another laptop bites it

[= Buckeye Jess =]

Grrr...so I wake up this morning to a laptop stuck on the page that lets you choose safe mode start up and normal start up. Damn thing was working fine last night. Anyhoo... regardless of which option I select, it comes right back to the same page. I've tried rebooting to come right back again as well. Our IT guy can't come help me until after lunch...(some business about having to actually do real work related stuff).

You guys have any tricks I can try other than reformatting the whole thing? The IT guy says it sounds like I have to fix my start-up, but I don't know how to do that outside of a re-format? Like I said, he can try to tinker with it after lunch, but I've got some school work I have to do this AM that I can't do on my Shell computer. :(

[= Buckeye Jess =]

After trying to do an operating system repair, I keep coming to a screen that tells me "The BIOS in this system is not fully ACPI compliant." I tried rebooting and (when I can get it to actually read the disc), it comes back to this page. grrrr

[salsashark]

Roof Test it :dunno:

[= Buckeye Jess =]

roof test it?

As it chuck it off of the roof? LOL... I would if I didn't need it for school stuff!

[salsashark]

Exactly...

Throw it off the roof. If it survives, it's worth fixing... if not, then oh well at least you got some entertainment out of it.



computers are tha debil

[= Buckeye Jess =]

LOL... Well if I were home where I could go right out and buy a new notebook, I'd quite willingly toss this one off the highest roof I could find. As it is, I'm up here at work for another week.

Can't even get the disc to open far enough to just re-format the hard drive. Methinks I'm hosed unless the Shell IT guy can work miracles!

[TFOGGuys]

PM Devaclis. He is the laptop god. It sounds like maybe the BIOS got corrupted somehow. You may be able to update the bios from the manufacturer's website via either floppy disc (old skoool) or a USB drive.

[= Buckeye Jess =]

I considered it, but don't want to bug him if he's busy...hoping he jumps online soon tho!! lol

[rforsythe]

This is where I'd insert something about "get a mac" and "I haven't seen a safe mode screen in years" but to each their own. :)

[TFOGGuys]

This is where I'd insert something about "get a mac" and "I haven't seen a safe mode screen in years" but to each their own. :)
Doesn't yours dual boot into Winblows?:|

[= Buckeye Jess =]

Hmm...I've got a link where I can download the BIOS from the notebook vendor... but how am I supposed to install it on the notebook when I can't get past the initial screen?

[TFOGGuys]

You'll have to download it to either a floppy or a USB drive, then get into setup and set your boot order to boot from that device. Easy to do, a little harder to explain. Usually, you press either Delete or F2 to enter setup when you first power up.

[= Buckeye Jess =]

Ahh... I'll try that - thanks Jim!!

[rforsythe]

Doesn't yours dual boot into Winblows?:|

I have XP on a Parallels VM that I use on occasion. However it's more reliable even that way, and given that just about everything else I need runs on the Mac OS, I'm fine with it. Or put another way, I have my choice of any OS I want to run; if I didn't think it was really the best way to go, I wouldn't have switched to it. ;)

[TFOGGuys]

Just giving you crap, Ralph.:devious: If I could get Quickbooks to run reliably in WINE, I'd switch the shop to Linux in a heartbeat.

[= Buckeye Jess =]

Well pisser.... I try to get in and change the boot order, but it just freezes at that point. Or just ignores me and goes back to that initial safe screen.
:banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead::scream1:: scream1::banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead:

I'm agreeing with Salsa... puters are da debil!

[Devaclis]

In order for your XP to run ACPI it MUST be enabled in the BIOS before XP is installed. It cannot be switched or changed after XP is already installed. Having a non-ACPI laptop is no biggie. What is the model of your laptop? What is it stating is the current BIOS revision?

[= Buckeye Jess =]

The model is the HP Pavilion dv5030us and how do I go about finding the current BIOS revision? I've got a nice long series of codes with a bunch of 0's in them I copied from the STOP page if that will help with anything??? LOL
I went onto HP's website and downloaded a BIOS onto a flash drive to see if I couldn't do what Jim suggested, but whenever I hit 'esc' to change the boot order, it just hangs up.

[Devaclis]

Is there ANY noise coming from your hard drive? Any clicking or whirring? What part in the boot process exactly does it get to?

Go into your BIOS and turn off all hardware you do not need (COM port, Parallel Port, Infrared, shit like that.

Pull your battery and disconnect the AC adapter

Hold down your power button and plug the AC Adapter back in (while still holding the power button)

If the computer does not turn on at this point, release the power button and hit it again to turn it on.

[Devaclis]

The model is the HP Pavilion dv5030us and how do I go about finding the current BIOS revision? I've got a nice long series of codes with a bunch of 0's in them I copied from the STOP page if that will help with anything??? LOL
I went onto HP's website and downloaded a BIOS onto a flash drive to see if I couldn't do what Jim suggested, but whenever I hit 'esc' to change the boot order, it just hangs up.

Yeah, I need the STOP codes. I am betting it is a hardware issue.

[= Buckeye Jess =]

PM sent with the codes, and I'll be trying the battery thing in the meantime...

[= Buckeye Jess =]

Why is it that the only 17" laptops out there for $700 or less are with Vista 64bit? Why no 32's???? grrrr!

[Devaclis]

You can also opt to downgrade to XP on some laptops. That would be my recommendation.

I absolutely hate Vista 64 bit on a laptop. Lack of driver support, Lack of driver support, Lack of driver support, Lack of driver support......................................

[= Buckeye Jess =]

Hehehe.... so I'm finding out! I'm still shopping the options out there (thanks so much Devaclis for the help btw!!!) and am entirely open to all of your suggestions out there peeps! =)