Need help, lappy died, any ideas, need asap for collage!!!

[Adam Senior]

hi, the other day i went to my laptop and it was on a black screen saying something to so with sis900 cannot find boot device, so i put in my windows xp disk and when i go to repair it say that a hard drive is not installed??
So i then reboot and jobs agud 1 cos it reboots back into windows "phew" but last nite i left it downloading from bittorrent and When i went to look at it l8tr on, blam same black screen, i have tired umpteen times to fix it and i realy need it fixing, i can be arsed sending it to the repair centre for the 2nd time cos i need it this week, help
UPdate, the black screen says
sis900 pxe bootROM v1.09 HOOK 1nt
Client Mac ADDR;00 03 0D 1D 2B 3A GUID:303...........ECT
PXE-E51: NO DCHP OR PROXT DHXP OFFER WERE RECIVED

pxe-m0f : Exiting intel pxe rom

reboot and select prooper boot device

i need help guys any ideas? FUBARD hard drive?

 

[Craig321]

Maybe try open it up and make sure hard drive is plugged in properly?

Craig.

 

[Adam Senior]

yep. i havnt done anything physically 2 make it do this!

 

[Craig321]

How old is the laptop.

I was in an old 500mhz PC the other day getting an IDE cable out and the plastic bit on the cable just about crumbled in my hands because it was so old.

So maybe the IDE cable in your laptop has become loose over time/because of oldness?

Picking it up and putting it down for years aswell will eventually make it loose.

Craig.

 

[meths]

How do you make a 'collage' from a laptop?

Sorry in advance for being a smartass.

 

[Violent-J]

Laptops dont have ide cables though, the hard drive is connected directly to the pins.

 

[Craig321]

Laptops dont have ide cables though, the hard drive is connected directly to the pins.

Oh, I've never actually looked in a laptop properly.

Maybe the hard drive is just giving up then?

I also still suggest reseating the hard drive though.

Craig.