greetings,

having a problem with a compaq nx5000 laptop. not mine, but was trying
to help out a friend who has been having problems. suspected virus/
malware issues and was trying to run trend micro house call which
seemed to have hung mid scan. moved the laptop to one side to let it
do its thing in the hope that it might magically become "unhung" and
accidentally unplugged it. the battery is completely kaput so it
immediately shut down. when i tried to restart it, it came up with the
message asking if i wanted to start in safe mode, etc so i tried safe
mode. it then appeared to be going through the start up routine but
before coming to the windows start up screen, shutdown again and went
back to the "do you want to start up in safe mode" etc screen.

tried once more and same thing happened. tried F10 this time which
worked, got into the setup and ran the HDD self test. the first quick
test succeeded but the second comprehensive test came back with the
result "read failure". i don't know what this means. i tried to
restore defaults did not seem to change anything. the startup loop
continues.

any thoughts?? is it a lost cause??

thanks in advance for any and all suggestions.

regards
bk

<bad.karen******.com> wrote in message
news:1162660054.762105.239280@b28g2000cwb.googlegr oups.com
> greetings,
>
> having a problem with a compaq nx5000 laptop. not mine, but was
> trying to help out a friend who has been having problems. suspected
> virus/ malware issues and was trying to run trend micro house call
> which seemed to have hung mid scan. moved the laptop to one side to
> let it do its thing in the hope that it might magically become
> "unhung" and accidentally unplugged it. the battery is completely
> kaput so it immediately shut down. when i tried to restart it, it
> came up with the message asking if i wanted to start in safe mode,
> etc so i tried safe mode. it then appeared to be going through the
> start up routine but before coming to the windows start up screen,
> shutdown again and went back to the "do you want to start up in safe
> mode" etc screen.
>
> tried once more and same thing happened. tried F10 this time which
> worked, got into the setup and ran the HDD self test. the first quick
> test succeeded but the second comprehensive test came back with the
> result "read failure". i don't know what this means. i tried to
> restore defaults did not seem to change anything. the startup loop
> continues.
>
> any thoughts?? is it a lost cause??
>
> thanks in advance for any and all suggestions.
>
> regards
> bk

Memory or hard drive failure?

--
Bill

thanks bill. i'm not sure how to tell if it's memory or not. is there
something in the setup? or do i have to find some other memory to swap
in?

bk

BillW50 wrote:
> <bad.karen******.com> wrote in message
> news:1162660054.762105.239280@b28g2000cwb.googlegr oups.com
> > greetings,
> >
> > having a problem with a compaq nx5000 laptop. not mine, but was
> > trying to help out a friend who has been having problems. suspected
> > virus/ malware issues and was trying to run trend micro house call
> > which seemed to have hung mid scan. moved the laptop to one side to
> > let it do its thing in the hope that it might magically become
> > "unhung" and accidentally unplugged it. the battery is completely
> > kaput so it immediately shut down. when i tried to restart it, it
> > came up with the message asking if i wanted to start in safe mode,
> > etc so i tried safe mode. it then appeared to be going through the
> > start up routine but before coming to the windows start up screen,
> > shutdown again and went back to the "do you want to start up in safe
> > mode" etc screen.
> >
> > tried once more and same thing happened. tried F10 this time which
> > worked, got into the setup and ran the HDD self test. the first quick
> > test succeeded but the second comprehensive test came back with the
> > result "read failure". i don't know what this means. i tried to
> > restore defaults did not seem to change anything. the startup loop
> > continues.
> >
> > any thoughts?? is it a lost cause??
> >
> > thanks in advance for any and all suggestions.
> >
> > regards
> > bk
>
> Memory or hard drive failure?
>
> --
> Bill

<bad.karen******.com> wrote in message
news:1162674235.057485.26040@k70g2000cwa.googlegro ups.com
> thanks bill. i'm not sure how to tell if it's memory or not. is
> there something in the setup? or do i have to find some other memory
> to swap in?

I don't know... I was hoping you could tell me, since you ran the test.

There are good free memory testers out there too. :)

--
Bill

hi bill - the only way i know to check memory is from the control
panel. it won't complete the startup routine and go to the windows
start screen, so i can't get see the control panel. i can't even get
it to start up and show me a command prompt.

the only thing i can get to is the BIOS setup and there seems to be
nothing to test memory in that screen. the only test available was the
HDD and the only information i got was that the comprehensive test
result was "read failure." no further information that i could see.

thx
k


BillW50 wrote:
> <bad.karen******.com> wrote in message
> news:1162674235.057485.26040@k70g2000cwa.googlegro ups.com
> > thanks bill. i'm not sure how to tell if it's memory or not. is
> > there something in the setup? or do i have to find some other memory
> > to swap in?
>
> I don't know... I was hoping you could tell me, since you ran the test.
>
> There are good free memory testers out there too. :)
>
> --
> Bill

<bad.karen******.com> wrote in message
news:1162729960.585401.310400@m73g2000cwd.googlegr oups.com
> hi bill - the only way i know to check memory is from the control
> panel. it won't complete the startup routine and go to the windows
> start screen, so i can't get see the control panel. i can't even get
> it to start up and show me a command prompt.
>
> the only thing i can get to is the BIOS setup and there seems to be
> nothing to test memory in that screen. the only test available was
> the HDD and the only information i got was that the comprehensive test
> result was "read failure." no further information that i could see.

See:

http://www.memtest86.com/

Which should allow you to test the memory. They say it is the best free
memory testing program available. ;)

--
Bill