I am looking at this one for a friend. It is a Dell Inspiron 2500 running WinXP Pro. POST is OK, but it gives an "Operating System not found" error after POST on some occasions, boots normally on others. The OS also gets unstable at times. I was told that it would sometimes randomly open old text files without being told to, and then lock up. With the error message, I am thinking maybe the HD is going, but I don't have another to test it with. What do y'all think?
Well it could be a virii issue, also a boot sector virus. Other then it would have to be a faulty Harddrive, or maybe a currupt file in XP, i would recommend a better OS. lol. Hardcore 98!. Justplaying.
Virus was my first thought. I have scanned with a recently updated copy of AVG, both under Windows and via the AVG bootable "rescue disk". Both report back clean. Looking more and more like a bad harddrive, but I don't have another to test with, and hate to tell him to buy another one and that not fix it.:o
After some further investigation, I have found that it is definately the HD. I forgot that I do have another laptop HD to test it with. I used the HD out of my employer's laptop! When I put the HD from my company machine, the faulty laptop boots normally. Put the HD from the faulty laptop in my company laptop, and it gives the same "Operating System not found" error. Neither computer will even recognize the drive in BIOS. I guess it's time to look for a new HD....:-|
Put the HD from the faulty laptop in my company laptop, and it gives the same "Operating System not found" error.
If the OS on your HDD is missing or corrupted, you can put that HDD on every laptop you find, and none will boot...that's for sure...no matter if the HDD is bad or not...
>>How does it "sometimes boot" to the OS if it is not seen by the bios?
Good question...I'm really curious about that...
I would have though maybe a loose cable. I guess not maybe theres some briken/missing/currupted pins in the conector's on the HD, but other then that I have absolutly no clue.Sorry )=
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