boots, but no spinning noises. I have pulled the drive out, and tried the old nintendo blow in the connection trick, it didn't work...

I CAN get into the bios while it's booting up, and in the bios in the boot menu, the three boot devices are, in order, [CDROM: SM-Slimtype], [HDDM-IC25N060ATM], [Network: Realtek Bo] with those square brackets around them, and over on the right side, on the "description" section I suppose, it says "A device enclosed in parenthesis has been disabled in the corresponding type menu"

the fact that I can hear clicking in the HDD, but no spinning, and that it has been disabled in the bios, leads me to believe that the hard drive is pooched... right?

next question is what connector/type of drive is this? it says on it "ATA/IDE" but an ide drive has the power connector over on the side, separate from the main harness isn't it? this looks most like a PATA connector, but it doesn't say PATA anywhere on it... I am pretty sure it's not SATA though...

I may just have to throw this laptop out, depending on how much it's going to cost to repair, because now I have to get a set of recovery disks, and possibly a new hard drive...


just curious, i found this file, which looks like what I'll need to re install windows (I don't have the disks, but luckily the sticker on the bottom is still legible) but this says floppy disks, and when cd-rom doesn't work, i should be able to put this onto a cd anyways though, right?
http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/Boot-Manager-Disk/Windows-XP-Pro-Startup-Disk.shtml

 

[Mark_88]

I searched on the model and found this...

http://uae.souq.com/ae-en/averatec-e1200-12-1-inch-80-gb-299149/i/#

I guess if you want to get it working as a challenge then it would be worthwhile, but I seriously doubt there would be much of a market for it...well, there's one born every minute...lol

It sounds more like the boot sequence is finding an error and halting...which is kind of strange since the device is not a critical failure (ethernet controller)...although it also sounds like the device is disabled (probably from previous troubleshooting to get past the error)...

Personally, that would be the first thing I would do on a boot error...disable the device to see if it goes past that point. If it doesn't, there is a built-in (by the manufacturer) exit sequence that is probably not something you can work around without flashing the BIOS with an update (if available).

I can't remember off-hand if was BIOS or CMOS...responsible for the hardware checks...but probably CMOS...and that needs to be flashed...

Maybe someone with more recent knowledge can chime in on that...but my troubleshooting was done years ago at that level and I used to know it like the...oh, wait, what's that on the back of my hand?

EDIT: Had to look it up...the CMOS cannot be flashed as it stores info about hardware...unless the time keeps resetting to original date the cmos is probably OK...or you need to change the battery...

The BIOS does the POST (power on self test) and that can be flashed...if available

 

[SenorNoob]

From what I see you don't need to flash anything. That is a standard BIOS reaction when it can't find a bootable drive.

The connector is actually a common IDE connector for 2.5" drives. No separate power on the laptops.

Edit: Also if you're looking to be cost-effective, you have too old a system. It's only usefulness now is if it can be fixed for next to nothing... For what you'd spend on a hard drive, (Unless you find one on e-bay for like $10.) you could probably by a used netbook.

 

[SenorNoob]

I'd pop this onto a CD and load it if you want to know what's salvageable. You could even use it with just it and a flash drive to store data on.

http://www.puppylinux.com/install.htm

 

[Mark_88]

From what I see you don't need to flash anything. That is a standard BIOS reaction when it can't find a bootable drive.

The connector is actually a common IDE connector for 2.5" drives. No separate power on the laptops.

Edit: Also if you're looking to be cost-effective, you have too old a system. It's only usefulness now is if it can be fixed for next to nothing... For what you'd spend on a hard drive, (Unless you find one on e-bay for like $10.) you could probably by a used netbook.

I'm glad I'm not depending on my TS skills anymore...I totally missed the boot device error...lol

Good call on the value of the device...I used to fix and build computers in my spare time and finally realized that most of the time the fix was more expensive than just buying new or used...fun to play with until they start being more expensive than good toys.

 

[--weezl--]

From what I see you don't need to flash anything. That is a standard BIOS reaction when it can't find a bootable drive.

The connector is actually a common IDE connector for 2.5" drives. No separate power on the laptops.

Edit: Also if you're looking to be cost-effective, you have too old a system. It's only usefulness now is if it can be fixed for next to nothing... For what you'd spend on a hard drive, (Unless you find one on e-bay for like $10.) you could probably by a used netbook.

agreed about the price, there's a 40gb hard drive that looks the same, on ebay, for $14, if i can fix it for about $20, I can probably sell it to a student who just needs to take notes in class or something, for around 50-100$

 

[cvar]

That's a standard 2.5" HDD for a laptop that's IDE (ie, PATA). Obsolete. Good news is that it's 60GB (reasonably big). Their lifetime is about 3 yrs of daily use. To discover whether the HDD itself still works, just insert it into a cheapo ($5) 2.5" HDD enclosure. The enclosure is a handy gadget that lets you plug it into a USB port, to use it exactly like a thumb drive. Then plug the USB enclosure into any other working computer. Like this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA2C50UB9486

Then you can test the HDD quality using "hitachi drive fitness test" which is an excellent freebie download. It'll give you a PASS/FAIL grade.

If the HDD is good, then you can load the bootable O/S onto it. If not, toss the HDD in the trash.

Either way, that 1.5GHz laptop is a good boat anchor. It's a 12 yo machine that's slow as molasses, even when running WinXP. No way I'd pay $50-$100. A student would need a modern fast laptop.

BTW, see the difference here: http://www.newmodeus.com/harddrives/SATAPATA.jpg

 

[AllanD]

Cvar is correct,

The hard drive shown above is a garden variety PATA/IDE NOTEBOOK drive, these use a different connector than the desktop IDE/PATA hard drive.

SATA drives use the same connector for both notebooks and desktops.

The four pins off by themselves are the Master-slave jumper connectors but these are rarely used under normal circumstances

 

[--weezl--]

lol, where you been hiding allan? this thread hasn't been posted in for 8 months! lol, my laptop is long running again!

few other threads i see you have done this to also

 

[cvar]

 

[AllanD]

Been busy with several other things... one of which is organizing several large media libraries.

Mind numbingly boring, but it pays in my getting copies of all the files

Where did you get another drive? because SFAIK nobody makes IDE notebook drives anymore.

 

[--weezl--]

ebay! I think it was like $20... I could have gotten an SSD, but it was much more expensive so I said f-that

great contribution to this thread, super relevant, glad you could make it out