My laptop died! Help!

Hi,
I've got a Toshiba Satellite A40-SP151 and all of a sudden it stoped working. I tried to boot it back and an error message appeared telling me to choose between booting it either on the safe mode, the last configuration that worked or to run windows normally. None of the options worked and it just goes then to a completely black screen and freezes. Ishut it down and tried again but now it only said there was an error reading the disc and to press CTRL+ALT+SUPR to restart. My Laptop has no SUPR key so I tried with DEL instead and it just went back to the same message. Any ideas??
thanks a lot

:cry

 

I've never heard of a SUPR key... firstly I'd visit the web site of the maker of the hard drive. Download their diagnostic tool. You should be able to create a bootable CD (or floppy); boot to the diagnostic and run the extended or advanced test on the drive to make sure it's healthy. If it passes (or if errors are found and are fixed) try reloading Windows 'over the top' of itself. A safe re-install will save all your programs, documents, drivers, etc and the PC should run just like it did before the problems started. Just boot to your XP CD and choose the repair Windows option. Alternatively, check these links:
http://icrontic.com/articles/repair_windows_xp
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315265/en-us
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545/en-us (this one may or may not apply to your particular situation; only follow these steps if your problems CLOSELY match what's described).
Good Luck!

hd2k

 

Oh yeah, I almost forgot....

:major Welcome to Major Geeks!!! :major

 

Hey! Thanks for the quick reply and the welcoming!
Probably the SUPR thing is because the laptop is in Spanish...
Anyway, I've been looking for the diagnostic tool, but there doesn't seem to be one for that model. Do you reckon it will be OK to use one for models of the same series even if it isn't for that specific one??
cheers
ps. Sorry to bother you so much but I'm quite rubbish when it comes to computers

 

Probably... It won't hurt anything. If anything, it'll pop up an error saying 'wrong model' or 'incompatible program' or some nonsense. Hitcahi's hard drive site has a free diagnostic that runs on all hard drives to test the drive's overall health. http://www.hgst.com I think it's also available here aty MajorGeeks in the Drive Utilities section (Hitachi Drive Fitness Test)... download and run it (you have to boot to it via CD or floppy). Did you check the other links I posted above? GREAT info at those links....

hd2k