As some of you may know, my Dell Inspiron 5150 began having problems about 6 weeks ago after a massive file transfer from Wooly’s external hard drive. At the time, it seemed that it was strictly an OS issue, and a PC restore, while a pain in the ass, was effective in restoring full functionality.
Well, about two weeks ago, the blue screen of death began re-appearing, and with it a strange grinding noise that I could only surmise to be the hard drive. I was however, able to get the laptop to work again, and did not hear the grind for some time. Then, on Friday, the candle ran out. The machine will not boot to Windows at all.
I ran the pre-boot diagnostic, and sure enough, it failed the DST Short Status Test. Error code: 1000-0142, Unit 4: Drive Self Test Failed. Status byte = 49.
I called Dell, and they confirmed that my warranty expired on August 24. It looks now like I’m in the market for a new 60GB (or larger) hard drive. Any suggestions?
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http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822153015
Fujitsu 60GB 2.5″ Notebook Hard Drive - OEM
$98
Looks good. Feel like helping me change it out?
I can if you need me too.
Cool, thanks. I’ll keep in touch.
I purchased a Dell Inspirion 5160 laptop 11/30/04. A week ago I saw the Blue Screen and no logging onto Windows. Diagnostic Test said DST Short Test failed. When I called Dell (12/5/05), They said my warranty had expired 5 days ago, nothing they could do but sell me the extended phone warranty.
Any suggestions?
Cindy,
I’m not sure how much the extended warranty is, but they didn’t even offer it to me when I called. If it’s still an option, and it’s under $60, I’d consider it. Otherwise, if you feel comfortable changing out the harddrive, you can always do it yourself. When you put the new drive in, you can use the Windows disk that came with the laptop.
If you can get into safe mode, pull as much personal data off of the hard drive as you can - save it onto CD or something.
Good luck.
I just want to point out something about dell; they offer great deals by using cheap parts… If you look at almost all major hard drive manufacturers you will see between a 3 and 5 year warranty free of charge on the laptop. I personaly bought a dell just over 1 year ago and experienced the same problem that you have mentioned and yes it is the hard drive. That really is pathetic dell cuts corners which in the long run is costing me:
a) a new HD I will pay for and time(or cost if I pay someone else) to install
b) loss of my data that will take a large amount of my time to reinstall/download (plus loss of MP3’s I purchased which will need to be repurchased)
c) the cost of the original HD that probably was cheap to begin with but spending probably a small amount more would have saved me from the above problems!
I would recommend powernotebooks.com to anyone looking to purchase a new laptop otherwise IBM I hear consistantly has high quality laptops but yes you will pay a bit more but at least you know your getting a quality product.
P.S. Dont ever get a Sony Vaio, they are way too expensive and quality is even worse than dell… too many people I know had bad experiences with sonys.
Question for you, Mike. When your drive crapped out, were you able to retrieve your files? I ask because I just got the same error message you did (on an Inspiron, of course), and I think she’s gone for good.
I’ve had a similar message before, but I was able to salvage it with a thorough check disk/repair. This was right after my Dell warranty went up, and they recommended I back up the info before I did the check disk bit. That put off death for a year, but now I think it’s really over.
Ox,
When this first started happening, I was able to back up all of my files up to a certain date. However, I hadn’t gotten around doing another back up, and many additional files are now gone forever.
The same happend to my inspiron 510m.
I lost 2 HD, each one after 9 month of use.
Does somebody know with which HD I should do the replacement, as I see the Dell supplied is not worth of using.
Thanks Karel
As far as retrieving data is concerned, I’d suggest a recovery CD Operating System so you can access your files and transfer them to another networked computer or to an external hard drive. Winternals ERD Commander is a great choice, as is Symantic Ghost. But, if you don’t want to spring for the cost of one of those programs, search google for BartPE and follow the instructions to use it. It will boot completely from CD and let your access your hard drive even if you can’t get into safe mode.
I too have a Dell Inspiron 9100 that blue screened. 6 months out of warranty. chkdsk ran automatically on boot-up and indicated it found several sectors bad and re-wrote them accordingly. It also said it failed the DST Short Status Test, unit 4 drive self test failed, byte 79. When the system was done doing it’s thing Windows now boots to the Welcome /login screen.
The problem is now the computer requires a password to log on. It has never had passwords assign since I really didn’t have a need. I have tried pressing ctrl+alt+delete twice at the Welcome screen to go to the Admin login. It also requires a password. Again, no passwords were ever assigned. I have also tried safe mode with the same results. Oh Yes, I also tried using no (null) password to no avail.
Anyone have any ideas how to bypass or work around the password issue on the Dell Inspiron 9100 laptop?
One month ago HDD fail suddenly my screen is black, and computer rebooted itself automatically and is now stuck in the bootup process with a message similar to the same. But i dont use any other utility of the recovery. I check my mail suddenly i found hdrconline.com recovery help line. When i ask about my problem they want HDD only and take a time for testing and recovery. They have very efficient tools for recovery in physcial and logcial condition. They have experts engeeriners who can exchange the platter also and recover your data asusal condition.
In same case you need help this website please click http://www.hdrconline.com
Hi all,
Just to let you know my uncle has had the same problem, and i have rebooted from a linux live disk and _could_ mount it. I should have access to any important files missing now, and will be looking to see if i can repair the bad sectors (or mark them as bad at least)
Who knows from there on…
Just to let you know.
Xarlos.
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