What is a faulty hard drive

Hi,

My wife has a Fujitsu notebook. The hard drive will not boot up. I get no DOS prompt or windows startup. Just a black screen. I can hear the hard drive spin, but it won't initiate any program. It has done this before in the past, but after attempting to restart for 50+ times it eventually got itself going....this time might be terminal???

Ideas???

Oh by the way, it has a Japanese Windows 98 operating system.

Thanks.

Jim

This question was answered on July 29, 2003. Much of the information contained herein may have changed since posting.

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Hi Jim,

Wow this is sort of a tough one because of no display being shown From what you say i am thinking the hard drive could very well be going bad, or something could be wrong with video if your not getting a display I suggest a few things you can do For one when the computer boots up see if the hard drive is making a clanking sound like the plates are rubbin against each other If this is the case then the hard drive may very well be dying Aslo check to make sure nothing is inside the CD ROM drive if there is one, as well as make sure there is nothing in the Floppy drive Now you said that you just get a black screen. Now does this black screen have a blinking cursor in the left hand corner? or is it just pure black If it is pure black try to adjust your color and brightness settings on the laptop if possible. Maybe the screen is just dimmed and you are not able to see it ((sorry if this stuff sounds baby like steps. but i find usually that these small things is what cause the major problems)) Last but not least i would definately suggest calling Fujitsu Tech support to find out what else could be the cause of it Laptops are very fragile and expensive and you cant just go busting it open like you do a pc hehehe

I hope this has been helpful to you.

Good Luck jim :)

- stanley alexander

About the author

Posted by Student of Katharine Gibbs School - New York on July 29, 2003

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