[SOLVED] Troubleshooting laptop circuitry

[king.oslo]

Hello there,

My beloved laptop refuses to load the OS. Windows displays blue screen whilst loading, and Ubuntu throws an error saying "Failed to load file. You must load kernel first".

This happened after somebody stepped on and dented the mouse pad.

I suspected the HDD and mouse to cause the problem, but after disconnecting the mouse and swapping HDD, the problem persist.

Strangly the rest of the PCBs appears imacculate.

I am wondering which circuits that throws these errors, and what you think I should check/how to proceed to save my lovely old computer

Thanks.M

[amspire]

Sounds like a hard drive problem. I would normally try something like Spinrite on the drive, but it is not cheap  - Spinrite can cost more then the cost of a replacement drive. Otherwise, you will just have to get a new hard drive and reinstall the operating systems. Most of the data on your old drive is probably recoverable as it sounds like the drive is partly working.

[Psi]

try booting a livecd

[Pentium100]

Run memtest (if it can load though), maybe there is a memory problem.

Also, while the PCM may appear good, one of the traces in the internal layers may be broken.

[PeterG]

What is the Make/Model of the laptop?

The fact that windows is giving you a BSOD indicates the drive is working to some degree. If the drive was not working at all you would get a "invalid system disc" error. It sounds like the drive IO was interrupted when the mousepad was stepped on causing data corruption, I would try re-installing windows with a fresh copy (not repair) and see what happens.

If that fails to fix the problem, i would be looking at anything else that is connected near that area.

Regards

[G7PSK]

I have had the same problem in the past, it turned out to be memory failure on one stick the other was good, but as you say the problem is the result of the laptop being stepped on it would be wise to check that the ram is seated correctly, it could have popped out.

[king.oslo]

Sounds like a hard drive problem.

When I swapped the drive, I the issue persisted. I thought this excluded this possibility? Am I mistaken?

try booting a livecd

I tried booting a ubuntuUSB stick. It got stuck in the initiation screen. It didn't lock up, but it wouldn't go any further.

Run memtest (if it can load though), maybe there is a memory problem.

Also, while the PCM may appear good, one of the traces in the internal layers may be broken.

Memtest completed without errors.

What is the Make/Model of the laptop?

The fact that windows is giving you a BSOD indicates the drive is working to some degree.

What makes you think the drive is faulty?

I would try re-installing windows with a fresh copy (not repair) and see what happens.
Regards

This doesn't work. When loading the ubuntu installer it gets stuck. 

I have had the same problem in the past, it turned out to be memory failure on one stick the other was good, but as you say the problem is the result of the laptop being stepped on it would be wise to check that the ram is seated correctly, it could have popped out.

They looked good, but I will tear it down, and look again.

[king.oslo]

After 30 mins eyeballing the circuitry under 10x loupe I found nothing.

What are your thoughts?

Thanks.M

[amspire]

When you said Ubuntu was coming up with a "File not Found" message and Windows was coming up with a blue screen, is sounded like it was starting to boot. That is why it still sounded like a hard disk problem, even though you replaced the drive.

It is now starting to sound like you have other problems. The booting off a live USB Ubuntu is a good idea. It should boot but it is freezing.

You could try and boot of freedos. If that does not work you definitely have  hardware problem.

One way to get a USB memstick bootable Freedos is using http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/

If freedos works, you could then try one of the more basic Linux boot disks.

If the problem is not RAM and not the hard drive, then it sounds like a difficult problem to fix to me.

Richard.

[king.oslo]

I will try this.

Is BIOS going to tell me what is wrong? After all, it is a Basic Input Output System, right? M

[alm]

Interesting how memtest86 completed without errors, this suggest that the memory is fine and the CPU can do basic arithmetic, but booting via either USB or SATA fails. Maybe it's an I/O / platform controller hub issue. According to the service manual this is would most likely require a mainboard replacement, but maybe you're lucky and it's just a broken trace or solder connection under one of these BGA ICs. I would expect it to be in the area of the mouse pad.

The BIOS doesn't contain any diagnostics beyond the power on self-test in most modern systems.

[king.oslo]

Interesting how memtest86 completed without errors, this suggest that the memory is fine and the CPU can do basic arithmetic, but booting via either USB or SATA fails. Maybe it's an I/O / platform controller hub issue. According to the service manual this is would most likely require a mainboard replacement, but maybe you're lucky and it's just a broken trace or solder connection under one of these BGA ICs. I would expect it to be in the area of the mouse pad.

The BIOS doesn't contain any diagnostics beyond the power on self-test in most modern systems.

Underneeth the mousepad is the HDD and an Intel branded BGA. The board looks as good as new. But what do you reckon I should do?M

[FreeThinker]

How much memory does memtest report? Is this the same as the installed ram? I'm thinking that possibly the ram is not reporting it's presence and so the system checks and passes the ram it can see but it is not enough for the system to boot. Not sure how much you need for your OS but I think Win 7 needs at least 1 gig to run IIRC.

[king.oslo]

MASSIVE UPDATE: the computer boots to WIN98SE DOS USB pendrive. What are your thoughts?

How much memory does memtest report?

I am loving you alias. Memtest report 2GB. It is the correct amount.M

[FreeThinker]

Aw Shucks!
Ok. Memory appears ok and you can boot into windows. Now run chkdsk on the c: drive could be corrupt Os or a hardware problem.

[T4P]

Try your harddisk on another laptop , it can very well be the SATA controller failing , i had my HP TX2028AU fail just after warranty went out .

[king.oslo]

Aw Shucks!
Ok. Memory appears ok and you can boot into windows. Now run chkdsk on the c: drive could be corrupt Os or a hardware problem.

No, not windows. I can boot to WIN98SE MS-DOS.

I will try checking the disk and post results.M

[shims506]

Possibly try different version ubuntu happened to me once hanged on instalation installed a previous version and worked like a charm

also maybe trying different cd drives (thats what i also did)

[king.oslo]

Exciting new information.

Chkdsk and scandisk refused to run. I installed the ubuntu HDD into another pc. It failed to load OS with same error.

Now I've gotten hold of another HDD which I am installing ubuntu on.

I will post updates as they come in M

[king.oslo]

Yes. You guys were right all along in suspecting the two HDDs. I am impressed by the knowledgeable and talented people on this forum. You know whom I am talking about. Thank you.

I am writing to you from the laptop. Its got a new temporary HDD. I will order one of those new solid state disks tonight. It seems to be all sweet now.

It is funny. This is a Dell XPS M1330, from the time when they were new. Perhaps it must be like 4-5 yrs old? I am the third owner. One time it nearly drowned because the bathroom was flooded. Now this 3-day struggle to save its life. I got it for free because the previous owner was going to throw it away because of minor problems (dirty keyboard, so the keys would stick) and the HDD had been running windows so it was full of malware, pornography and cheese.

I should probably buy a few M1330s for parts, to keep it alive forever. If you've got one which you no longer use, let us know

It needs a new battery too. Should I stick to OEM batteries, or can I buy one of those Chinese knock offs on ebay costing $2?

Thank you for your time. I wish you a pleasant day.

Kind regards from Norway,
Marius

[FreeThinker]

Good to hear!
Harddisk failures can be varied in their results. I've had disks that appear ok but are very unreliable in use. To have two faulty HDD's is unfortunate but sadly not unusual if it has just been kicking around the workshop for a while. Well one in your fix.