webbsta

Hi, firstly thanks for taking time to read this, its my first post because im not usually in need of help but i can't see an alternative this time without taking it to a repair place, which will cost a lot. Ok, my laptop is a HP Pavilion ze2000 (title says it all but nevermind) and im having a big problem with getting it to boot up, when i switch it on, it used to go to the Intel boot screen and within 2 seconds went straight to windows (or linux) but now when i switch it on, it comes up with this:
and after about 5 seconds of it displaying that, it refreshes as if its searching if the error is still there.

But i managed to get rid of that by reseating the hard drive, but now it boots up to the Intel boot screen and just stops at it for ages, and then about 5 minutes later it comes up with that same error message above, i think its also worth mentioning that when i try to enter setup, it also takes about 5 minutes to go into it, while it just says "please wait..."

Also when i press esc in the boot screen (which says "press esc to change boot order") it says this for 5 minutes:

And after a few minutes it goes to the boot order menu.

I am so stuffed if i cannot get this up and running again, it has so much work of mine on the hdd, i have made backups but i will still lose about 2 months of work, i would greatly appreciate any help, thanks.

TriggerFinger

hi webbsta,

welcome to the forums

the PXE related message that you see tells that it is waiting for a network boot and it also tells that it does not see your hard drive or a bootable device. the same is shown in your POST. it sees the ATAPI drive as shown here:
------------------------------
CPU = Intel Pentium M processor 1.60GHz
504 System RAM Passed
2048 Cache SRAM Passed
System BIOS shadowed
Video BIOS shadowed
ATAPI CD-ROM: PIONEER DVDRW DVR-K15
Mouse initialized
------------------------------

but it does not show your hard drive. check your BIOS settings (boot sequence or boot order) and see if you have the hard drive on top of the boot order list. you can set it (temporarily) to show:

HDD drive
CD drive
Network boot

if it goes to directly to the Network boot (PXE message shows up), then you can say that it cannot see your hard drive. try if you can boot from your CD drive. Use your XP install CD to do this or a linux live CD. if can boot from the CD drive using the boot order above, you can say that you have a defective HDD.

webbsta

Thanks for replying so quick :), I did try booting from an ubuntu disk (I always have boot from disk drive first because it has saved my *** more times then i care to mention lol) but i heard the disk speeding up as if it was getting ready to boot but the computer then still did nothing while the Boot screen was up. I have checked the hhd and its connection and it looks perfect, i even slotted in bits of paper by the sides to make it tighter but its still the same. Now that you mention it not being able to see the hdd, i did try to do a Hard Drive self test but it said "No IDE Device", does this mean my hdd is screwed up? Thanks again for replying.

TriggerFinger

hi,

yup that's it - the HDD is not recognized. you can do another test by removing it and attach it on another computer via adapter or USB enclosure. but at this point, sad to say, it really looks like the hard drive is gone.

usually it is the logic card that failed and you can replace them using another logic card from another HDD of the same make and model. but then again, there is no guarantee and it may still go anytime. so consider replacing it with a new one instead.

webbsta

Aww man, my mum will kill me, she will just say "It's because you play around with it too much" lol Iv'e been due a new computer for a while anyway so i think i may give up on this one and just get a newer and more reliable desktop instead. Is there any way i can recover any of my files? i have source code, homework and music i would really like back.

TriggerFinger

i think there is a way to pump your data out of a dead drive but again, that would require special tools and a dust free environment. you may need a specialized repair shop to do this... and yes, it will cost lots of $$$.

webbsta

Ok, thank you so much for all your help. :)