Pesario 2100 HD problem.
 

This isnt my comp and I was given it to just install windows XP on it. Im not good with laptops, but I figured wth.

Anyways, when the HD isnt in, the CD-rom works fine. When I shut off the comp, unplug the power and take out the battery, put in the HD. Turn it on, the CD-Rom wont even open much less spin, it doesnt detect the HD and when I put in the CHS myself, it says like 8256(or close to it) for the HD in MB...and its a 30GB HD. The 80GB one that was in there stopped working cause the girl had it riding in her trunk for 3 weeks, tried it, and didnt work.

Anyone have any suggestions as to what I can do to solve my problem..?

how do you know the cd drive works fine? How do you get the laptop to start without a hdd?

when I turn it on without the HD in the laptop it starts up and the CD drive works, it just goes to "BIOS Integrated Argon PXE boot agent v2.01"
Pre-boot eXecution environment (PXE)"(theres a few more things it says but I doubt they're relevant)

Pauses for about 20 seconds and says
"Media test failure check cable"

Goes blank

"Operating system not found"

and thats where it stops.

if I dont have it plugged in and its just running off the fully charged battery, it will shut itself off after that screen. Sometimes sooner, its a weird crappy machine and Im just wondering if theres anything i can do about this. It doesnt even know the HD is there in BIOS.

It looks like there is some problem with how you are wiring the cables .

There could be three things responsible for this .

Either there is some problem with BIOS of the system

2. The Wiring of the HDD is done wrong . The HDD might be not in a proper condition , or simply saying a hard disk failure .

3. There are no boot files on the HDD .

I have another HDD that I use in my own laptop, same HDD and it works perfect, I tried putting it in there to test it, and it wont detect that one either.

The reason I put in a new HDD in hers in the first place is cause she left it in her trunk for a while, went to turn it on, and the HDD wouldnt work, when I tried booting/installing Win XP it says "there is a malfunction on the HDD cannot continue with installation/repair"

:(

hmm, sounds suspiciously like an issue somewhere in the motherboard. Seems a little sketchy if multiple drives do not work, but you may want to be sure that either one works at all.

It could be that the HDD is completely blank and has no boot files on it at all, I tried it in my other laptop and it didnt work there either, the HDD was free from a computer tech at the local college, he said "its blank but works perfectly".

When its not in the slot(when I got it) I booted up the comp and it ran off the BIOS, in which the CD/DVD-rom worked, spun, and was able to use the windows XP reinstallation CD. I shut it off, unplugged everything and took out the battery, put in the HDD, turned it on, and the CD/DVD-rom wouldnt spin, or even open. It would just do as I said above, say "Operating system not found".

Think it could just be a bad motherboard now?

All that vibration riding out of a case in her trunk messed it up entirely?

Im just trying to help her, is there anything else I could try, like getting bootfiles for A: disks and trying to boot from that?

ok, an OS not found error is that of a missing boot file or boot loader. If it will load the XP cd then, all the hardware seems in order. Check in the bios that the order of boot has cd drive before the hard drive and simply boot with both the hard drive in, and the XP cd in the drive. This should start an installation of Windows, thus there will be an OS to boot.

The problem with that is, when the HD is put into the computer for no apparent reason, the CD/DVD drive stops completely, wont open even. When the HDD isnt connected to the computer, it works fine and can run the CD/DVD drive. :confused:

Okay I put the HDD in my other laptop and successfully installed windows XP.

after it was done and it worked fine on my other laptop, I put the HDD back into this Pesario 2100.

It does the same thing still, BIOS cant find the HDD, and says "Operating system not found" and I JUST installed it on this HDD...now any ideas? :confused: :confused: :confused:

the OS not working i would understand, if it was installed with different hardware it would not be usable, but it shouldn't give you that error... there's a long list of others you should have encountered.
Is there any way you could post a picture of the pin connectors on the hard drive? and/or the plug in the laptop. If they were bent or corroded it could prevent the drive from being read properly.

also can you enter bios before it gives you the error? if so check to see if it recognizes the drive, it isn't an answer yet, but it will limit the options i have left to give :)

*There are many things that can be tried if there is a way to get the cd drive to work at the same time the hdd is in.

The HDD that was in there before was 80GB, the one she gave me was 30gb. My old Dell can use it, it reads it and I installed XP on it with that. The Compaq says "No IDE Device" when I do the Hard Drive Self Test in BIOS.

it read the other HDD that was in it, but that HDD was broken, it happened to her between college and her house. It worked fine there and when she got home it didnt work right anymore.

Ill ask her for the old HDD and see what that says when I plug it in.

That one it did recognize and the CD/DVD-Rom worked with it. This new 30gb one, it doesnt read, nor does the CD/DVD-rom work...

Its probably something simple, like conflicting HDD or something...:confused:

I just got off the line with the compaq help line, they suggested going to a store and having them put in a different hard drive. They said this is what I need for it to work correctly.

gary: Below is the partnumber:
gary: 319414-001
gary: 40.0GB ATA-100 EIDE hard disk drive - 4,200 RPM, 2.5-inch form factor, 9.5mm height

Any comments?