Toshiba Satellite A200 - Major Issues

So, to begin with I know next to nothign about this laptop. I am repairing for a friend but after a week of trying I am calling out for help.

It won't boot to windows, when I try it gets to a black screen with a mouse cursor and hangs there. I have left it there for 3 hours without any change. hitting shift 5 times does not give me a sticky key option. Safe mode does not work as it gives the same results.

I have tried using the Recovery Discs that he gave me to recover, no dice as well as I tried my own version of Vista and nothing.

I need some ideas.

 

Forgot to mention I treid the Windows repair and it ran for close to 6 hours before I turned it off. =\

 

I made up the recovery disk and still nothing. It just sits at the black screen and cursor still.

On a side note it seems when I use my 64 bit version disk it loads to the setup menu, of course once there i can not do anything.


Any thing else I could try?

 

No replies yet huh. =\

 

Have you tried the cables to ensure they are tight?
Does the BIOS show the drive as being a boot drive?

 

Yeah, I tried taking out the hdd and putting it back in. I am at this point thinking the hard drive is toast. :cry

 

BIOS does show the HDD in the boot list. :confused

 

Yeah, I'll have to do some pricing for one. See if this guy can ante up the dough. Thanks for the advice.