Ok First of all I've done some pretty good research. I already know this is caused by a HDD issue. I have an Acer Aspire 5100 laptop. I was getting this message "ERROR 0200: Failure Fixed Disk 0" and it stayed in the BIOS screen. I figured it was an HDD issue so I got a new one. I replaced it, formatted it and BAM again its still doing it once in a while just not as much. What could be causing this? I'm about to break this sob.

If you have replaced the hard-drive and the same problem (intermittently) occurs should mean the HDD isn't the cause. Tracing back from the hard-drive, have you tried swapping out the IDE / SATA cable that connects it to your motherboard. Hopefully this is all that is wrong. You could also try making it the only IDE device connected to your motherboard and see if it works consistantly then. You could also try running your IDE devices from the secondary IDE channel on your motherboard so they show during the post as secondary master and secondary slave (hopefully you can boot into an operating system with this configuration). If the cable proves not to be the problem, the cause may be the hard-drive controller on the motherboard.

Sorry... I didn't read your post properly... cabling won't be the issue with a laptop pc Another suggestion might be to run a diagnostics utility to see if it can pick up any errors.

It is more than likely the controller on your laptop's motherboard. In that case I say get a new laptop! Don't post if you ate razor blades for breakfast!

I also have the same laptop and exactly the same problem. Happens sometimes and boots up fine other times. It also has a habit of freezing for no apparent reason for a minute or two before carrying on. I tried the highly sophisticated technique of smacking the laptop in frustration once which appeared to bring it back to life! Tried another time and it worked too....any ideas would be gratefully received....it's driving me mad!

I have an Acer Aspire 3103WLMi with exactly the same problem. Also I have cured my computer by smackig it around everytime it freezes...until recently when I realized that it helps (sometimes) to keep the computer in a tilted position (I have a pen under the right corner at the screen side...). This is why I thought it was the HDD that was the problem...but based on what you write here this is apparently not the case... I have also changed from Windows to Linux and I can report that the freezing still occurs, although Linux seems to handle it better and the session can often be "resurrected" whereas the freeze in Windows causes a blue screen.

I also have an Aspire 5100 with the 0200 error. I read in another forum where the problem was the mounting/plug-in of the HD, and that the solution was a wedge to mount the HD tighter. On mine the HD was seated tightly, so I moved it out about 1/16th of an inch. Sure enough, it booted up. And at that point it had stopped booting at all. So, I am now convinced that the problem lies in that connection.