Laptop Keeps Restarting - Reboot Cycle

kbc · 18 Feb 2007 at 17:15

As thread title really, basically I have an old Compaq laptop and it keeps rebooting and I can never boot into Windows XP. I press F8 before it loads Windows and have tried booting into "Safe Mode" and "Last Known Good Configuration" but to no avail.

I got a BSOD now and again too... But the weird thing is, this happened on a friend's old HP laptop aswell - it just keeps rebooting itself and never loads Windows. Now is this a common thing with laptops - as it gets old, the components inside just dies? I have no idea what the problem is and have even tried to reinstall Windows but it never finishes the installation and just reboots itself indefinitely...

What sort of hardware problem would cause this?

Joe42 · 18 Feb 2007 at 17:35

Laptops are probably more prone to hardware problems than desktops because of the heat, they are also much harder if not impossible to fix.

Try running a harddisk checker utlilty on it, all the major harddisk manufacturers have one that can be run from a disk.
If you leave it in the bios for a while does it still cut out?

kbc · 18 Feb 2007 at 19:01

Joe42 said:
Laptops are probably more prone to hardware problems than desktops because of the heat, they are also much harder if not impossible to fix.

Try running a harddisk checker utlilty on it, all the major harddisk manufacturers have one that can be run from a disk.
If you leave it in the bios for a while does it still cut out?

Hi Joe42, I couldnt' find any hard disk utility to check the hard drive, but on entering setup, I ran its built in advance "HDD Self-Test" for 28 minutes and it reported a "Read Failure"... but on the 2 minute self-test - it reported nothing.

Is this enough justification to say it's the hard drive causing the BSOD, Windows installation failure and constant reboots?

Joe42 · 18 Feb 2007 at 19:13

I suspected it might be the harddisk, and if it is you're lucky because its one of a few components thats easy to replace.

Has it got a floppy drive and have you got some spare floppies?

That test isn't enough justification to replace the drive when you can get a better test utlilty for free. If that says its bad aswell then its time to go shopping for a new drive.

MAllen · 18 Feb 2007 at 19:16

Short answer - Yes.

Hard disks in laptops have a tough time with heat and being thrown around. So these are the main parts that fail.

You can buy a new laptop hard drive, but it depends if you have the software to reinstall on it. Most laptops have the recovery data stored on the hard disk, so pretty useless in your case as the drive is failing.

If you have an XP OS disk, you should be able to reinstall using the XP Key on the bottom of the machine. (Though you will need the same version of XP on the disk to what is on the machine)

The old data can be rescued from the old hard drive by getting a convertor cable and plugging it into a normal PC. Or you could buy a cheap caddy for it and attach it via USB.

kbc · 18 Feb 2007 at 19:20

MAllen said:
Short answer - Yes.

Hard disks in laptops have a tough time with heat and being thrown around. So these are the main parts that fail.

You can buy a new laptop hard drive, but it depends if you have the software to reinstall on it. Most laptops have the recovery data stored on the hard disk, so pretty useless in your case as the drive is failing.

If you have an XP OS disk, you should be able to reinstall using the XP Key on the bottom of the machine. (Though you will need the same version of XP on the disk to what is on the machine)

The old data can be rescued from the old hard drive by getting a convertor cable and plugging it into a normal PC. Or you could buy a cheap caddy for it and attach it via USB.

Ah... ... Thanks for clearing this up. It's a shame the HDD die so often with laptops. Luckily I've got a caddy to hopefully rescue the data. I think the next challenge is opening this laptop up and removing the drive. =/

jackassuk56 · 18 Feb 2007 at 19:25

normally there is a cover you unscrew and its there!

MAllen · 18 Feb 2007 at 19:34

jackassuk56 said:
normally there is a cover you unscrew and its there!

The nice laptops have an easy to remove tray with one screw..... but I was working on a Toshiba earlier which forced me to remove a dozen screws to get there. Keyboard and wrist wrest all had to come off, with their specially hidden screws. Then I could get to the hard disk.

This is also a good way of being able to test the disk in a separate PC.

A hint: Grab your most valuable data BEFORE you let CHKDSK at it. I have had disks fail totally during the CHKDSK as it pushes it over the edge. So best bet it to burrow down to your docs folder and grab it first before trying to salvage anything else.

I have just noticed that you are a fellow Brightonian... so if you have problems getting hold of the right cable to connect your laptop drive to a normal sized caddy, let me know. I could lend ya mine.

(Email in Trust)

kbc · 18 Feb 2007 at 19:49

MAllen said:
The nice laptops have an easy to remove tray with one screw..... but I was working on a Toshiba earlier which forced me to remove a dozen screws to get there. Keyboard and wrist wrest all had to come off, with their specially hidden screws. Then I could get to the hard disk.

This is also a good way of being able to test the disk in a separate PC.

A hint: Grab your most valuable data BEFORE you let CHKDSK at it. I have had disks fail totally during the CHKDSK as it pushes it over the edge. So best bet it to burrow down to your docs folder and grab it first before trying to salvage anything else.

I have just noticed that you are a fellow Brightonian... so if you have problems getting hold of the right cable to connect your laptop drive to a normal sized caddy, let me know. I could lend ya mine. (Email in Trust)

Heh... if it's as easy as you make it out to be, should be a simple process.

The main thing is just being able to get the data off it. It's an old Compaq Presario 2800 with 256MB RAM. :cool:

MAllen · 18 Feb 2007 at 19:56

kbc said:
Heh... if it's as easy as you make it out to be, should be a simple process. The main thing is just being able to get the data off it. It's an old Compaq Presario 2800 with 256MB RAM.

It is easy... as long as you have patience.

If the hardrive is easily extracted with the one screw, then you just need to find a cable.

If you need to dismantle the laptop - then make sure you have plenty of space and somewhere to put all the screws. First step is to remove the battery. Then carefully look for the screws holding it all together. Each screw you remove, record where it came from. I often put a sheet of A4 on the table, then draw the screw locations as I go. Using small bags or sticky tape to make sure I don't loose any screws. (Biggest nightmare is knocking a tray full of laptop screws onto the floor!!!)

MAllen · 18 Feb 2007 at 20:01

I have just had a look in the offical Compaq destruction manual for you. And sure enough, it is a simple one screw tray.

If you are a curious person... I can email you a copy of the manual in PDF form.

kbc · 18 Feb 2007 at 20:02

MAllen said:
I have just had a look in the offical Compaq destruction manual for you. And sure enough, it is a simple one screw tray.

If you are a curious person... I can email you a copy of the manual in PDF form.

What!?! I've just unscrewed about 15 screws on the back of the laptop, please email a copy of the manual.

Thanks.

Joe42 · 18 Feb 2007 at 20:05

I wouldn't remove it until its been tested with a proper harddisk test utility.
All the major harddisk brands have one on their website, and if you let me know if you have a floppy drive and disk or not i can point you in the direction of one.

Many can actually repair the disks to a working state, depending on what's gone wrong. If its just got lots of errors because its been dropped too many times but the disk works fine the harddisk utility will probably fix it.

MAllen · 18 Feb 2007 at 20:06

kbc said:
What!?! I've just unscrewed about 15 screws on the back of the laptop, please email a copy of the manual. Thanks.

You have mail....

MAllen · 18 Feb 2007 at 20:09

Joe42 said:
I wouldn't remove it until its been tested with a proper harddisk test utility.
All the major harddisk brands have one on their website, and if you let me know if you have a floppy drive and disk or not i can point you in the direction of one.

Many can actually repair the disks to a working state, depending on what's gone wrong. If its just got lots of errors because its been dropped too many times but the disk works fine the harddisk utility will probably fix it.

He needs to backup first. And then he can perform the test in a full sized host PC.

kbc · 18 Feb 2007 at 20:10

MAllen said:
You have mail....

Ah, damn I just worked it out.... :rolleyes:

Thanks for the manual though.... will keep it for reference!

I'm going to try and grab the data first by using a caddy I've got and if that works, then I'll try formatting the drive and see if Windows works on it again...

MAllen · 18 Feb 2007 at 20:13

kbc said:
Ah, damn I just worked it out....

LOL!!

I did say to have a good look round first.

kbc said:
Thanks for the manual though.... will keep it for reference!

Not a problem. Your laptop happened to be old enough to be in my collection of docs.

MAllen · 18 Feb 2007 at 20:15

kbc said:
I'm going to try and grab the data first by using a caddy I've got and if that works, then I'll try formatting the drive and see if Windows works on it again...

As Joe42 points out, there are official manufacture test disks that you will also need to make use of. No point putting a drive back in that is duff.

Check manufacture of drive, then check their site.

kbc · 18 Feb 2007 at 20:19

MAllen said:
As Joe42 points out, there are official manufacture test disks that you will also need to make use of. No point putting a drive back in that is duff.

Check manufacture of drive, then check their site.

OK will do, it's a "Hitachi DK23DA-30F 30GB". Will see what I can find.

MAllen · 18 Feb 2007 at 20:24

http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/download.htm