Has my X41 passed away?

Message

WFU03 · #1 Post by **WFU03** » Mon Jul 14, 2008 8:28 am

Last night, I was surfing the web and clicked on a thread on a message board. The computer froze and I tried to ctrl-alt-delete and shutdown firefox, but no luck. It hung on the ctrl-alt-delete window.

Then I forced it to shutdown by using the power button. When I turned it back on, before it could load into windows, I got an 0200 error (hard drive).

I turned it back off and let it cool down for an hour or two. When I tried to turn it on again later, it booted into windows, opened all of the programs included in the usual startup, and then crashed again before I could open explorer to get some files off of it.

At this point, I turned it off again for the night. I tried again this morning and basically the same thing happened with it booting into windows and then locking up. The only difference is I'm not sure all of the usual startup programs loaded before it locked up this time.

So...any thoughts?

Is my hard drive dead?
Is something else likely wrong with the computer?
Is there any way to get files off of the drive and onto a USB stick?
Should I just bite the bullet and buy a new laptop?

Basic specs:
X41 running XP
40 GB HD (but 7 GB or so empty)

Thanks in advance.

weepy · #2 Post by **weepy** » Mon Jul 14, 2008 9:25 am

there are IDE-USB converters on the market, i have one from scythe, it works flawlessly.

I would copy the files from it, and AFTER that i would run scandisk..

how about reinserting? the hdd could have bad connection...

you can use some PXE environment or linux BootCD to try and copy disk contents. I have BartPE installed on my USB stick, it boots and sees data on the hdd with no problem (and it is able to copy them also).

j-dawg · #3 Post by **j-dawg** » Mon Jul 14, 2008 10:44 am

This also sounds a bit like an overheating problem. Check for excessive heat.

kunfuchopsticks · #4 Post by **kunfuchopsticks** » Mon Jul 14, 2008 11:03 am

j-dawg wrote:This also sounds a bit like an overheating problem. Check for excessive heat.

exactly what I was thinking

gongo2k1 · #5 Post by **gongo2k1** » Mon Jul 14, 2008 12:54 pm

my x41 was acting like this when i removed the thermal pad from the north bridge.

it could also be heat from the battery trying to charge... try removing the battery and just running from the power adapter, or vice versa.

you could also try removing the hard drive and just booting a live linux distro from cd. if it doesn't crash on you, then it could be a problem with hard drive or maybe even with the controller.

aceo07 · #6 Post by **aceo07** » Mon Jul 14, 2008 2:05 pm

I'd suggest that you don't use the laptop anymore! Remove the harddrive, put it into an external drive case and retrieve your most important files by hooking up external drive case to another computer.

If your drive is failing, you don't want to waste its last breathes on trying to boot up windows. This happened to a friend. Luckly I recommended on backing up files before attempting to fix Windows. The next day the drive completely died.

WFU03 · #7 Post by **WFU03** » Tue Jul 15, 2008 8:55 am

aceo07 wrote:I'd suggest that you don't use the laptop anymore! Remove the harddrive, put it into an external drive case and retrieve your most important files by hooking up external drive case to another computer.

I'm not sure I know what products are needed to do this. Does anyone have any suggestions (and hopefully they are cheap!).

aceo07 · #8 Post by **aceo07** » Tue Jul 15, 2008 11:24 am

WFU03 wrote:
aceo07 wrote:I'd suggest that you don't use the laptop anymore! Remove the harddrive, put it into an external drive case and retrieve your most important files by hooking up external drive case to another computer.
I'm not sure I know what products are needed to do this. Does anyone have any suggestions (and hopefully they are cheap!).

Any 1.8 ide drive enclosure should work for you. I found this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6817145381 Though I have not used it myself.

gongo2k1 · #9 Post by **gongo2k1** » Tue Jul 15, 2008 11:45 am

there are also very cheap 2.5->3.5 converters so you can connect directly to the ide on your desktop. probably get faster transfer speed than using usb.

WFU03 · #10 Post by **WFU03** » Tue Jul 15, 2008 9:18 pm

Hmm...do I need a 1.8" or a 2.5" type converter? Looking around for specs on the X41 (before I open the thing), it looks like it comes with a 1.8" hard drive. Some commenters have mentioned 1.8" products and some 2.5".

Anyone know for sure before I order something to try to salvage some data?

gongo2k1 · #11 Post by **gongo2k1** » Tue Jul 15, 2008 9:31 pm

it's a 2.5" adapter you need. anyone who tells you different has never actually seen the drive.

WFU03 · #12 Post by **WFU03** » Tue Jul 15, 2008 11:59 pm

OK...then is this site incorrect?
"Hard Drive: 1.8" 20GB, 30GB, 40GB or 60GB @ 4200RPM"
http://www.notebookreview.com/default.a ... inkPad+X41

Or am I just not understanding why you would have a 1.8" hard drive but need a 2.5" adapter?

gongo2k1 · #13 Post by **gongo2k1** » Wed Jul 16, 2008 12:12 am

*sigh* this has been discussed so many times before...

it's a special 1.8" drive with the 2.5" (44 pin ide) connector attached on its side. size-wise, it's 1.8", connector-wise, it's 2.5".

pull it out of the machine and compare to any other laptop hd you might have lying around, you'll see what i mean.

EDIT: didn't mean to sound condescending or anything, i guess i should have said "use the search function and read the wiki". trust me, it really really really IS a 44 pin ide 2.5" connector... really. all the 1.8" stuff out there is for ipods.

WFU03 · #14 Post by **WFU03** » Wed Jul 16, 2008 8:52 am

*sigh* this has been discussed so many times before...

it's a special 1.8" drive with the 2.5" (44 pin ide) connector attached on its side. size-wise, it's 1.8", connector-wise, it's 2.5".

pull it out of the machine and compare to any other laptop hd you might have lying around, you'll see what i mean.

EDIT: didn't mean to sound condescending or anything, i guess i should have said "use the search function and read the wiki". trust me, it really really really IS a 44 pin ide 2.5" connector... really. all the 1.8" stuff out there is for ipods.

Thanks. And I apologize for the rather basic level questions. I did do a search and couldn't find anything (must be the wrong terms) and I had no idea there was a wiki (where is it?). I'm just a poor sap who stumbled upon forum in a panic after my X41 relieved itself of its duties a few days ago.

I'm not a complete moron when it comes to computer use, but I am when it comes to hardware. I generally just don't mess with it. So, as a result, I dont' have any other laptop hd's lying around and I'll just take your word for it on this one.

gongo2k1 · #15 Post by **gongo2k1** » Wed Jul 16, 2008 10:19 am

www.thinkwiki.org

most of it is linux-centric (older linux at that) but it's still a good resource for hardware info and common issues that crop up.

1.8" drives are confusing since there are 3 different types: zif, micro ide, and mini ide.

these are 1.8" mini ide, but most 1.8" stuff is micro ide for ipod or zif for umpcs. that's why i suggested 2.5", because 2.5" adapters are mini ide or sata, so it's a lot easier to find what you need.

as far as a replacement drive goes, you won't be able to replace it with a 2.5" drive, unfortunately, and the only compatible 1.8" drives are slow, old, 4200rpm and cost $150+ for 60gb (the highest capacity available).

kunfuchopsticks · #16 Post by **kunfuchopsticks** » Wed Jul 16, 2008 12:13 pm

gongo2k1 wrote:
as far as a replacement drive goes, you won't be able to replace it with a 2.5" drive, unfortunately, and the only compatible 1.8" drives are slow, old, 4200rpm and cost $150+ for 60gb (the highest capacity available).

With good timing, you can get a new said 60GB drive for ~$60 on ebay.

WFU03 · #17 Post by **WFU03** » Sun Aug 03, 2008 1:24 pm

Thanks for the help guys!

I finally got the USB adapter and I was able to recover data off the drive.

aceo07 · #18 Post by **aceo07** » Sun Aug 03, 2008 9:58 pm

That's great. Did you figure out what was wrong with the harddrive?

WFU03 · #19 Post by **WFU03** » Mon Aug 04, 2008 8:46 am

Nope, no idea. I haven't tried to boot into windows again just in case I remember something else I wanted off the drive. My philosophy at this point is don't test it.

It gave me an excuse to get a new X61 which, aside from getting to me a week later than lenovo guaranteed, is a very nice machine.

gongo2k1 · #20 Post by **gongo2k1** » Mon Aug 04, 2008 3:17 pm

WFU03 wrote:It gave me an excuse to get a new X61...

i'd say it's a good excuse... haha.

Has my X41 passed away?

Has my X41 passed away?

Who is online