Laptop Repair.

Hi all.
A mate of mine got a bit mad with his lap top, Acer Aspire 5738Z.
He smashed it onto the floor with much force.
The screen is a lovely mosaic!!
I have plugged it into my monitor and it shows a boot screen stating that windows didn't shut down properly (ya don't say) and would I like to boot windows normally.
Then the screen goes a bit fuzzy.
One time the lap top booted because I heard the welcome screen noise but by this time the lap top monitor had taken over and I couldn't see what was going on.
As it powers up and it boots to the welcome screen what can I try as far as testing it is concerned?
I have taken off the hatches on the bottom of the lap top, I saw a loose ram and re fixed it.
I see the hdd but where is the graphics?? Built in I suppose.
Is it worth splitting the case or is there nothing in there that I can replace??
Cheers for any suggestions.

 

Can you remove the hard drive and try it in another laptop?
This is usually pretty easy to do.
Come back to us and report on the results.

Bazza

 

HDDs get messed up if the read write arm touches the plate and if you throw it on the ground it quite possibly touched, I'd assume thats the problem with it. Try a new hard drive or see if that one works in another laptop.

 

Thanks both.
I had thought of that as my daughter has the exact same model with the only difference being she has a web cam.
I was not 100% sure that it wouldn't mess the settings up but i suppose that as the hdd is the 'brain' then all settings will be individual to each lap top hdd.
I'll ask my daughter if she doesn't mind and i'll give it a go.

 

Ok.
I have tested the hdd.
It operates fine apart from alot of accessing but this may be due to junk or spy ware.
That can be sorted later.
Next thing is how to view what is going on while the hdd is in the broken lap top.
Like I said, I plugged it into my pc monitor via a vga cable but it reverts to the laptop screen and my monitor goes blank.
I can hear the broken lap top boot to the welcome screen.
I will try it again with my monitor and see what happens.
Any more suggestions please?

 

I think I'd do a FULL backup, if I was you, of your existing data (using your daughter's laptop) before you proceed any further.

Bazza

 

BB.
No need, my mate doesn't want it back, he bought himself a new one.
This is just a experiment (I like messing) and if i can get it working I get a (cheapish) lap top.
I am in the process of swapping a screen from one lap top to the other to see what I can see!!
Don't know if it will prove anything but I can try.

 

Hi Halo.
Looks like £90 delivered.
Problem is I can't get the lap top to display on my monitor.
It does for a while then it is as though the lap top screen takes over??
I have the bezel off the laptop at the mo, I will try unplugging the laptop screen and see if that keeps the display on my monitor.

 

Just tried another laptop via the vga and you need to use display settings to get it to show on a 2nd display.
I can't see the damn settings on the broken screen!!
Now what??
I was wondering if there is a sequence of short cuts i could try on the keyboard.
ie, I boot the laptop, use a key to highlight the first user on the welcome screen, type in the password and then use a series of other keys to change the display settings.
Hit and miss i know but i can't think of anything else and I don't really want to take my daughters bezel and screen off her laptop just in case.

 

Worse problem now.
The laptop I tried the hdd on will not boot up properly.
All I did was swap the hdd over to test it.
I put the original hdd back in and it was still showing the user names from the other hdd??
I rebooted and the laptop did a disc check.
Now all I get is a screen with the restart/off icon in the right lower corner, the blue ease of access icon in the lower left corner, the blue language selector in the top left corner and the 'Windows 7 Home Premium' at the bottom of the screen.
No user names and no way to log on??
What the devil has gone on there then?
I tried safe mode, I tried a repair via F8.
Now i'm stuck.
How can swapping a hdd cause such a pickle?

 

To be honest, i'm surprised you have gotten this far considering that a lappy has been forcefully smashed on the floor.

most likely, things got a bit pear shaped from the act and frankly it's not going to get better. I would maybe consider giving up on this patient.

 

Hi motc.
Not sure you have read the thread properly.
In post 7 I say this is just a mess about.
I like learning and messing.
The more pressing problem is that it was suggested that I test the hdd in another laptop.
I did so and this act has messed up the other laptop.
Now I need to sort that out.
I may very well do as you suggest and bin the abused laptop.
What I don't understand is why swapping a hdd from one laptop to the other and back again can corrupt the registry of the other??

 

No answers lately, not sure if that means noone knows or the threads been overlooked so i'll try again.
Some folk have said I shouldn't have put the possibly damaged hdd in my daughters laptop, others can't understand how it could possibly have corrupted my daughters hdd just doing a straight swap so now I don't know??

Main problem now is sorting out my daughters laptop.
There is info on there that needs recovering.
It's still there because I can see it using a Macrium Reflect boot cd but there is no provision to recover it with the version I have.
I am going to have to do a clean install or get the recovery cds from Acer.
Does anyone know of an easy way to recover the data first??
The hdd is S-ATA so I can't just slave it to my ide pc hdd.
Before I buy an adapter is there a piece of software that I can use??
Cheers.

 

Swapping hard drives into into identical machines may still mess up software that relies on HID/SID for security (it checks that the hardware is the same down to component ID levels before allowing its use), it may also mess up the networking/Sharing (because it's logging into a different network).

Buy a USB external case (2.5") for the SATA notebook drives, you can then copy the data over to almost any PC.

Back to the earlier no display issue, there's usually a way, via Fn +F keys, to switch monitor output between inbuilt and external (or both). Otherwise (whilst the other identical machine is still useable) there's usually a way of figuring out a sequence of changing the display within Windows - you would probably need to change display settings so you can see the underlined chars that you can use Alt+* (* being the underlined letter), to switch menu's etc. I've done it with an Aspire One - not easy, took me a few hours before I got it right.

 

Hi satrow thanks for the reply.

Hmmm, if your first part is right then perhaps I shouldn't have rushed in and taken some of the advice given to me.

Is this the type of adapter I need??

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/USB-2-5-3-5-S...uting_CablesConnectors_RL&hash=item483cae8c04

This one is from Hong Kong. Still looking for one from the uk.

I will have a go at getting the bust laptop to display on my pc once I have sorted my daughters laptop (she aint best pleased with me) as if it works fine in all other respects it will be worth getting a new display.

 

Well, I think I'd have probably tried to boot it using an identical machine too, if I had one available - probably not until after I'd slaved it elsewhere and copied the user data from it though.

Try not rush in; data security first, diagnosis second. Then consider all options before deciding which route to take.

That adapter will cover these drives and desktop size plus CD/DVD drives and all current SATA drives. It's a little more than you currently need but adds a lot of extra connectivity.

Did both laptops originally have the same version of Windows on?

 

No, the one I was testing was vista the other was 7.

I'll look for something more suitable and maybe cheaper regarding an adaptor.
After all i'll only be using it once (I hope).

 

The cheapest type is like this one, fine if you have an IDE PC available, you could attach the drive instead of the CD/DVD drive(s).

 

My pc is ide and I have a inline connector on my ribbon cable from my motherboard to my HDD.
Would this adaptor work for a S-ATA to ide link?
I thought I needed something special for a S-ATA drive, something that provides power??

 

Sorry, brain fade ...

I think this may be the cheapest type for SATA drive to IDE/ATA connector, I can't be sure though, details (at least on Ebuyer) are lacking.

 

I don't think that one is compatible with a 2.5".

In the mean time what do you think of giving this a go??

http://neosmart.net/blog/2009/windows-7-system-repair-discs/

It wouldn't touch the personal data would it??

 

SATA connections are the same for 2.5 and 3.5 hard drives.

Those W7 and Vista recovery discs are fine, and may well fix the current issues you are seeing, data destruction shouldn't happen but it's always best to save the data first.