DylanF Posted March 26, 2015 Posted March 26, 2015 I have an incredibly frustrating and seemingly unsolvable issue. Before starting I'll list some specs in case they help: Alienware M15x running Windows 7 Core i7processor 740qm 1.73ghz 6GB of RAM Not sure on graphics card 500GB HDD This morning, I left my computer open for a prolonged period of time. Usually when I do this, the screen simply goes black and then "wakes up" again when I move my mouse or press a key upon returning. This time, nothing would wake it up and it wouldn't go into sleep mode when I closed it. I did a hard shutdown by holding the power button and then when the typical recovery error screen came up I chose the normal boot option. It got to the first "please wait" screen with the spinning ring and just never moved past it.I tried restarting the computer and booting in every single safe mode option. In each of these, it gets past the screen where all of the "command prompt" style lines read out and then it just gets stuck at a black screen with my cursor and/or a spinning blue ring. The only thing it is capable of is going into the BIOS setup where I have no freezing issues. I didn't install any updates or make any changes to the registry before this problem, it just arose seemingly out of nowhere. I've tried a lot of troubleshooting on my own but to no avail. I've tried booting with and without the adapter, with and without the battery. I've tried disabling the wireless network, wired network, and bluetooth receiver from inside BIOS. The HDD is connected properly, everything is housed firmly in place inside the computer. The only other piece of information that might be relevant is that the optical drive hasn't been working for some months, but I don't see why it would suddenly be an issue now. Thank you for any help at all!
sted Posted March 26, 2015 Posted March 26, 2015 press f8 and go into recovery mode you should be able to use startup repair or system restore and with any luck that will allow it to boot properly once again 1
DylanF Posted March 26, 2015 Author Posted March 26, 2015 I've tried this, but regardless of whether I tap F8 or hold it I can't seem to get that menu. I just get a loud beeping noise.
difinity Posted March 26, 2015 Posted March 26, 2015 I suggest checking the hard drive for bad sectors and possibly the memory if it's having trouble booting. As your optical drive is dead, can you remove the hard drive and put it in another computer or do you have an external CD/DVD rom you can use ? 1
DylanF Posted March 26, 2015 Author Posted March 26, 2015 Update: So after running a diagnostic I got the error: [h=4]"Error 2000-0142 hard drive fail 0 Self test Status 79"[/h]Which I learned is essentially the computer declaring the hard drive dead. I tried booting Windows 7 from a USB to do startup repair on the hard drive in a last ditch effort but it told me there was nothing wrong with the hard drive, which is baffling. Of course, it also told me there were no system restore points on it, which I know to be false unless there really is some damage to the hard drive. I guess at this point my question is: how do I go about trying to salvage anything from the hard drive? There is a TON of valuable stuff on there that I had not yet backed up.
newpersn Posted March 26, 2015 Posted March 26, 2015 Take the hard drive out and rebuild with fresh hard drive. Use a usb caddy to use with your old disk. Your disk should be just about readable. (Don't take my word though) 1
DylanF Posted March 26, 2015 Author Posted March 26, 2015 Take the hard drive out and rebuild with fresh hard drive. Use a usb caddy to use with your old disk. Your disk should be just about readable. (Don't take my word though) Okay so I just want to make sure of some things before doing this (I've never really messed with the computer's innards before). Can I just go out and get a hard drive of the same thickness, plug it in the place where the old HDD was, install windows 7 through a usb, and not have to take any other sort of specifications into consideration?
newpersn Posted March 26, 2015 Posted March 26, 2015 Okay so I just want to make sure of some things before doing this (I've never really messed with the computer's innards before). Can I just go out and get a hard drive of the same thickness, plug it in the place where the old HDD was, install windows 7 through a usb, and not have to take any other sort of specifications into consideration? Replace with same size 2.5". Make sure you use sata3 (6gbs) . (If the laptop supports the extra speed if not it won't couse any problem. Unsure on how you take it out but should be a slot or a Pannal to take off. Yep. Make a bootable usb from using the iso file. 1
difinity Posted March 26, 2015 Posted March 26, 2015 (edited) Personally i'd boot the laptop with the hard drive still in from a Linux distro that will boot from USB and recover the files that way. Windows is pickier with faulty drives and than Linux. There are some nice pictures and instructions here on how to remove the hard drive. If you're fitting a new hard drive, why not upgrade to a SSD. Edited March 26, 2015 by difinity 1
newpersn Posted March 26, 2015 Posted March 26, 2015 A nice samsung 850 evo will run sweet with that spec. 1
DylanF Posted March 27, 2015 Author Posted March 27, 2015 (edited) Hey guys, thanks again to everyone who's been helping out so far. So here's the update: I ordered a samsung 850 evo ssd and it should be here tomorrow. I also got a cloning kit and it seems, oddly enough, like I can access every file on the old HDD with the exception of the contents of my "users" folders. Trying to open those folders gives me a message stating that I don't have permission to access them. This is the point where I'm stuck at now. It seems like if I could get in, all of my files would be right there. So why in the world couldn't I just get into windows 7 when it was hooked up to the actual computer? Does this sound like some kind of a malware problem? Should I not be trying to extract stuff from the drive for fear of spreading it to the new drive? Edited March 27, 2015 by DylanF 1
newpersn Posted March 27, 2015 Posted March 27, 2015 Hey guys, thanks again to everyone who's been helping out so far. So here's the update: I ordered a samsung 850 evo ssd and it should be here tomorrow. I also got a cloning kit and it seems, oddly enough, like I can access every file on the old HDD with the exception of the contents of my "users" folders. Trying to open those folders gives me a message stating that I don't have permission to access them. This is the point where I'm stuck at now. It seems like if I could get in, all of my files would be right there. So why in the world couldn't I just get into windows 7 when it was hooked up to the actual computer? Does this sound like some kind of a malware problem? Should I not be trying to extract stuff from the drive for fear of spreading it to the new drive? If your using a different computer to look at your old drive it will give you that warning. Click continue and it will add you (using the different computer) the rights to view the user's folder. 1
DylanF Posted March 27, 2015 Author Posted March 27, 2015 Hey guys, here for hopefully the final update. I'm about to begin the process of cloning, and I wanted to make sure I understand a few things properly before starting. 1) Is there a risk of the same problem plaguing the new hard drive once I clone it over? Presumably the problem is physical damage to the hard drive, which I don't imagine could be carried over digitally, but I want to make sure. 2) Can I do the whole process using a different computer by plugging both hard drives into separate USB ports and using the installation (cloning) software that came with the new Samsung hard drive? I suppose this is really just a question for anyone who has used to software and can tell me if there's a step where you choose which drive to clone and where (I just don't want it to assume that this other computer's hard drive is the one I want to clone). Thanks again!
difinity Posted March 27, 2015 Posted March 27, 2015 Ideally you should be recovering the data or as much as possible (depending on its health) to another commuter or hard drive, install windows on the SSD and then copy your data back.
DylanF Posted March 27, 2015 Author Posted March 27, 2015 Ideally you should be recovering the data or as much as possible (depending on its health) to another commuter or hard drive, install windows on the SSD and then copy your data back. Alright I'm going with this option, but the problem is that there are a ton of drivers I need on the new computer for it to even function decently (drivers for my wifi card, for example). My first thought was to download all of the appropriate drivers from Dell's website onto a USB but I don't know which order to install them in once I have them on the new computer. Would this work?
difinity Posted March 27, 2015 Posted March 27, 2015 Yes, that would work, chipset, intel matrix storage manager, video, mouse, audio, network.
DylanF Posted March 28, 2015 Author Posted March 28, 2015 (edited) Yes, that would work, chipset, intel matrix storage manager, video, mouse, audio, network. I started installing the drivers on the new hard drive but I ran into a fascinating problem. Some of the drivers listed for my computer were for an nVidia GTX 460M GPU and some were for an AMD Radeon 5730 graphics card. The radeon drivers installed without a hitch but the nVidia drivers said that they couldn't find the related hardware and so they can't install. Could this have been the source of all of my problems? Could simply replacing the GPU solve all of this? Is this just a goof? I mean, would I actually have both of these in my computer? I can see the Radeon but I can't see the nVidia. I feel like I vaguely remember getting an automatic update for the nVidia GPU and I think it also said that it couldn't find it but I'm really not sure. Basically I don't feel comfortable really gutting the computer to find it but I will if I have to. I mean, do I need both to do things like play league of legends? Update: If it makes it any clearer, I have drivers for the 460m, the 260m, and the 240m. Like, what the heck? Another update: And also, there is a driver for the 5850. If I understand correctly, this is a different graphics card from the 5730, right? Why would I have so many drivers, and is it even possible that I have all of these components in my computer??? Edited March 28, 2015 by DylanF
difinity Posted March 28, 2015 Posted March 28, 2015 (edited) You don't install every driver listed under your model number. Did you put your service tag in or just browse for the M15x? The laptop had several different configurations available when it was purchased. A laptop will have either AMD. as in your case or Nvidia. The drivers should be at c:\dell if i remember correctly, then listed under their number. Edited March 28, 2015 by difinity typos 1
DylanF Posted March 28, 2015 Author Posted March 28, 2015 Yeah I used the service tag to get the necessary drivers originally. But is it really an either or thing? I thought there was some kind of difference between GPUs and graphics cards? Thanks for the reply either way, you've been an enormous help!
difinity Posted March 28, 2015 Posted March 28, 2015 (edited) You're welcome, I guess even Dell can't link the service tag to the hardware, it seems to be listing every different hardware option. If you are unsure which driver you require, go to the device manager and right click on an unknown item and select properties. Then click on details and under the drop down box named Property select Hardware Ids. Copy and past the first line under Value into a search engine and it should tell you the name of the device. If you have done the first 3 then it's only the network drivers to work out. you might have one unknown driver left and that could be the Ricoh driver listed under chipset. Yes usually it is either or in laptops, always with the dedicated GPU. Edited March 28, 2015 by difinity 1
DylanF Posted March 28, 2015 Author Posted March 28, 2015 Alright, I think I'm set to go. God bless you all. Things are running smoothly now.
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now