Dudes and Dudettes,
I’m working on a Gateway W350I that I can’t find much information on, but that’s not the problem. The
computer is not mine and the owner loaned it to a friend. It was suggested that it may have been dropped and
now it will not boot. She said it worked prior to lending it out. Ok, so now it won’t do anthing realated to
trying to boot up. It will turn on and I can enter the BIOS. A selection does display in the beginning that
allows you to enter the BIOS (F2) or select the boot devices(F10). If select F10 and choose the hard drive as
the boot device, the Phoenix TrustedCore Setup Utility appears and some information concerning CPU, memory,
optical disk, and hard disk is displayed. It shows the optical drive as hard disk 0 and the real hard drive
as hard disk 2, and it shows it being disabled. So, the BIOS knows there is a hard drive in it but the
computer is not recognizing it when it is time to boot the OS. I first thought that the hard drive was dead
so I bought another one and it does the same thing as the one that is in it now. I put my ear against the
hard drive and I can hear it spinning up when I turn the computer on so I have to assume it is getting power.
So I guess I need to know why the computer is saying that the hard drive is disabled? Is there a solution to
this or is something damaged in the computer? Please Help!!!!!
Thanks,
Larry L
That and spilling liquid on a laptop are most frequent reasons that cause damage that require major parts needing to be replaced.
Since you changed the hard drive, there’s probably nothing wrong with that, but when it’s new, it has no data on it, and it cannot be booted from if it has no operating system on it.
“It shows the optical drive as hard disk 0 and the real hard drive as hard disk 2.”
It’s probably showing you drive connections, not necessarily hard drives.
Install the original hard drive.
Always remove the AC adapter connection AND the main battery when you remove or install the hard drive or the ram.
Since the laptop may have been dropped, the ram may have a poor connection in it’s slots.
See response 2 in this – try cleaning the contacts on the ram modules, and making sure the modules are properly seated:
http://www.computing.net/hardware/w…
For a laptop, or netbook, you must remove both its main battery and AC adapter before you do that.
For a brand name computer, see the Owner’s or User’s manual if you need to – how to remove or replace the ram is usually in that – it may already be in your installed programs. If you can’t get into Windows, it may be on a disk that came with the computer, or you can go online and look at it or download it – it’s in the downloads for your specific model.
…..
Install the main battery, and optionally, the AC adapter connection.
Make sure the the Boot Order or similar settings are correct in the bios Setup.
If you have been changing the bios settings, load bios defaults, save settings, then go back into the bios, and make sure the the Boot Order or similar settings are correct, Save bios settngs.
See Response 1:
https://computing.net/answers/ha…
Try booting the computer.
If it doesn’t boot the hard drive, if the hard drive is damaged, you should see an error message regarding that – hard drive not found, bootable device not found, or similar etc.
……
Remove the AC adapter connection and the main battery.
Install the new hard drive.
Install the main battery, and optionally, the AC adapter connection.
Try booting the computer.
You should see an error message – bootable device not found, or similar.
If you get no messages, take it to a laptop repair place that is certified to work on the brand, and have then analyze what’s wrong , and how much it would cost to fix it, or how much it would cost for parts if you’re willing to try fixing it yourself.