Author Topic: ASUS Laptop Booting Problem (Read 12397 times)

Garden Manager · « **on:** May 31, 2012, 15:42:23 »

I have a 3 year old ASUS X5DIJ series laptop running Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit sp1 (upgraded from vista equivalent). it runs IE 9 Norton 360 5.0 and has AOL 9.6 internet software installed.

For some time it has expereinced the random/intermittent problem of 'clicking fits' which freeze up the machine, requiring manual switch off and restart. various scans and virus checks came up with nothing and the machine can work fine for days sometimes between episodes. Today however after one such clicking episode it will no longer load/boot windows. The BIOS loads fine but after displaying 'Starting Windows' screen just goes to a black screen and mouse pointer (moveable). Nothing will change this (Control Alt Delete included) an the machine has to them be turned off manually.

I have tried loading the recovery discs i created when upgrading to Win7, the windows 7 installation disc and the original Vista recovery discs to no effect, the discs try to load but cannot and the same black screen returns.

I am wondering what the problem might be and how/if i can fix it. I am suspecting hard disc failure/problem, but as this has never happened to me before i do not know for sure. I am hoping it isnt as serious as this.

Please ask if you need any more info. Thanks.

BarriedaleNick · « **Reply #1 on:** May 31, 2012, 15:56:39 »

Hmmmmm..

Does sound like the click of death for your hard drive but it is concerning that you Win 7 disks do not load as booting from those doesnt really involve the drive until it comes to writing the OS back. Are you sure it is actually trying to boot from the CD/DVD??

Have you tried booting into safe mode or any other mode - hitting F8 at at start (after BIOS) should bring you up a menu - I suspect it wont work but worth a shot.

Garden Manager · « **Reply #2 on:** June 01, 2012, 09:17:20 »

Quote from: BarriedaleNick on May 31, 2012, 15:56:39

Hmmmmm..

Does sound like the click of death for your hard drive but it is concerning that you Win 7 disks do not load as booting from those doesnt really involve the drive until it comes to writing the OS back. Are you sure it is actually trying to boot from the CD/DVD??

Have you tried booting into safe mode or any other mode - hitting F8 at at start (after BIOS) should bring you up a menu - I suspect it wont work but worth a shot.

Tried safe mode same result. System restore no go, Restore system image from HDD, no go, Cant Boot or run restore system image from DVD-R either. Bios set to boot from disc drive before HDD makes no difference either. Looking pretty final then?

Thanks

BarriedaleNick · « **Reply #3 on:** June 01, 2012, 09:56:30 »

If it were my machine I would remove the drive and mount it in another machine but IT is what I do when not growing veg.
I get this sort of issue a fair bit and often a checkdisk of the drive will fix issues at least for a while. In your case it does sound like the problem has been around for a while and that the drive may be phsically damaged.

Just one thing - when you boot from a bootable CD/DVD do you get any messages along the lines - Press any key to boot from the CD. It's odd that you get the same issue when booting from CD/dvd. I think ASUS uses the esc key to give you a boot menu - need to press when the logo comes up. Then you can be sure form whoch device you are booting..

You could try downloading one of the linux distro live cds http://www.livecdlist.com which just boots into linux without using your HD..
It would allow you to at least see if your HD is working in any way at all..

retro · « **Reply #4 on:** June 09, 2012, 03:02:11 »

If it's clicking, it is more than likely the hard drive. No way around that other than to replace it, I'm afraid... and even if it does continue working, I'd rather replace it anyway.

If you can find the manufacturer of the drive (either looking at the POST screen or in the BIOS, or by taking the hard drive out), you could download the manufacturer's tool for checking the status of the hard drive. They should have a tool to make a self booting CD. Put the CD in the laptop and boot off it (you may have to configure your computer to boot from CD first in the BIOS). That will confirm if there's a hard drive error.

If you need anything off it, or don't want to put a new hard drive in, there's half a chance that it would be possible to get it working again with special tools. However, the cost of doing this probably rules that option out unless there's important data - just as easy to get another hard drive, really!

Garden Manager · « **Reply #5 on:** June 10, 2012, 15:25:40 »

Thanks for advice. Have already tried manufacturer disc checker (seagate). Nothing doing. HDD must be kaput. :(

Any recomendations as to replacement drives? Currently has a Seagate 500gb SATA drive in it. Is it best to go for like for like replacement ot try another make/spec?

BarriedaleNick · « **Reply #6 on:** June 10, 2012, 17:47:32 »

To be honest the only thing to really worry about is if it's IDE or sata - almost certainly sata if it is three years old..
Most HDs are very reliable these days and I wouldn't worry about make and model too much, Seagate are fine but so are most other makes.

Garden Manager · « **Reply #7 on:** June 14, 2012, 09:33:21 »

So once i get the new drive and install it, it should be quite easy to install windows. I have a windows 7 installation disc from ASUS that i have used to upgrade and reinstall windows 7 onto the present HDD. This i assume will be what i need? I also have home produced recovery discs for the machine as it stands, i assume these will be no good?

Thanks

BarriedaleNick · « **Reply #8 on:** June 14, 2012, 14:00:14 »

You could try the recovery disks but it depends what you made them with and if it is a complete system restore - no issues with giving it a go.
As for Windows 7 you may have some difficulty if it is an upgrade disk only as you will have no OS to update from...However it may be a complete install so just try it out. You may have to end up installing any original disks that came with the laptop (Vista) but just try - nothing to loose as you can always start again..

Feel free to post here or PM me if you have issues!

Garden Manager · « **Reply #9 on:** June 14, 2012, 15:46:49 »

Just looked again at the discs. The disc from ASUS does say it is only an upgrade disc and should only be used to upgrade the OS from Vista to 7. (The machine was bought just before 7 came out so started off with vista and later upgraded). However last year when the OS became corrupted (virus) i used the disc to restore and remember clearly being given the option of recovery/reload of existing OS or complete reformat and clean installation of the OS, without Vista being there first. I think i was hoping this function would allow a fresh installation on a new HDD.

I have 3 sets of home-made recovery/system image disks. One set for the original Vista OS, the other 2 the same for the upgraded 7OS made at different times. One on upgrade to 7 the other after the system reset/recovery mentioned above. Might it be nessesary to 'restore' the original Vista OS to a new HDD before upgrading to 7, in effect copying the old HDD?

Thanks for the help

BarriedaleNick · « **Reply #10 on:** June 14, 2012, 17:36:05 »

It may but you have nothing to lose by trying the Win 7 disk on the new blank drive. If it fails and asks for an OS to update then try your restore disks first.
If your restore disks (latest Win 7) are full backups thne you could just try them - if it is it will give you a working PC - an image of it when you did the backup.

Have you got the new HDD in the lappie??

mentallot · « **Reply #11 on:** June 15, 2012, 14:09:30 »

If you have the option download & burn a linux live cd (systemrescuecd or knoppixz) for example & try booting from that. Alternatively you could look in tesco/whsmith for a linux mag with live media included

Don't be scared of this, linux can be just as pointy-clicky as windows if thats what you need :)

ps - Always a good idea to have a live cd handy. If windows gets itself stuffed up, at least you can get your stuff off before reinstalling !

Garden Manager · « **Reply #12 on:** June 16, 2012, 14:57:40 »

Quote from: BarriedaleNick on June 14, 2012, 17:36:05

It may but you have nothing to lose by trying the Win 7 disk on the new blank drive. If it fails and asks for an OS to update then try your restore disks first.
If your restore disks (latest Win 7) are full backups thne you could just try them - if it is it will give you a working PC - an image of it when you did the backup.

Have you got the new HDD in the lappie??

No not yet. Havent even bought one TBH, was waiting to find out how easy it would be to get windows back on it before spending the money on it!

Someone on another forum suggested using an HDD enclosure with USB connection to test the old drive. Not sure if this is worth it as i am sure it had burned out, and i dont have an enclosure anyway. Thanks.

Garden Manager · « **Reply #13 on:** June 16, 2012, 15:00:09 »

Quote from: mentallot on June 15, 2012, 14:09:30

If you have the option download & burn a linux live cd (systemrescuecd or knoppixz) for example & try booting from that. Alternatively you could look in tesco/whsmith for a linux mag with live media included

Don't be scared of this, linux can be just as pointy-clicky as windows if thats what you need :)

ps - Always a good idea to have a live cd handy. If windows gets itself stuffed up, at least you can get your stuff off before reinstalling !

Is Linux the next best option if i cant restore windows from the old drive onto the new one and have to buy a new OS? Is linux cheaper than windows 7?

BarriedaleNick · « **Reply #14 on:** June 16, 2012, 15:26:30 »

Linux is free!!!
You can either just run it from CD (Called a live CD) or install it on your drive like Windows. The beauty is that with a live CD you should be able to see if your HDD is there and if you can rescue the files. However great Linux may be (and it is) - it is not for everyone. Try ubuntu from the live cd link above if you have the ability to downlaod and burn. The try booting with the cd in the drive..
However what concerns me a bit is that you said you have tried booting from your Windows CD and you get nothing which leads me to believe it isnt actually using the cd/dvd to boot from or your windows disk cannot be used to boot your PC - Upgrade disks often aren't made bootable...

Garden Manager · « **Reply #15 on:** June 17, 2012, 10:34:40 »

Had a go at downloading Ubuntu from the live CD site. Was a bit confused at first - so many download options on the site. Anyway i made the CD and to test ran it on my Packard bell desktop (from the CD not installed on HDD). Apart from the GUI being a bit small to read (screen res much higher than i use for windows) i have to say i am very impressed with it and am certainly keen to try it properly (probably in tandem with windows in case of problems).

I then tried the CD in the broken laptop to see if it would boot from it, but had the same non response as i had from the windows discs. It tried to load but couldnt. I guess that confirms the HDD is kaput, unless someone can tell me its something else gone wrong. Cant see that its the optical drive as it hardly ever got used when the machine was working!

Any tips or tricks for getting the best out of Ubuntu? If i go for it its going to take a little while adjust to from windows and have it set up similarly to what i was used to on windows.

Thanks

BarriedaleNick · « **Reply #16 on:** June 17, 2012, 10:43:20 »

Hmm - I would suspect that something else is wrong with your laptop. Booting from Linux or Windows CDs doesn't involve the HDD at all (until installation) so even if you have no HDD at all your lappie should boot. Are you complete sure you are booting form the CD drive - can you see the drive light engaged and hear it spinning up? Is it enabled as a boot device in the BIOS and are you bypassing booting from the HDD at startup. You need to press esc to get a boot option list on your Asus laptop.

Your HDD may be dead but it seems that something else is amiss...

Garden Manager · « **Reply #17 on:** June 17, 2012, 23:46:51 »

Quote from: BarriedaleNick on June 17, 2012, 10:43:20

Hmm - I would suspect that something else is wrong with your laptop. Booting from Linux or Windows CDs doesn't involve the HDD at all (until installation) so even if you have no HDD at all your lappie should boot. Are you complete sure you are booting form the CD drive - can you see the drive light engaged and hear it spinning up? Is it enabled as a boot device in the BIOS and are you bypassing booting from the HDD at startup. You need to press esc to get a boot option list on your Asus laptop.

Your HDD may be dead but it seems that something else is amiss...

Like what and how do i find out what it might be?

Any good taking the HDD out and booting from a disc? Or setting up the HDD as an external drive on another pc to test it?

BarriedaleNick · « **Reply #18 on:** June 18, 2012, 20:08:54 »

Difficult to say form here with any degree of certainty but if you are sure you are trying to boot from the CD drive then it could be that the drive is blown as well. It could be that your laptop wont boot at all which doesnt really lead anywhere good.
It may be worth a shot removing the HDD and trying to boot again from the CD if only to see what error messages get thrown up.
You can try the HD in a caddy to see if it is alive but it wont help you boot your laptop..(altough as I said before what you described earlier has been fixed many times by doing a checkdisk and fixing errors while in a caddy or slaved to another PC)

What exactly happens when you boot from CD - do you get anything at all. Any messages, logos, errors - does anything at all happen in the process of booting?

Garden Manager · « **Reply #19 on:** June 18, 2012, 20:33:11 »

No messages or anything when i boot from the optical drive. Just the same black screen i get when i try to boot normally and a repeated sound of the drive operating but nothing happening on screen. Like i said before the cd drive appears to try to boot but gets nowhere.

Cant understand why the Optcal Drive should have burnt out at the same time as the HDD, The Optical drive isnt used that much.

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Author Topic: ASUS Laptop Booting Problem (Read 12397 times)