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  1. Anyway, out of the blue today my laptop ups and shits itself. Coming from the hard drive is what only can be described as a god awful clicking and grinding sound when I go to boot up. After the initial "Compaq" boot screen it comes up with the error message:

    "Non system disk or disk error - replace disk than hit any key" (to that effect)

    It then refuses to go any further in the boot process. A couple of times when I've tried to boot it another error message comes up saying "Error 1827 - Disk Controller Failure" but not all the time.

    I looked up that error message on the Compaq site but that wasn't too helpful so now I'm waiting for an email response from them for further help but I thought I'd post to see what you think the cause of it is.

    Its an Compaq Evo n610c Laptop by the way, 2Ghz P4-M processor, 30 Gig IDE HDD, 256 DDR Ram etc etc.
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  2. Master of Time & Space Capmaster's Avatar
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    Sorry to hear that Pac. It sounds like your drive just took a dump.
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  3. Yeh, I'm hoping at worse that its just the HDD thats screwed. At least the most it'll cost me then is $120 for a new drive.
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  4. Master of Time & Space Capmaster's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by pacmania_2001
    Yeh, I'm hoping at worse that its just the HDD thats screwed. At least the most it'll cost me then is $120 for a new drive.
    It probably is, with those symptoms. When the drive craps out it'll give a controller error just like what you saw.
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  5. I don't know what caused it, it was running fine till it just decided to crap itself in an instant.
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  6. Master of Time & Space Capmaster's Avatar
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    Ay least the prices are pretty low if you don't buy the biggest/fastest drive
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  7. try the old freezer trick to see if it will boot after being frozen.
    tgpo famous MAC commercial, You be the judge?
    Originally Posted by jagabo
    I use the FixEverythingThat'sWrongWithThisVideo() filter. Works perfectly every time.
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  8. rumor has it (I haven't tried it) You throw a hailing HDD in the freezer then after it's ice cold, you hurry up and pot it back in and try to boot it up
    tgpo famous MAC commercial, You be the judge?
    Originally Posted by jagabo
    I use the FixEverythingThat'sWrongWithThisVideo() filter. Works perfectly every time.
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  9. Член BJ_M's Avatar
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    doesnt work on a Laptop drive i am told as they are so small - all the cold is lost right away..
    "Each problem that I solved became a rule which served afterwards to solve other problems." - Rene Descartes (1596-1650)
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  10. Might be worth a try anyway?

    By the discription of the problem though, I would say the HDD is toasted (clicking/grinding = crashed head)
    tgpo famous MAC commercial, You be the judge?
    Originally Posted by jagabo
    I use the FixEverythingThat'sWrongWithThisVideo() filter. Works perfectly every time.
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  11. Член BJ_M's Avatar
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    anything is worth it
    "Each problem that I solved became a rule which served afterwards to solve other problems." - Rene Descartes (1596-1650)
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  12. Do you have another laptop to place the drive in? Had the same problem (clicking and other ASSorted noises)...
    This is what I did and it worked for me...

    https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1123331#1123331

    makntraks
    In the theater of the mind...
    It's always good to know where the exits are...
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  13. Member Heywould3's Avatar
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    i have an older compaq that did/does that too.. and I found that i can format the drive with fdisk and re install OS and it will boot.. but its the HDD its hosed.. i get errors durring format/fdisk bad sectors etc.. but it boots eventually.. if you do that you can install r-studio to recover SOME of your data keep in mind that when you re write the os it will trash all the data on that secton of the disk.. but you will be able to recover all the rest.. if you have XP on there now with fat32 fils system.. load 98 which will take up a lot less HD space and allow you to recover more...

    BTW after than a few weeks later my LCD started to look screwy.. not related at all.. but just means that its time for another lappy lol..
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  14. Until you get a new hd you could use a live-cd with the laptop so you can still use it. A couple good ones can be found here, it just boots from the cd rather than the hd:
    www.slax.org
    www.knoppix.net
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  15. Thanks all, you've been much more helpful than the Compaq technical support people.

    This is there response pretty much (sans marketing BS)

    It seems to be a hardware problem (could be of hard drive or the controller).
    I don't think I'll bother trying to recover anything off the drive as I just got it last week and didn't have anything important on it.
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  16. Member glockjs's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by pac
    I don't think I'll bother trying to recover anything off the drive as I just got it last week and didn't have anything important on it.
    i was gonna say p4-m 2.0 sounds pretty new. wow, maybe you should take it back and look at something else beside a compaq
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  17. I bought it second hand over the internet so I'm not sure if its still under warranty.
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  18. Member glockjs's Avatar
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    if you got it second hand i dunno what you could do about the warranty. compaq isnt very friendly when it comes to that sort of thing. they gave my roomate trouble on his $3000 tablet but then again, it's always worth a try
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  19. I'm talking to them now, unfortunately it looks like the sticker with the serial number and model number for the laptop has fallen off or been removed by the previous owner so hopefully that doesn't affect them helping me.

    In the end though it doesn't worry me too much if its a hard drive gone south. A new one won't cost that much in the scheme of things and I'm pretty sure I'll be able to install it myself.
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  20. Member glockjs's Avatar
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    you could always get bazooka to help you fry....errr fix it
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  21. I've never replaced a laptop hard drive so expect plenty of posts on here for information if I do do it.
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  22. HP/COMPAQ ROCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    I was directed to ring their help line where I was diverted to what sounded like an India call centre but the guy was courteous, his accent was understandable and he got straight to the problem.

    It turns out that it still is under warranty and that they'll arrange for it to be picked up and repaired.
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  23. Member glockjs's Avatar
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    picked up? i'll have to let my roomate know that....he's gonna be p i issed
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  24. I was just happy their was a warranty and I said to the guy "ok, so wheres the nearest service centre that I can take it to" and he goes "don't worry about it, we'll have someone call you to arrange pickup of the item".
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  25. Master of Time & Space Capmaster's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by pacmania_2001
    I was just happy their was a warranty and I said to the guy "ok, so wheres the nearest service centre that I can take it to" and he goes "don't worry about it, we'll have someone call you to arrange pickup of the item".
    8) 8) 8)
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