Hard drive or the motherboard? Any ideas?

Hi.

Last night the notebook froze so i had to reset.

When the notebook was switched back on it showed the samsung bios welcome screen as normal and then the screen went blank.

Today i put the windows disk in and attempted to re-install it and i managed to get to the format partition screen but when it goto 9% it stopped again.

I then restarted and tried installing using the wuick format option. It seemed to install ok but on the windows welcome screen it hangs and then a few minutes later i get the blue screen of death.

Im currently trying chkdsk on it but its frozen at 0% on stage 4 (file data).

Does this sound like the hard drive?

Thanks

 

The best/easiest way to check is by using a different HDD to do the install with. (MB's are too hard to switch!).

Also, don't rule out RAM being a culprit though.

If you have more than 1 RAM module, try each this in this order making sure to always remove a/c power and the battery before working inside your system:

1) simply reseat the RAM modules (and reseating the HDD won't hurt either).

2) remove one module and see if the system operates normally. If it does, the one you removed might be the 'bad' module (it could still be the interference from both that is the problem though).

3) if it doesn't, try moving the installed module to the other RAM slot.

4) if this doesn't work, repeat this test with the module you originally removed.

5) if no combination of RAM modules allow the system to work normally, then I would buy a new HDD to test.

Good luck.

 

In addition to what tiller has suggested, does Samsung have some sort of diagnostic utility? Most manufacturers have some sort of boot utility or in the BIOS, see if all your hardware is in good working order.

 

Thanks for your replies.

Have reseated the ram and HDD but still had the same problem. Have since found out that when i was out and the computer was on a pile of books had been dropped on the laptop. Probably scratched the HDD disks to bits.

I have used ubuntu and booted from cd. The disk check thing has two warnings on it. One of the things it test was showing 4,700,000 odd bad sectors.

Apart from that, ubuntu was able to detect wireless networks and do everything else from what i could see. May try a new HDD tomorrow.

 

Ouch!

Sorry to hear that.

Seems like the HDD is the major problem - but check to see that there are no other problems with the notebook either (screen damaged, keyboard working fully, cosmetic damage is not the issue - look for anything that may cause the system to fail further than it is now (in your normal use).

Good luck (I recommend a WD Scorpio Black 750GB model, btw...).

 

Cheers.

Cannot see anything else and everything seemed to work ok in ubuntu.

Is there anything inside that may need checking? Im thinking about cables etc. I can feel air coming out of the vent so i guess the fan still works. Cannot hear anything abnormal.

 

If the screen is okay (maybe check for any flickering or other unusual effects as you're moving it throughout it's range) and the fan is working and the notebook is running cool/normal, then, if there was anything plugged-in to the USB (or other ports) I would check that they all work properly too. Also, if the screen was open is the touchpad/mouse keys 100% okay (did the books hit them directly...)?

Otherwise, you should be good to go!