Problem booting a laptop - driving me nuts

[Tony]

My mates got a Toshiba laptop (well I have it on my dining room table at the moment) and it won't boot.

From switch on, it runs through the normal tests, then to a screen that says windows failed to start blah blah, so you have a choice, safe mode, sfae mode with networking, safe mode with command prompt, last known good config and start normally.

in the safe mode starts, you get the list of files scrolling down the screen as normal, then it hits a BSOD for about a millisecond so you can't actually read it, then restarts, does the same in all the start modes  apart from normal where it goes into the windows with the loading bar thing, then bsod's and restarts.

Trying to boot it from CD isn't working either, changed the priority in the BIOS but it goes past it, even disabled the HDbut then it goes past all of them to Lan boot - and thats not set up so it won't work.

I've taken the RAM out, and tested it in my work one, it registers fine there and seems to work without a problem, and I've returned it to this one and put it in the other RAM holder just in case thats knackered.

If I put RAM out of my work Tosh though, it doesn't start :S

I've taken the DVD drive out to see if that is faulty, but the same HDD boot issues are there.

Could it be a dead drive or is there any other ideas that you bright peeps have got?

TIA

[samhs]

I've had this before. Got a video camera or digicam that will record video? Use it to video the screen as you boot, and then play back frame by frame until you reach the BSOD. Read the info and it'll tell you what the matter is. I bet it's "hive" related. Easiest solution is to install windows over the top, recover any important files, then fdisk the HDD and do a clean install. Alternatively, I've got a laptop HDD caddy that attaches via USB that I could lend you to recover the files before you fdisk etc (thus avoiding the need to install windows twice).

hth

Sam

[chavalier]

Alternatively, I've got a laptop HDD caddy that attaches via USB that I could lend you to recover the files before you fdisk etc (thus avoiding the need to install windows twice).

or visit maplins or where ever

[Tony]

I'll try the camera thing, I put the HDD into my work laptop and repaired the windows install as they are both toshibas, and all the data is still there so I can get the data off without a problem - just swap the drives and copy to an external HD, so the hard drive is sorted, but it's still not booting on the broke PC and still going to the bsod, restart loop.

Can't install windows over the top as it won't seem to boot from the CD, and the CD/DVD drive has stopped working since I repaired the windows on my laptop Gah!

My best guess is that the MB or GFX is knackered as the BIOS seems ok, but I'll try the video idea - just got to hope it captures it it's that quick!

[Granty]

Alternatively, I've got a laptop HDD caddy that attaches via USB that I could lend you to recover the files before you fdisk etc (thus avoiding the need to install windows twice).

or visit maplins or where ever

Have you still got that caddy you mentioned a while back?  I might be on the outskirts of Hemel next week.