Laptop. Startup and freeze issues.

[RvW]

Ill cut to the chase, I have compaq pentium M laptop.

As much as a month ago, I started crashing. The computer would freeze, and within a few minutes, Id get a screen that says windows has shut down to prevent damage to the computer.


I would just restart and things were fine again for days, or even a week when it would happen again.

Two weeks ago, windows wouldnt start at all. The BIOS screen would come up, windows would display, and the blue status bar under the windows logo would run for a few minutes and the puter would restart itself. I literally had to take the battery out, and unplug the computer to stop this cycle.

I booted again, and immediately went into the BIOS and opted to boot from the multibay (DVD) and I let the windows CD do its thing. When the disc recognized the installed OS on the HD, I opted to fix and ran CHKDSK.

When that was done, it restarted, I went back to BIOS and opted to boot from HD again. Worked fine.
But now the whole process seems to be starting again but with a new twist.
I get windows up and running, and suddenly Ill get the screen that says windows has been shut down to protect my computer. Maybe once every 7 times I am on it.
Ill reboot, and it will fire up and run again...but heres the twist. Ill get a screen that says

"Smart disk detects imminent failure, please back up your data on HDD and run disk check from the BIOS menu"

At the bottom it says "press F1 to ignore" and thats all I have done so far and windows starts up fine.

So my first question is, is my HDD slowly dying? Each time I run CHKDSK with the windows CD, without actually starting windows, the total bytes in the bad sector keep growing yet have only reached a total of 60 bytes so far and it doesnt appear to fix anything because the HD still chokes now and then and shuts me down. ( I can actually hear it choking like a record skipping)

But If I run CHKDSK with DOS screen C/prompt while windows is running, it runs in read only mode, and will not fix errors. And the HD scan from BIOS fails 50% through when it says "disc read error"

[Fast Water]

Sounds like you are about to lose you HD.

I typed in "Smart disk detects imminent failure, please back up your data on HDD and run disk check from the BIOS menu" and got a bunch of "You-are-gonna-get-screwed-if-you-don't-back-up-your-data-and-get-a-new-drive" results.

Not sure what started the problem but it looks as though you are headed for a crash.

Good luck.

BTW: I'm not a Geek nor have I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express in the recent past.

[Chris61182]

Originally Posted by Fast Water

Not sure what started the problem

Just being a laptop makes it far more susceptible to this happening. Hard drives and DVD/CD drives are pretty much the only mechanical equipment in a laptop. Then the trouble with hard drives is that they have such tight tolerances that even with tender-loving-care they just don't last terribly long in a laptop.

I'd get on backing up any important data immediately, but from the sound of things it might be too late.

[Fast Water]

Stolen from elsewhere:
______________________

What you are really asking is :
Can I believe what SMART is saying ?
Well, yes you can believe it, but how do you interpret the information ?

SMART checks a drive and establishes a threshold for its performance in several areas. It can then notify the user when any of those measurements falls below the performance threshold, possibly signaling an impending drive failure. NOTE : This is only an indication of a VARIANCE of performance, not a 100% guaranteed prediction of catastrophic failure !

SMART is different from the other active disk-checking utilities that you might run, such as ScanDisk or Norton Disk doc. These utilities check the logical organization of the file allocation table (FAT), followed by an optional physical check of the disk surface. They do not monitor any of the drive-performance factors, such as the number of times that the drive has to retry a certain function before it succeeds. This basically means that if SMART reports a problem, you should take it seriously.

Predictable failures are characterized by degradation of an attribute over time, before the disc drive fails. This creates a situation where attributes can be monitored, making it possible for predictive failure analysis. Many mechanical failures are typically considered predictable, such as the degradation of head flying height, which would indicate a potential head crash. Certain electronic failures may show degradation before failing, but more commonly, mechanical problems are gradual and predictable. S.M.A.R.T. allows notice to start the backup procedure and save the user's data.

If SMART detects any problem, it will pass an error message to you through your operating system, so you can back up your important files before your hard disk fails. It is designed to give you a prediction, not a definitive " this will happen".... How many times is the weather prediction accurate ? - everything is open to interpretation.

As said in the previous posting, a CRC Error is a drop in Data send/recieve performance, but not neccesarily from the drive itself. You should check all the cabling is seated correctly, and run a complete defragment of the drive. If SMART still reports an inconsistency, it may be worth running a scandisk to include a "surface scan" on the drive ( if you have a few hours to spare ! ). Try running the suspect drive as the only item on the IDE - sometimes another drive or CD on the cable can drag down the performance level of another. If errors still appear, then suspect an imminent drive failure - there is not much else you can do !

I suggest you get a third-party utility and check your drive out with it.

[Fast Water]

More Stuff:
_________

This is not a fix just a list of what it all means. Our Tech Wizard Jon might have some advice for you......
What does S.M.A.R.T. stand for?
S.M.A.R.T. = "Self Monitoring And Reporting Technology". It is a standard interface allowing a disk to check its status, report it to host system, and provide some estimation for a failure date.

What is T.E.C.?
T.E.C. stands for "Threshold Exceeded Condition" and basically means a failure. When your S.M.A.R.T. control tool reports a "T.E.C. date" or "Nearest T.E.C. predicted" you should read "Failure date".

What is S.M.A.R.T attribute?
S.M.A.R.T attribute is a specific property of disk being monitored. The attribute is referred to either by its number or by its descriptive name. Attribute value is a positive integral number, usually in range from 1 to 100 (or sometimes 1 to 200). Maximum values are good, minimum values indicate that some component of the disk is about to fail. Specific threshold is assigned to each attribute. Once the value drops below this threshold, S.M.A.R.T considers disk to be faulty. Some attributes are considered life-critical and others are merely "informative". T.E.C. with an "informative" attribute does not necessarily means drive failure.

Are S.M.A.R.T predictions accurate?
S.M.A.R.T can only predict a gradual degradation of the disk. It cannot and it does not predict catastrophic events, including but not limited to head crashes, power spikes and so on. There is a general rule to follow when interpreting S.M.A.R.T results: if S.M.A.R.T reports a disk failure, it's time to backup; if S.M.A.R.T reports disk to be O.K., it's time to backup anyway.

What is "Spin up time"? My disk reports "Spin up time" about 75, is it about to crash?
"Spin up time" describes amount of time it took to spin the platters up to their rated rotation speed (usually 5400 or 7200 RPM). Values above 80 should be considered good. Values between 70 and 80 are still acceptable. There is a known issue with Quantum (Maxtor) hard drives - out-of-the-box new drives drop "Spin up time" to 70 within first two weeks of use, causing S.M.A.R.T tools to predict failure within a month. This is usually a false alarm. After some initial "burn-in" period "Spin up time" becomes constant and the drive functions normally.

What is "Ultra ATA CRC Error Rate"?
UDMA controller performs an error checking on data it receives from HDD, ensuring that data was not damaged while transmitted over the cable. Each time the error is detected, controller requests a retransmission, thus slowing down the overall transfer speed. Lower values of "Ultra ATA CRC Error Rate" correspond to higher number of errors, usually indicating a cabling problem.

[foxer]

The good news is notebook hard drives have come way down in price and should be a snap to install...newegg has decent prices...or have a local pc shop do it for you and transfer the data.

[Got One!]

When you run chkdsk are using the /f and /r switches after?

meaning run chkdsk /f /r /f fixes the volume and /r recovers the bad data and places it elsewhere.

If this doesnt fix it then yes by all means get a new HD asap

[Rakkasan]

PM Sent

Dave

[RvW]

Thanks for the tip dave. Fast water, thanks for the info, but Im not sure what to make of it all. Seems like its saying, "SMART" will tell you something is wrong, but there might not be anything wrong"

Obviously theres something wrong.

Two events prior to this happening. I left the laptop in my truck and it was 4 degrees all night. Second was, I reinstalled AVG anti-virus, installed itunes, and stopped a disk defrag in the middle because it was taking too long.

"Got one" So I should run CHKDSK/F with the windows disc prior to booting the OS from the HD and then run CHKDSK/R and that might do it?
Ive done CHKDSK/F from the repair console, but never followed it with a CHKDSK/R

[Got One!]

the /r will move the data out of the bad area.

the command would be

chkdsk /f /r

If you have run the /f and your problem is getting worse, then you probably should get what you want out of the laptop and buy a new hard drive. (Its just a matter of time before a total failure, could be in 2 month might be 5 minutes)

[RvW]

Originally Posted by Got One!

..... could be in 2 month might be 5 minutes

Right between those two estimates would be OK with me!

Thanks, Ill give the CHKDSK/f/r a try.