error message: volume/hard drive missing??

Just had this message come up and got a blue screen with lots of white type on it...too quick for me to read all of it.

Then a taskbar pop up saying something about a wrong volume or a hard drive missing....clicked to start intel matrix manager but nothing happened.

Went to start...control...computer but every time i clicked on it it would open for a split second and then close.

Went to shut down and reboot and got messages saying OS not found.....

Finally got back but what happened???

Now im getting flickering on the desktop.....

Help!

 

Verify your Raid Array - did you update the system BIOS? Flickering - change anything with the drivers? Could be a number of issues - check event log as well.

 

havent done a thing for weeks it just happened....how do i check these things?

 

This will get you started:

What information appears in event logs (Event Viewer)?

to verify raid integrity, open the intel rapid storage technology icon in your task bar and on the manage screen look for the verify link. might be under advanced.

 

More problems!!!!

I left my lappy on whilst i went out the room, came back and its was stationary at the large alienhead logo that i see upon boot....

Tried entering steup and wouldnt do anything....

Hard shutdown resulted in the following messages ..

PXE-E61: MEDIA TEST FAILURE, CHECK CABLE
PXE-M0F: EXITING INTEL BOOT AGENT

OPERATING SYSTEM NOT FOUND

Coulndt do a thing so another hard shutdown before the same process again.....

Another hard shutdown and it finally rebooted to windows.

Checked event viewer and got the following;

Critical events - Source kernel-power, event id 41 and task category (63)

Dont know what im looking for so would someone PLEASE help!

 

The PXE errors are related to booting from the network. I'd ignore them for now.

Your big problem is the "operating system not found" message, which indicates that none of the boot devices contained an operating system. In your case, this probably means that you've got a problem with one of your hard drives which is causing the RAID controller to give up. However, it could be a fixable problem.

Try booting off the Windows 7 setup disc that came with your system and choosing the Repair you computer option. This will ask you to choose the Windows installation to repair. If you see your Windows installation listed, select it then bring up a command prompt. You can then use the bootrec tool to repair your computer's boot record.

If your Windows installation isn't found then there's a very good chance one of your drives has died, and if you're running RAID-0 (striped) then you've probably lost all of your data (I hope you've got backups of all the important stuff!). All you'll be able to do is to call Dell tech support and get a technician sent around to replace the drives, and you'll have to start over.

 

Thanks for the info - the odd thing is that sometimes it will boot and work fine and then crash....it may take several attempts to reboot which mostly fail with the previous message of no OS found.

Im on it now, and it booted fine this morning, has run for a few hours without issue but i just dont know when its gonna go pear shaped again.

If it was hard drive failure, surely this would be constant and not itermittemt??

I also thought that it booted from hard drive and not network - indeed i use wireless router but dont know why it would try and boot from a network ?

 

last time I got a message like that on my PC, the hard drive failed a few weeks later.

Not trying to scare you, but I would start backing up personal files ASAP.

Like others suggested, thoroughly read the event log. You may have a hard drive that's about to fail.

It is possible it could be a one-time event.

 

I did view the event log but i dont fully understand the entries....one i did see was under the critical tab.

Source - Kernel-power.....event ID 41 and task category (63)

Now that means nothing to a noob, but may do for someone more savvy.

Its happened 2 or three times over the last 48hrs or so....somethings not right as i left the lappy on, came back an hour later and it was sitting at the large alienhead boot screen and wouldnt do a thing...couldnt enter setup...hard shutdown only realised the OS messages upon reboot but finally got it to boot normally.

This is the sequence of events so far so if anyone has more info, wold be great.

 

Doesn't mean anything to me either But Kernel relates to the core of the OS, in this case Windows 7. This could mean the OS is experiencing corrupt files, or the hard drive has corrupted sectors.

Is it giving you problems now? If you haven't done so yet, back up your personal files!

 

fortunately for me as its sooo new i havent got any personal files on here yet....nothing im worried about....the whole system is going back to Dell shortly anyway but it is really knocking my confidence in AW as a whole....

 

Your problem does look like there's something faulty, either a drive that's on its way out or the motherboard. Either way, it's just as well that you're returning the system.

I wouldn't put too much blame on Dell here. If it's a hard drive problem, and the hard drives are Seagate (I believe they are), then you pretty much expect issues. Seagate drives have had problems ever since they bought out Maxtor, who were the industry's big problem child before that. If it's a motherboard problem, you'd hope that it would have shown something at the factory. However, they probably only have the machine running long enough to do some quick tests and to load the software. This is a couple of hours tops, and possibly not long enough to trigger a motherboard problem.

It would be nice to see some more testing done on these machines before they're shipped out, but there are limitations on how much can be done. When you look at the number of machines that Dell are making, there are serious limitations on how much testing you can do.

If you do like the specs of the AW, I'd recommend asking them to replace yours with a new system from the factory. There's a fairly low chance that you'll get another system with these sorts of issues. If you don't want to take that risk, perhaps look at some of the other big names out there to see if they have a system you like. Just make sure that you do your homework, in case your chosen brand has really bad customer service.

 

Thanks for the advice...i have agreed a replacement with AW, just annoyed with the problems i have had withh my very 1st AW system....wasnt expecting it on a 3000 laptop.