mikekim106

I purchased a HP Pavilion ze4300 a few years back and has been working great until recently. It runs Windows XP and I use it for internet browsing/email, music, Office, etc.... nothing too complicated.

Then the problems started: system starts randomly freezing (sometimes unfreezing on it's own, sometimes not), not completely shutting down, taking a long time (10+ mins) to start up, touchpad button not working to name a few. Now it's at the point where it will inevitably show 'operating system not found' when I try to boot it up.

I've since tried to reinstall windows several times with no luck- it'll work but always finds a way to lose the os. My next idea is to install ubuntu, but have a feeling that it's a hardware issue. The hard drive sometimes makes funny noises- clicks, etc, and listening to it with a stethoscope confirmed that. The notebook seems to be in otherwise good shape.

Is this a hard drive problem? Could it be something else? Is there a way to test that? I have a desktop that runs xp and ubuntu split but never home to use it as I'm constantly at work, school, or precepting in a hospital.

Any help or other idea would help me out big time. Thanks in advance,

Mike

TriggerFinger

Hi Mike,

Run HDD diagnostics like Hitachi DFT (see my sig for link on HDD Diags). If errors show up, consider replacement.

mikekim106

I'll give it a shot and let you know.....

Thanks