Friend's laptop failing to boot properly.

**SpacedOut** · 2012-05-06, 01:17 PM

I have a friend, and no this is not one of those scenarios where 'I have a friend who...' means 'This actually happened to me...'. He has done something to his laptop, the symptom being that when he attempts to boot it instead of the login screen coming up the mouse appears, along with the windows 7 background, then repeatedly flickers between itself and a black screen without the login box appearing. This appears to continue indefinitely until shut down.

The computer will boot in safe mode, and all the various diagnostic scans and information I could find on line points towards some kind of hard drive failure. I further think this to be the case because my friend, idiot that he is, a few months ago broke his 150W charger and because he is cheap bought a 90W charger to replace it. I have now lent him my spare 150W charger but it has made no difference, I think the damage has already been done.

It has been suggested that booting from a removable disc would solve the issue, but we can't try this because he has also broken his disc drive. Would it be possible to put the boot information onto an external hard drive and boot from that via a USB port instead, given that we can't boot from the windows 7 disc?

Any other suggestions are welcome too.

Thanks in advance.

**Jalatiphra** · 2012-05-06, 01:25 PM

make windows7 install dvd on usb stick -> win7 usb boot (google it -there is a comprehensive tool from microsoft which needs only 3 clicks if provided the correct image file )

boot and reinstall windows 7 from usb stick and see if it works

if it doesnt work (which i assume ) hard drive broken! or second possibility GFX broken , with the later requiering your friend to buy a new laptop

i dont think running on a 90W charger will harm anything but the battery- assuming it was put in all the time.
hardware would either freeze or do nothing if the right amout of watts are not provided thats all.

providing too high voltage is another story though. (dont confuse watts with voltage )

**SpacedOut** · 2012-05-06, 05:41 PM

Ok, so he doesn't know where is windows 7 disk is. Presumably that means we're F'd right?

**Cynadra** · 2012-05-06, 06:55 PM

You said it can boot into safemode. Try this in the command prompt.

bootrec.exe /fixmbr
bootrec.exe /fixboot

**SpacedOut** · 2012-05-07, 12:56 AM

I'm getting bootrec.exe is not recognized as an internal or eternal command, operable program or batch file.

any suggestions?

**Kaibhan** · 2012-05-07, 02:06 AM

Originally Posted by SpacedOut

I'm getting bootrec.exe is not recognized as an internal or eternal command, operable program or batch file.

any suggestions?

I believe you have to do this via windows pe/re so do it from your windows install disk

**Creotor** · 2012-05-07, 03:11 AM

I suggest you start here:
http://www.google.com/search?q=mouse...a&channel=fflb

**SpacedOut** · 2012-05-07, 10:21 AM

yes, the small problems are that he doesn't know where his disk is, and his DVD drive doesn't work.

**genericsmurf** · 2012-05-07, 11:43 AM

Maybe he never had a disk - many Laptops carry their recovery files in a hidden partition that should be accessible via bios / boot management options.

**SpacedOut** · 2012-05-07, 03:08 PM

had a look, couldn't find it.

**Maharishi** · 2012-05-07, 03:18 PM

You could always make a bootable linux thumb drive, and then use that to clone the hard drive info to a plugged in external. But if his HDD is borked, any clone of said HDD will just have the same corruptions. If it is the HDD chances are he'll need to get a new one, and order recovery disks from the OEM, most of whom provide them for 20-30$, and do a fresh install.

**WarFalcon1** · 2012-05-07, 04:15 PM

Have you verified it is indeed a hard drive problem?

Try Ultimate BootCD. I know you said his DVD Drive is broken, but if you have a flash drive you can wipe you can load is on there as well. This has testing utilities for a few different types of Hard Drives. I would scan it with SeaTools from Seagate. If its not a seagate drive it will not let you use any of the repair features but it will let you scan the drive for problems so you can at least verify that is the issue. Run the "Long Test" it will all the sectors on the drive.

Instructions on how to put it on a USB drive here:
Customize UBCD
Look for "Making UBCD memory stick"

This will also allow you to check the RAM if you so choose. Use Memtest86+ for that.

If it is a bad drive your options are limited, but since you can boot into safemode it might just be a virus or corrupted driver.

Edit: Also, have you tried booting in VGA Mode? Hit F8 after POST and try VGA Mode, see if that fixes anything. If it does your video driver is probably fubar.

**foil** · 2012-05-07, 04:51 PM

Bootrec only fixes the mbr/boot record. It does nothing to fix boot problems except for damaged bootloaders, Which is working fine if its booting most of the way...

Boot into safemode and use Autoruns from microsoft to check whats trying to load at "logon" and "winlogon" and deslect all except antivirus and microsoft apps... Also check in the startup tab to see if anything new/weird is there..

There should also be logs in Event viewer if theres things stopping the boot to complete.

You can also use Perfomance information and tools - Advanced tools - Generate a system health report to list issues easier than event viewer.

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