Carobit Hardware Conversation: Laptop error on bootup

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Originator:	starl	Printable Version
Title:	Laptop error on bootup

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From: starl	On: 2010/05/16 10:53:23
Latitude D820. Recently installed a new battery (purchased through Dell). Coincidence? Issue: When a reboot, I get an error that it cannot. I get "no bootable devices--strike F1 to retry boot, F3 for setup utility, Press F5 to run onboard diagnoistics" The very first time this happened, I tried F1 several times and the message kept repeating. So I go into Setup and look around. No hard drive was found. I exited - and the system booted up without a problem. I used it for over a week without any problems. Just recently - had to reboot. Got the same error. Tried F1 again - didn't work. This time tried Diagnostics, which went fine until: --start dst short test-- Test result: fail error code : 1000-0141 Msg: No hard drive detected. I ESC out of there and again - it boots up fine. Any idea what is going on? I've read various theories - bad keyboards (I rarely use mine.. could it be a sticky key? if so - which?), reseating the hd (but I haven't done anything that should have loosened anything). Or is it the battery causing a problem? Tho, After first installing the battery - and a couple of reboots after that, I did not have any problems. There is no CD/DVD in the drive. I do have some virtual drives mounted, but have for some time and didn't have problems before.

From: rid	On: 2010/05/16 11:16:05
Hi. Some laptop have two levels of HD testing, the more advanced one taking quite some time. Perhaps you should try runnig one such test, if available. Perhaps the HD is really getting bad in some way, sometimes not being "ready" when it is being detected by the POST routine; a quick restart like when Esc-ing out of the setup, will not power down the HD so at those restarts it will be detected. There used to be an issue like this with some desktops that went very quickly to the HD detection part of the POST and the HD hadn't had time to rev up and so wasn't detected. Cheers /RID

From: starl	On: 2010/05/16 11:40:05
Seagate had an advanced setting, but they warned it may destroy my data... As for the rest of what you said.. it bit beyond me... i think you're saying the problem is if the HD powers down all the way, it's not getting detected - which is why Escing from setup and diag allows my system to bootup. Don't understand after that. Is there anyway of knowing for sure? I will try reseating it shortly... how long do you think I have before it's totally fubarred? If i get a new hd, is there a way I can transfer everything over? Be worth $25-$50 to me to just get a new hd and transfer it all, install new, and bootup from it... I hate reinstalling stuff...

From: starl	On: 2010/05/16 12:02:50
oh! just found an article at a Data Recovery site that says my problem could be caused by corrupted firmware! and one of the tools in the seagate tool is a firmware update. Do you think if I install the update, it would overwrite corrupted files?

From: starl	On: 2010/05/16 12:06:48
grumble, nevermind, not available....

From: rid	On: 2010/05/16 12:17:14
Sorry, computereze and english are not my native languages... I meant that if the HD is powered down, it'll take some time to "wake up" on a startup (rev up the platters and start up it's internal functions). If the BIOS tries to detect the HD before it is finished, it may not be detected correctly. A restart without powering down the HD "shortcuts" this startup process of the HD's. The reference I made was to a problem that occured intermittently om some desktop computers. Even if the HD was totally healthy, it didn't spin up quickly enough to be detected when the BIOS tried to find it, much as you describe it. In your case it may be a bad HD or faulty firmware, bit since it has started just recently and wasn't there from the beginning, firmware seems a bit off the mark (it doesn't "go bad" over time, but HDs may). /RID

From: starl	On: 2010/05/16 12:21:34
ok - I did understand you properly. Wasn't sure since this is outside my realm. Know anything about how i can .. mirror(?) the old drive to the new? I'm already looking for a new drive, tho I'll try reseating this one first.

From: starl	On: 2010/05/16 12:42:12
good news - just booted w/o a problem! Not exactly what did it.. tho, considering the problem was before the OS started, I'm guessing it's the reseating of the hd. I had also stopped the virtual hd from loading - but like I said, that's a windows thing, so probably not an issue. Also removed/replaced the battery.. i know batteries can sometimes cause strange problems. but so far, so good. Thanks for the hd education, tho. I need every little i can get!

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