Hdd failure

[RichCor]

Originally, you said that the laptop displayed a logo 'splash screen', then the Setup Options Menu, then locked up (wouldn't boot, no error message).

This tells me the CPU, RAM Memory, Address Bus and Video were working up to this point. The BIOS and Boot ROM program were running fine.

At the time, the drive wasn't booting. And when you tried using one of the Fx keys ...nothing.

Unfortunately, having the BIOS Menu display but not being able to activate the option via the F-key doesn't tell us much. (The availability/timeout of this menu option is very short and the ROM may have already progressed into other routines as it readies for the boot device process. You would have had to repeat the power-on process about 6 times with the same outcome to verify for us that the BIOS Menu option definitely wasn't working. Sad but true.)

An issue with the Hard Drive causing errors on the main data bus could also lock up the processor, leaving the BIOS display menu visible but frozen.

It also appears that a BIOS CMOS error state was present, and that you cleared that error state by using the F1 key at a subsequent startup. That error state does't seem to have re-occured. Just an odd timing fluke.

A lot of TESTS would need to be devised and conducted to definitively locate/isolate the issue.

There are TWO main methods:

Spend a possible lifetime keeping the system intact and devising tests to locate/isolate the an issue that only occurs under some specific conditions

--or--

Spend possible less time by start swapping out likely problematic components and do a lot of stress testing against the new configurations (and sometimes independent stress testing against the pulled swapped part).

If the problem stays with the original system, the swapped part probably doesn't play a role in the issue. Swap another part.

If the problem moved to the second independent test system then most likely that part did play a major role in the issue. Keep that part OUT.

So...

Swap in another drive. Stress Test

Swap in another set of RAM. Stress Test

Re- thermal paste the CPU and GPU

Swap in another set of fans. Stress Test

Swap in another Motherboard. Stress Test.

...

Until you get to:

Operator Error. Get rid of the owner/operator ...Why isn't this one ever first?

Note: I don't ever recommend a person just go out and buy a new system to resolve the issues. It usually results in the person either starting an escalating crying response or getting hysterically angry and wanting to hit/strangle something (usually me). It's just a toy. Get a grip. So what if your unfinished PhD paper was on it. You remember most of what you entered.

[2fishin2]

Originally, you said that the laptop displayed a logo 'splash screen', then the Setup Options Menu, then locked up (wouldn't boot, no error message).

This tells me the CPU, RAM Memory, Address Bus and Video were working up to this point. The BIOS and Boot ROM program were running fine.

At the time, the drive wasn't booting. And when you tried using one of the Fx keys ...nothing.

Unfortunately, having the BIOS Menu display but not being able to activate the option via the F-key doesn't tell us much. (The availability/timeout of this menu option is very short and the ROM may have already progressed into other routines as it readies for the boot device process. You would have had to repeat the power-on process about 6 times with the same outcome to verify for us that the BIOS Menu option definitely wasn't working. Sad but true.)

An issue with the Hard Drive causing errors on the main data bus could also lock up the processor, leaving the BIOS display menu visible but frozen.

It also appears that a BIOS CMOS error state was present, and that you cleared that error state by using the F1 key at a subsequent startup. That error state does't seem to have re-occured. Just an odd timing fluke.

A lot of TESTS would need to be devised and conducted to definitively locate/isolate the issue.

There are TWO main methods:

Spend a possible lifetime keeping the system intact and devising tests to locate/isolate the an issue that only occurs under some specific conditions

--or--

Spend possible less time by start swapping out likely problematic components and do a lot of stress testing against the new configurations (and sometimes independent stress testing against the pulled swapped part).

If the problem stays with the original system, the swapped part probably doesn't play a role in the issue. Swap another part.

If the problem moved to the second independent test system then most likely that part did play a major role in the issue. Keep that part OUT.

So...

Swap in another drive. Stress Test

Swap in another set of RAM. Stress Test

Re- thermal paste the CPU and GPU

Swap in another set of fans. Stress Test

Swap in another Motherboard. Stress Test.

...

Until you get to:

Operator Error. Get rid of the owner/operator ...Why isn't this one ever first?

Note: I don't ever recommend a person just go out and buy a new system to resolve the issues. It usually results in the person either starting an escalating crying response or getting hysterically angry and wanting to hit/strangle something (usually me). It's just a toy. Get a grip. So what if your unfinished PhD paper was on it. You remember most of what you entered.

You had me to the end lol

[NeverSure]

Believe he mentioned changing HDD so that was why believed it something else? Or maybe I missed something as this has become beyond my old memory range. But I also have HDD issues about 6 months ago and after second alarm downloaded Comodo and cloned my C drive to a USB drive I had (was very easy to do) and then removed from external case and installed in computer and all was fine and been fine since - destroyed the old drive..

I believe he removed the hdd a then it would boot from a usb stick. Before that it would freeze. However, it also had time to cool down before he removed the hdd so nothing was proven. Hdd? Heat? Both?

He couldn't reach the bios to change the boot order until it cooled down and until he removed the hdd. Now we have a slightly different issue but same same. Data isn't moving across one or more channels for "some reason," or data is moving but the hdd isn't using it properly.

[NeverSure]

Thanks RichCor, CCleaner did remove the artifacts.

Well, now i have backups and images of anything and multiple. lol

Actually the windows backup and restore function should be enough.

I will keep an eye on the SMART numbers. Current Pending Sector Counts at 96 looks bad. Reallocated Sector Count is at 100. The tool says it's fine, but it should be zero. Then, how i can be sure what causes the issue? Only the hdd or NeverSure's theories? If it's only the hdd, could it make sense that i got locked out from the bios?

Unfortunately nothing's been proven yet. Originally two things were done after it failed. It cooled and the hdd was removed to boot from a usb stick. We don't know if it was one of those two things, and if it was, whether it was mobo cooling, hdd cooling, hdd contacts, etc. When the hdd was replaced it had all cooled and it booted from the hdd.

I may be wrong but I keep going to heat. Not excessive heat, just expansion of some component and loss of data flow. I've seen that in mobos, ram sticks, printed circuit boards almost anywhere including in the hdd, and connectors almost anywhere.

It doesn't have to get too hot. Just enough for expansion of something to lose contact.

When I read the OP I thought heat, and I still think heat (expansion and contraction) but I have no idea where it's affected, even if that guess is right.

[lopburi3]

At this point if he has not replaced HD I would get an external USB drive of same size or larger than C (same physical size) and clone to it and then swap. If that solves problem great and you can use old drive for non critical storage if you do not want to destroy - if it does not fix the problem you has a new external drive for storage at least.

[NeverSure]

At this point if he has not replaced HD I would get an external USB drive of same size or larger than C (same physical size) and clone to it and then swap. If that solves problem great and you can use old drive for non critical storage if you do not want to destroy - if it does not fix the problem you has a new external drive for storage at least.

That's a good idea if he wants to chase it.

If this were an enterprise situation we'd have two choices. Toss the whole computer to be sure no component was reused, or start swapping out components from identical models we'd have until it stopped failing. That's a lousy deal because if it was stable for 6 months after we replaced something, we wouldn't know for a fact that it wasn't about to fail again. We wouldn't be able to prove why the part we replaced failed.

I hate these intermittent deals because we can't get down to the component level and prove what is wrong other than by trial and error. It's only when a component is dead that we can swap parts and determine for sure what is wrong. I think we've all done that with a ram stick or something, sometimes prompted by a beep code or our own hunches.

To me this boils down to how much effort and time he wants to put into it. It sure wouldn't hurt to have a new external with an image, even if its hdd didn't fix the problem.

Cheers

Edited March 6, 2015 by NeverSure

[lostinisaan]

Believe he mentioned changing HDD so that was why believed it something else? Or maybe I missed something as this has become beyond my old memory range. But I also have HDD issues about 6 months ago and after second alarm downloaded Comodo and cloned my C drive to a USB drive I had (was very easy to do) and then removed from external case and installed in computer and all was fine and been fine since - destroyed the old drive..

I've used Acronus True Image 2014 various times now and I'm very happy that I've got such a tool. And special thanks to "Hard Drive Sentinel", that once told me that I only had two more weeks on my HD of my Dell notebook. The program was right and I cloned the HD as lopburi had already explained.

Put the new HD in a box, use Acronis, or similar, clone as it is and you'll have each file, program, folder, etc..where it was before, including all functioning programs and features you had at this time.

By using this method, you're not just saving a lot of money. Wasted time is another very annoying part of the game.

Sorry, I haven't read all posts, is the mentioned machine running well now????

Edited March 6, 2015 by lostinisaan

[NeverSure]

Some versions of win 7 and 8 can make an image natively.

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/4241/how-to-create-a-system-image-in-windows-7/

[alocacoc]

Update: I got the warning message again.I just bought a new drive at J.I.B, installed it and played the system image back. That was easy. I hope now it's solved. Speed Fan showed me a very low fitness on the old hdd.

By the way, i did create the system image with the embedded backup/restore tool in Windows 7 home premium x64. Was easy and quite fast.

A also learned to appreciate the Microsoft tool SyncToy. It contains all the important features incl. a scheduler, easy to use, fast and free. It doe's exactly what i looked for. Sometimes it's not necessary to use 3rd party software.

Edited March 7, 2015 by alocacoc

[lopburi3]

I was having issues even doing a backup with Windows Home Premium x64 for a few weeks so using any built in clone was not an option - found Comodo as a free alternative and it seemed to work well and have continued to use as normal backup and find it very fast.

Hope your problems are resolved with the HD change.

[NeverSure]

Update: I got the warning message again.I just bought a new drive at J.I.B, installed it and played the system image back. That was easy. I hope now it's solved. Speed Fan showed me a very low fitness on the old hdd.

By the way, i did create the system image with the embedded backup/restore tool in Windows 7 home premium x64. Was easy and quite fast.

A also learned to appreciate the Microsoft tool SyncToy. It contains all the important features incl. a scheduler, easy to use, fast and free. It doe's exactly what i looked for. Sometimes it's not necessary to use 3rd party software.

Good. What does SpeedFan show you now?

[alocacoc]

SpeedFan shows now max. Fitness. This looks good so far. It's a 1TB WD SATA 3 drive.

I recognized also, that the Event Viewer listed a lot of mapping errors. There are no new entries since i replaced the drive. It feels also, the notebook works faster now. I didn't recognized slowness before, but now, the system runs definitely faster.

Thanks a lot for all your suggestions. It's a quite interesting topic since some different ideas flows in. May be, it could help another user sometimes to determine or locate the problem.

Edited March 8, 2015 by alocacoc