iiDanny

Okay I bought a universal power lead as the one I had broke, the wire snapped etc etc.

It arrived today and cut a long story short - it's give me BSOD. At first it loaded up alright, was charging but kept cutting out.. obviously not enough charge in it for the PC to stay alive, but it stayed on. Eventually it cut out the laptop, when booting it back up with a different volt adapter in the power supply, I get a BSOD after the Windows XP screen.

unmountable_boot_volume was the error issue.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q297185/

Tells me it is something to do with the wrong cable;


I take it that it's because the wrong power supply or whatever is being put into the laptop?

I'd just like a bit more information on it if you can.

- Can I fix it without buying a new power cord?

Is it even anything to do with the power supply, or is the "wrong cable" message something completely unrelated to power?

I've tried a few steps what people have said on Google, booting up the XP disk and running chkdsk/r or whatever. I've tried doing that, I can't even get to the part were I have to press R to repair. It loads up a load of files then just cuts out when it's probably just getting to that page. I've tried it 3 times now.

If you want any more info please ask, I'm desperate for a bit of help. :]

Cheers,
Danny

af3

There is something wrong with the hard disk drive. Someone will help you shortly.

If you have a Windows setup CD (XP/2000) you will be able to do the chkdsk /r with the recovery console.

If you are desprite, for $89 you can buy SpinRite and repair the hard drive with that...

iiDanny

Like I said, I can't get to the recovery bit. It just cuts out.

I'm wondering if I get a new power supply, and try to recover it then will it 100% work or will I have just potentially wasted more time?

dai

when you say you bought a universal cable,do you mean just the cable or the complete power unit
the ms reference to a cable is for a desktop not a laptop

iiDanny

I bought the whole unit, the plug to the adapter and the little box in between. :P Sorry for my lack of terminology lol.

Okay so what would be the problem? I heard it's a simple solution (running XP disk and doing recovery and chkdsk/r or whatever) but my XP won't get to that stage. >.<

TriggerFinger

Hi Danny,

When you say 'cut out'.. you mean laptop shuts OFF? What part of boot does this happen?

I am not really a fan of universal adapters... bad experience not worth the headache. But since you have that now... let us work with that then... does it match the laptop's power and voltage requirements?

iiDanny

Yeah, my laptop just shuts off completely. No sign of it doing this at all. It happens after the BSOD has been on for a split second but then it reboots back up, it just keeps doing that.

With the XP disk it shuts down when it's loading the files, it can be doing it for a couple of minutes and then when it's probably ready to get to the repair screen, it'll shut off. I can't get further than loading the files with the disk.

The input for the universal is; AC 100-240V 800mA 50Hz/60Hz
The input for the original is; 100-240V 1.7a 50-60Hz

The output for the universal is selected by a changeable slot, I have loads of little volts what I put into a slot and that determines the output I receive. I put it to 18 at first as the original output is 18.5V so I figured I'd go for either 18 or 19. I tried both and they didn't work, I then went down to 17 as it has a table on the universal box showing what output voltage goes with the max. current(A) and on my original box it shows 18.5V with 3.5A so I tried what was with 3.5A which was 6V, that didn't work so I went for 17v and that worked, although when booted up it kept cutting out every 30 seconds or so. I then tried 16V and then I couldn't even get it to boot up as it was cutting out.. went for 15V and it was perfect, loaded up and didn't cut out.. but then I received BSOD.

The only thing I noticed wrong was the plug, the original has 3 pins into the power box were the universal only has 2 pins, could this be a problem that it isn't receiving enough power?

Thanks :)

TriggerFinger

iiDanny

The output for the original is 18.5V and 3.5A, no I can't set to it 18.5V and 3.5A on the universal as it only gives me certain voltage pins.

They are a little bit of plastic with the volt number written on them with two metal pins which slots into the power box.

There is a table on the power box with say for example
Output Voltage - 6V
Max. current (A) - 3.5

With voltage numbers from around 5 to 24. Thats why I can't understand why on my original it says 18.5V with 3.5A yet on here it says 6V with 3.5A..

I think you misunderstood me with the pins, I don't mean the plug I mean the adapter at the end of the plug which goes into the power box, or did you mean that too? Sorry :P

Also, is there not some kind of program I can run from boot from a USB stick/CD and repair windows with?

Extra info;
Link. This was the eBay product I got, brand new it's a business etc but it shows you what I mean by the output voltage and the table, with the selectable socket, all this is in the product description. Don't know if it will be of any use to you.

Thanks

TriggerFinger

let's make this simple...

Power in WATTS is equal to Volts times Amperes, correct?

Power requirement for your laptop based on output of original adapter:
18.5V x 3.5A = 64.75 watts

Output of Universal Adapter at 18V (based on the link you provided):
18V x 1.9A = 34.2 watts

Even if you set it to 24V (again based on the link):
24V x 1.5A = 36 watts

Given the above, even if you set the universal adapter to maximum voltage, you still cannot get the power required by your laptop. I think you need one similar to this adapter. Personally I would still go with brand if it comes to power adapters... (again, less headache )

What is your brand and model of laptop btw?

iiDanny

Okay, so I'm better of sending that adapter back and have a better look as the one you gave is a perfect one, has my model number and it is suitable for HP etc. I'm just not from USA, thats all. :)

My laptop brand is HP Pavilion dv6000.

So all that in mind; I send it back and get the required one. I will still get BSOD when I boot up, correct? What steps should I do then to fix it, presuming the XP disk will work?

Thanks

TriggerFinger

BSOD can be caused by so many things. It just got so complicated because of the underpowered adapter. Assuming it (BSOD) is not hardware caused then your worst case scenario is you have to reinstall.

Keep this thread open until you get the correct adapter. I suggest you get the original HP (working pre-owned or brand new) adapter. Update this thread once you have the adapter and let's see how it goes from there.

arimicci

This mean the universal adapter is about 50W power, and original is about 110W.

You always have to go for nearest lower voltage, if you can't select exact one. Higher voltages maybe can damage capacitors, as long as today all cirtuit capacitors are setup to handle exactly (...) the voltage given by source (once upon a time they were more robust in design, but it costs 0,01 cent more, I guess it was too much )

It means your laptop uses about 65W of power (the universal was able to hand about 50W... I guess it will go fried after some time... )

You simply had demanded more power to your universal adapter than he can provide. In best case, you will end up with a fried adapter, in worst case, you can end up with a fried laptop (the adapter voltage regulator will fry, and nobody knows what voltage will be provided to the laptop after this)

On BSOD, most likely when HDD has done some writes, the voltage wrote on disk surface was not enough to be recognized as 1's when head had to write 1's, and was not enough to clear 1's when the head had to write 0's. Not a great loss, just format drive when your power things are ok.

I will sugest you to choose an universal adapter who gives the SAME output voltage AND current of your original one, or just buy the original . In case of multiselect voltage adapters, choose one who can provide 18V if not 18,5V, but the current is a MUST, of your original adapter is 18,5V 6A, you need 18V and at least 6A output. 5A is not an option. If more, as 7, 10 or more Ampere, don't worry, it just means your adapter can handle your laptop without became a cookin pot.

Edit: even my compaq laptop power supply went fried (I am using it as a fixed PC, 24/7 on), I guess manifacturers will think laptop are on AC only 5 minutes per week )
I saw you was ok with power source now, I will keep the hints on post, maybe can be useful to someone other.

About the third pin: sometime the power section is kept completely separate from laptop, the pin is a communication line who says to stop charge when battery is full. Dunno if it is your case.

iiDanny

Sorry to blank out the above post but I don't understand what you was trying to tell me, so sorry thank you for your help though..

Okay hey again, a few weeks later and I finally can be bothered to get the adapter, I get the right one - works perfectly, fits perfectly and now I need to fix the BSOD problem.

I have tried entering in the XP disk and it tells me on certain websites (eg microsoft help) to type chkdsk /r so I did, but there was two drives.. D:\miniDF (don't know the full name sorry, it was something like that probably wrong though..) and F:\WINDOWS. It said choose where WINDOWS is located or something, so I picked F:\WINDOWS and did chkdisk /r and it said it found and fixed some errors, rebooted still BSOD.

I try with the D:\ drive and get the same still BSOD. So then I try another method which is chkdsk /p and fixboot and still same, BSOD. Yet it said it has fixed the errors..

So what other solutions can I do? I can get to the recovery page now with the adapter I've got so any help with the XP disk is useful. :) I wouldn't like to reformat my PC as I have a lot of music on there which is no longer on my iPod due to that being wiped through an update and me having no backup as it's on a different pc.. >.< GAH!

Cheers,
Danny

TriggerFinger

Hi Danny,

Welcome back...

Still BSOD after CHKDSK /R?

Try running an HDD diagnostic. Run the diagnostic for the brand of HDD that you have. (see HDD Diagnostic Tools link on my sig).

Also run Memtest86+. If you have 2 sticks of RAM installed test each one separately (remove one while you test the other). Or you can run overnight with 2 sticks installed.

Post back what happens.

iiDanny

Hey thanks. :)

Yes, after CHKDSK /R on both drives (D:\ and F:\) still BSOD. Same error. >,<

And with this diagnostic test, do I need to put this software on a USB stick or something and the memtest86+ I don't understand what that is, do I need to download software again on a USB stick?

TriggerFinger

Memtest and the HDD diagnostic have ISO file images. Just download these ISO files, extract them to your Desktop and use Nero or ImgBurn to burn them to a blank CD. DO NOT COPY DIRECTLY TO CD.

Assuming you are using ImgBurn, right-click on the ISO file and select Burn with ImgBurn. Make sure there is a blank CD waiting to be written in the drive.

Pop the Memtest CD into the CD/DVD drive and boot from the CD drive. RAM test will start immediately.

iiDanny

Hey, i've got the memtest on CD now by using ImgBurn, I now need to know what my hard drive manufacture is for the HDD test. It gives me a list on the link you gave me but I'm unsure on what it is?

Do you have any idea what it is? The model number is HP Pavilion DV6000. I've tried Google with specs and such but it don't seem to say.. I'm confused, thanks.

TriggerFinger

Try the Hitachi DFT or Western Digital diagnostics. Both have CD versions that can be d/loaded from the same page in the link.

iiDanny

Okay sorry I didn't reply sooner. Trigger thanks for all your help and advice, I did download both software you told me to do but I figured all of it is going to just lead me to do a fresh install anyway. So I went and got a torrent of XP Pro and installed it and set it up today so I'm all good now.

Thanks so much again Trigger your a star. :)

Cheers.