I have a Dell Inspiron 1525 and it wont turn on. I mean i can turn it on but it doesn’t go directly to windows like it always does but instead it just does a blank screen with a blinking cursor on the top left. Before my laptop just freezes and turns off by itself or sometimes freezes then a blue screen appears and then after 2 weeks that thing happened it doesn’t turns on. Please please please help me!!

Sounds like this is hard drive failure. The laptop starts with a blinking cursor on the top left side of the screen because it cannot see the hard drive or the hard drive doesn’t work properly.

You can test the hard drive with SeaTools utility available for download from Seagate site. This utility works fine for most hard drives and can tell you if your hard drive is failing. Download the utility, burn it on a CD and boot the laptop from this CD. Run hard drive diagnostic test.

If the hard drive fails test, you’ll have to replace it with a new one and reinstall the operating system. You can reinstall the operating system from the recovery disc which usually comes with the laptop. Insert the recovery disc into the DVD drive and restart the laptop. It should start booting from the disc. Follow the instructions on the screen.

My Acer Aspire Notebook turns off all by itself just after turning on, or after Windows shows up. I can hear a click from inside, than it’s off.

First of all, turn on the notebook and listen for the cooling fan. Does it spin at all? Usually you can see the cooling fan though the air intake grill on the bottom of the notebook. If the fan doesn’t spin, it’s possible you have a failed fan and the notebook turns off because of overheating. If that’s the case, the cooling fan has to be replaced.

If the cooling fan works properly,listen for the hard drive sounds. It’s possible you have a failing hard drive. If the hard drive makes clicking noise, it’s bad and has to be replaced.

If the hard drive is failing, you still can try recovering data using an external USB enclosure.

I dropped my dell laptop, now it turns on & shows the xp windows logo. I notice the the booting bar is in activation but it does not stop, ever.

Most likely you damaged the hard drive.
Listen closely for noises coming from the hard drive when the laptop tries loading Windows. Can you hear repetitive clicking noise or grinding noise? If yes, the hard drive was damaged.
Turn off the laptop as soon as possible. Hopefully you still can recover personal files from the failing hard drive.

If the hard drive was damaged, you’ll have to replace it with a new one and reinstall Windows OS.

Mine is Toshiba Satellite u300-11v. I have it for the past 2 years. I never carried it anywhere. It is making huge grinding noise when starting it for the first time, now a days it is making noise even when starting it from hibernation. I don’t know exactly weather fan or hard drive makes noise. However i suspect the sound from the left side of the laptop. Please advice.

It’s easy to find out if the grinding noise comes from the hard drive or fan.

First of all, remove the hard drive and start the laptop with the hard drive removed. Now listen for the cooling fan. Make sure the fan actually spins. If the grinding noise is still there, you’ll have to replace the fan.

If the noise is gone when the hard drive is removed, it’s not the fan problem. Most likely you’ll have to replace the hard drive.

I just changed out my hard drive on my Panasonic CF-Y2. I reloaded windows XP and can see all of the files on my hard drive when I use a Linux CD Rom operating disk, so I know the drive works, but I cannot boot XP from my hard drive. I continue to get the dreaded PXE-E61 “media test failure” message at start-up.

Most likely it happens because the hard drive is not set as the first boot device in the BIOS and the laptop is trying to boot from LAN. That’s why you are getting “media test failure” message.

Enter the BIOS setup menu and change the boot order. Make sure the hard drive is the first device in the list of bootable devices. Save setting and reboot the laptop.

Now the laptop should start booting from the hard drive.

By the way, if you installed a brand new hard drive and it doesn’t appear in the BIOS, enter the BIOS setup menu and try loading default settings. There should be a button which allows to set default settings. Save changes and restart the laptop.

My laptop will not start up completely. I can push the power on button, and right before the logo is supposed to appear it will restart itself, and will continue on this loop. I have held down the power button in the middle to shut it off completely and let it sit for awhile and tried again, with the same results. I have also left the computer run this loop all night with no success. I have noticed the fan will come on really high at the start of the process and then slow down before it restarts itself. The fan is working and the computer is not hot. The computer is always hooked up to the A/C adapter and very rarely do i rely on the battery. any suggestions?

This problem could be related to the memory. It’s possible that one of the memory modules is bad.

If you have two memory modules installed in your laptop, remove them one by one and test the laptop with each module separately. It should start properly when the bad module is removed. If the laptop still restart itself with each module installed separately, most likely this is not memory related problem. It’s very unlikely that both memory modules failed at the same time.

Try starting the laptop without the hard drive. A failed hard drive also can cause this failure. Can you boot to the logo screen when the hard drive is removed? If not, most likely the problem is not related to the hard drive.

If nothing helps, most likely there is a problem with the motherboard and it has to be replaced.

When I go to the Bios it shows nothing for the HDD. Does that mean the drive needs to be replaced? I cant tell if the drive is working or not.

Could be bad hard drive (most likely) or there is a problem with the hard drive controller on the motherboard (less likely).

1. Enter the BIOS setup menu and load default settings. Save and exit. Can you see the drive now?
2. Try reconnecting the hard drive, maybe it’s not making good contact with the motherboard. Reconnect the drive and test the laptop again.
3. Remove the hard drive from the laptop and test it in an external USB enclosure. You can buy this enclosure in any local computer store. Connect this enclosure to another working computer.

If you can access the hard drive when connected to another computer and the hard drive works properly in the enclosure but not in the laptop, there is a problem with the laptop motherboard.
If the hard drive doesn’t work in the enclosure, probably it’s bad hard drive.
If you have to guess, try replacing the hard drive first.

I have a Dell Inspiron 9400 laptop and a few months ago two very thin (one-pixel-wide) vertical lines appeared to the very left of my 17 inch screen, one green, one yellow. Since it was a minor nuisance I ignored it. Week by week, one or two more would appear gradually more and more to the right. then yesterday night after watching a movie and when the black screen at the end came up with all the credits rolling I closed the movie window and suddenly a huge white band about two inches wide appeared in the very middle of the screen.

I plugged in my laptop to an external monitor to see if my video card had died, but the image was fortunately/or unfortunately clear/normal. Is there a way to fix his? or do I have to buy a new monitor? If so, where can I find a cheap monitor to install it myself, it is very easy, I’ve done it before. I tried eBay, but there is nothing. I called Dell, but they only sell such parts with a technician who must come to my house, or I must ship my laptop, both of which are out of the question for me, the first due to paying an unnecessary price, the second because they always mess up my files or erase my drives every time I’ve shipped my laptop, be that to install a new cd/dvd driv, or change my RAM, no matter how many times I told them not to touch my data.

Right now i am using only the very right side of the screen, but I fear it won’t be long until it dies too. I opened the laptop and checked the connection to the screen and the cables, and there was no change…

Sounds like you have a faulty LCD screen. Unfortunately, you cannot repair the screen, you’ll have to replace it with a new one.
Here are instructions for replacing the LCD screen in a Dell Inspiron 9400 laptop. You can do it yourself. A new screen will cost you less than $100.

After changing the hard drive in my laptop, I am getting the following error message:

PXE-E61
PXE-M0F
Operating system not found

You can get this message if the hard dive is bad OR there is no operating system installed.
Didn’t you forget to reimage the hard drive using the recovery disc which usually comes with a laptop? This process will reinstall the operating system and software back to factory defaults.

A new hard drive is blank, it has on OS installed. It’s not enough just install it into the laptop. You’ll have to install the operating system.

Yesterday when I started my laptop it displayed the Lenovo screen as usual but after that instead of booting it displayed a blank screen with white cursor blinking at the top right corner. It is very strange because it is not showing and error message and fan starts moving like I am working on some application. I thought might be bootloader got corrupted or something, so I tried booting with Ubuntu and XP CD both but no change still same blank screen with white blinking cursor. Please note that I have been able to enter Bios setup and change the booting option as well. Bios was showing all the hardware as it usually shows but its bios doesn’t give any options to change anything other than date, security password and booting option, well I guess that’s what they provide in value laptops. My laptop is still in warranty and only 6 months old but before I give them to repair I want to know what is wrong with it, is it software or hardware? One more thing, when I try its one key recovery button which should restore my C: to dos installation back again, it performs same thing, blank screen with blinking cursor.

Your description sound like a hard drive related problem. Most likely the hard drive is bad and has to be replaced.
Before you send your laptop for repair, there is something you can try at home. Try reconnecting the hard drive. Remove it from the laptop and install back. It’s possible that the hard drive is not making good connection with the motherboard and after reconnecting will start working properly.