big problems with my 380xd [long post, sorry!]

[mark_w]

hello there, just registered, hope you guys can help me.
i have an old 380xd which has been pretty good over the years, but i think i have killed it! please read on -
i was on the web a couple of nights ago [e bay actually], when the text changed font and any pictures became white boxes with the red X, this happens on e bay sometimes, i usually go to another site, then back and it clears itself. i went to my favourites menu and all the icons were blank, i clicked on any of them to get an error message about the shortcuts not existing?
odd stuff does happen so i thought i would shut the machine down and start again. unfortunately, it went through most of it's start-up procedure then stopped at the stage where it puts icons and a start menu on the desktop with an error message saying it had performed an illegal operation, i asked for details and it said there had been an error in windows.exe and something about stackdumps[?].
i tried this a couple more times to no avail. i put it into safe mode and tested a few things out, all seemed ok. i intentionally crashed it to let scandisk have a go, it too found nothing. tried starting it with a windows 98 cd in, didn't help.
if only i had stopped there....
i remembered i had made a norton systemworks rescue floppy disc for the old desktop machine so thought i would try that. it DID warn me that seeing as it had been made for another machine it may mess mine up, unfortunately, it DID mess it up.

when i switch on now, i get nothing, blank screen, it doesn't go through it's checks, doesn't count up it's memory, the hard disk light just stays on and the fan runs. starting it up holding 'del' down doesn't do anything.
a guy here at work thinks the rescue disk has overwritten something in the CMOS?

please please give me some ideas, please explain it to me like you're explaining it to your grandma, i don't know much about computers but can fix anything given guidance.
thanks in advance.

[egibbs]

i remembered i had made a norton systemworks rescue floppy disc for the old desktop machine so thought i would try that. it DID warn me that seeing as it had been made for another machine it may mess mine up, unfortunately, it DID mess it up.

Been there, done that, very bad thing.

I doubt if it overwrote your CMOS, but I bet it overwrote the Master Boot Record.

How to fix it depends on your Operating System. For Windows 2000 or XP you need to get into Recovery Console and issue the fixmbr command (see http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=kb;en-us;314503).

For Windows 98 go to bootdisk.com and download a Windows 98 boot disk. Make a boot floppy, boot the machine, and at the prompt issue an fdisk /mbr command (see http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q69013/).

Note that some data loss may be inevitable at this point, depending on what exactly has happened on the drive.

Ed Gibbs

[mark_w]

thanks Ed.tried this, made a boot disk, started it up with the disk in and then inserting it just after pushing the button. no difference, still does nothing.

[tfflivemb2]

Just curious....

Try removing everthing attached to the system (ie. CD, Battery, RAM, etc) then try to reboot. See if you can then get to the CMOS. If you can, then try the boot disk again.

[mark_w]

sorry to sound daft, but how do i remove those??
i tried it with the battery removed [i can do that one.. ], don't know how to remove the others.

[SeanM]

Can you get into the bios? For this machine, that means hold down F1, turn the machine on, and keep holding F1 until you see the bios screen.

[MadeInJapan]

Fixed a laptop today for a friend who couldn't boot up at all..not in safemode, not with boot disc, not with anything. Took his HDD out, popped it into my HDD adapter for the T30 and inserted it into my T30 and copied off all of his files and folders of importance then did a virus scan and found nothing. Also did spyware scans with Adaware and Spybot and over 200 were found. Cleaned them up, popped the HDD back into his laptop and it started back up. Don't know if this would work for you, but an idea for retrieving data. Worst case is that you have to format your HDD after data retrieval and start over. If you were near me, I could help you.

In Windows 2000 and some other systems, when you hit F8 during initial boot, you have a choice to "boot-up with last known good configuration." Sometimes this is all it takes to get your laptop up and running again. Is there that option for you?

[mark_w]

sean - tried F1, still doesn't work.
madeinjapan - unfortunately you're about 3000 miles away from me! it is/was running win 98. i would really like to get a few photos off it, i'd like to be able to use the machine again, but i'd really like these photos back...

[egibbs]

Norton may have written over the partition table as well, but I don't think that should stop it from going into BIOS.

At this point, I'm starting to think you have multiple problems - possibly a hardware probelm that may or may not be related to the initial event, and probably a HDD that has been badly scrambled.

If you have stuff on the drive that you want, then it's time to get that off first. Get the Hardware maintenance manual for your machine from the IBM Support site, and pull the drive out. Get an adapter to allow you to installl it in a desktop (not as the primary drive!), boot the desktop up and see if you can read the drive. If you can, copy off whatever you need.

If you can't then http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=n ... y+software

Many of them have free trials that let you see what will be recovered if you buy the software. Try them all, find the one that gets back the most, and buy it.

If the soiftware data recovery tools are not able to do anything, there are companies you can send the drive to who can usually pull data off it. The service is expensive ($1000 or so) but if it's every picture you ever took of your kids, it's worth it.

Once you have gotten back whatever you are going to get, do a FULL erase of the HDD. The IBM PC Doctor utility has a full erase function, as do a number of other utility programs. It's not enough to just erase the files or reformat, you need to wipe the drive clean - get rid of all partitions, file structures, indexes, etc. - Norton probably replaced all of them with the ones from whatever machine you made the rescue disks in. Then you should be able to use fdisk to create a new partition and make it active, and have a useable if empty drive.

While the drive is out see if you can get into BIOS with F1 on the Thinkpad. If not, then you've got a hardware problem or bad CMOS, either of which will require a serviceing.

If you can get into BIOS, put the drive back in (with power off, of course), make sure you can still get into BIOS, and reisntall your OS.

Good luck,

Ed Gibbs

[mark_w]

thought i would update you.
i am watching a couple of incomplete 380's on e bay that could sell for just a couple of $$££, i could slot my hard drive into one and see what i get - watch this space!

[mark_w]

result!
bought one for £1/$0.60!
it's a 380ed - mine's an ex, looks the same as mine, we'll see when it arrives.