Laptops died

[teash]

Quick and brief explaination, after switching laptop on it flash`s up the intel celerion image for a few seconds, then screen goes black with a flashing cursor in the top left hand side of screen and no matter what buttons are pressed nothing happens. O/S is xp


Many thanks

[Androcles]

This may be a daft question, but is there a power on password set?

[teash]

Many thanks for replying but this maybe a even dafter reply but I havn`t the foggiest but i`m gonna say no. Long shot but may the hard drive be kaput???

[poohshunny]

Have you got a bootable rescue cd or xp install cd? Set the laptop to boot from cd by going into the bios (either F1, F2 or delete at the intel celerion screen). If boots from cd, check if hard disc is visible to the installer as it sounds like the hard disk is "kaput" like you have already mentioned.

[teash]

DOHHHHHHHHH havn`t got a disc to reboot from, looks like its gonna have to be a replacement hard drive sob sob. Many thanks for taking time out to reply

[ACtheTROLL]

woah there
Your quickie was a little too quick there

you switch on you get the celeron ... the flashy thing.... then nothing...

the flashy thing has two functions ... the POST (power on self test) and the handover to the OS ... depending just what's failed ... it could be the HDD ... it could be something else .... (although is probably is the HDD)

you have another machine .... so take a second and visit
http://bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm
... download the Windows 98 SE OEM bootdisc

create a floppy (just run the file with a floppy in the drive)
and then booting with it in the problem laptop.
assuming that your XP is using NTFS ... you won't be able to read the HDD ... but if the machine boots ... at least you are 90-95% certain its the HDD

some timeouts can take what seems forever.... if no joy just look at the flashy thing for at least a cup of tea ... see if it does anything...
if not ... go to the hdd shop