OT: Gateway tech support (lack thereof)

[Jon K]

So my gf's laptop hard drive crapped. Event viewer shows Error 9 followed by Error 51 - Disk failure, Atapi controller error.

Call Gateway. 4 different people make me do a "quick test". System BSOD's in 10 mins. SLow as **** as it's obviously trying to read data from the disk but is having issues. Man makes me put in their Gateway restore cd and the reinstall of Windows XP fails and boots but comes up with operating system not found.

I call them back they insist that it's the reinstall CD being corrupted - hello gateway, I didn't call because I was having problems reinstalling Windows, I am having problems trying to NOT reinstall Windows So now, they're sending her a new reinstall CD (as if my 3 MSDN dvds and 5 retail copies of various version of WinXP/2000 were failures also!) before they "upgrade" the level of technical assistance.

Gateway supposedly was rewarded for having domestic technical support with easy to understand employees- I must have called the offshore edition. I have 3 dell laptops, all of which have had their issues, but Dell never, ever had me do all this loopy ******** to fix what I know is a failed (and clicking) hard drive. Apparently the Error 51 and Error 9 in event viewer could be "something else" lol. Also, the reason they said the installation of Windows failed is because she "might have other things installed that would interfere". If by that they mean the BIOS is present, then sure. But uh, last time I checked, after you'd done a low-level format, there's not much that can interfere haha. Good old tech support!

[HDhandyman]

That's intresting. I just had a client with a nightmare Dell scenario. Not to contend, but since I spend about 15 hours a week on the phone with tech support from various companies, I can safely say that they are all mostly crap.

Getting back to the subject at hand, you may be completely tech savvy (owning 3 puters and all) but if you are willing to listen, I have a few suggestions.

"operating system faild to load, or not found" usually means that the hard disk is f**ked. Have you taken out the hard drive and tested it independently? Should be held by a screw or clip somewhere on the back. The other things to try are disconnecting the drive from the ATapi and blowing some compressed air (canned) through the pins. I'd also probably disconnect the CMOS battery (looks like big watch battery in another compartment on the back with a screw) and letting the Bios drain for about 2 minutes. Make sure the heat sink is cool before you start all of this. Then put it all back together and check to see if Windex Xpediant will load. If not, take the drive to a shop (probably an Indy if you have a local college near you) and have them test it. If it's crap, tell your sister she owes you 110 bucks and good thing you having plenty of OS copies!

Cheers,

Stephen

P.S. finally, a problem I can solve.

[Jon K]

That's intresting. I just had a client with a nightmare Dell scenario. Not to contend, but since I spend about 15 hours a week on the phone with tech support from various companies, I can safely say that they are all mostly crap.

Getting back to the subject at hand, you may be completely tech savvy (owning 3 puters and all) but if you are willing to listen, I have a few suggestions.

"operating system faild to load, or not found" usually means that the hard disk is f**ked. Have you taken out the hard drive and tested it independently? Should be held by a screw or clip somewhere on the back. The other things to try are disconnecting the drive from the ATapi and blowing some compressed air (canned) through the pins. I'd also probably disconnect the CMOS battery (looks like big watch battery in another compartment on the back with a screw) and letting the Bios drain for about 2 minutes. Make sure the heat sink is cool before you start all of this. Then put it all back together and check to see if Windex Xpediant will load. If not, take the drive to a shop (probably an Indy if you have a local college near you) and have them test it. If it's crap, tell your sister she owes you 110 bucks and good thing you having plenty of OS copies!

Cheers,

Stephen

P.S. finally, a problem I can solve.

Thanks man, but I am quite technically savvy. It's the click of death - hitach i hard drive. I am surprised it lasted this long. The "operating system not found" is not because of the failing hard drive, but because they had her run the Windows XP reinstallation which failed and never completed, causing it to never re-write the MBR. I am a linux/unix guy and am familiar with the compters Thanks for input - it's just a case of shitty service. Dell, with all the issues they have, send me 2 replacement drives on for my 600m one for i8500, a new keyboard, and soon to be a new mainboard. No questions asked and no retarded run-around tests.

[genphreak]

Dunno if you have tried this, but as it sounds like disk errors: I'd have a shot using spinrite6 from a boot disk, it'll diagnose any physical disk errors, recover the data and get the machine stable until the next sectors die. Can do amzing things for a 'swapped to death' old disk, let alone a new one.

It's one of only a few programs marketed at windows users that can do such things. Of course it doesn't use windows tho, except to make a boot disk. If you are not familiar with it, it is nothing like using dd, cp or e2fsck or any of the usual DOS 'utilities', and it will tell you if SMART disk is screwing up should you run it again and notice the read error rate or amount of bad sectors increase. Only 2c worth tho, so probably won't work Nick

[HDhandyman]

It won't work. Smart money says the disk is f**ked. The likelyhood of a corrupt service CD,DVD, etc., vs. corrupt disk (crashed cannister) is 50/1 if you can't see any physical errors on the disk. Besides, if the CD, DVD, etc. were corrupt, Windows--even DOS bios should give you a message about said "corruption".

If you're a puter guy, then do you have a disk diagnostic tool?--Even something like an external disk case would work.

Just my $0.02

[HDhandyman]

Wait, this just in! I'm an idiot--tell me, can you describe how this happened? If one of the disk drives (E , F, etc. ) has gone bad, then none of what you are doing will work.

[Akhil]

I tried reinstalling W2k Pro and XP at least 10 times and every time it failed telling me "Can't write to disk, Bad Sector". But then I did a partition or 10GB primary and 30GB (rest of HDD) secondary and then It did reinstall correctly. I am guessing by doing partition, I pushed that bad sector to secondary (D drive and windows does not care about it while installing. So it worked and I am still using that same computer for about 2 yr now.

So if your HDD is not under warranty and you are gonna have to buy new one, you might wanna try this trick.

Akhil

[Jon K]

Wait, this just in! I'm an idiot--tell me, can you describe how this happened? If one of the disk drives (E , F, etc. ) has gone bad, then none of what you are doing will work.

What are you talking about E F...
its a laptop, its the primary drive, its a hitachi drive (known high failure) and is clicking. She get's BSOD's. Error 51 and 9's, it's evident the hard drive is failed.

[Akhil]

making c: and d:

thi trick will work only when your hdd have problem of bad sector. If read/write head is bad, then its gone.

Akhil

[HDhandyman]

Sorry, Jon.

Looking back today, there was never anything that you needed help with. I guess I was just up late and getting carried away. Your whole point was about Gateway tech V. Dell, in which case "right on".

Just to rond off the conversation, I missed you saying it was the "click of death" and was making a suggestion pertaining to BSODs which never means anything to me untill I have verified "all" drives. Sometimes i get a BSOD and no action from the primary if one of the other drives is out on a laptop. So, that's all I was saying.

Anyway, best wishes.