Laptop Shuts OFF during XP Install. BAD HD ????

While "trying" to install XP on a laptop, gets to around the (9) minutes to go point and just SHUTS OFF!

I've tried about 6-7 times to reinstall and everytime it shuts off at the SAME point.

Is this an indicator of a bad sector on the Harddrive ??

Does it mean this HD is shot ??

 

Personally, I would check to make sure you are running the latest BIOS for your laptop.

It is a little strange that the whole laptop shuts down. If it was just a bad drive, you would get some type of error.

I could be wrong, but a badd HDD doesn't sound quite right.

 

Not necessarily; it could be a number of things. Are we looking at an older laptop, or is it fairly recent? Is this a normal copy of XP, or is it burned? Do you hear strange hard-drive noises?

A hard drive that's on it's way out will usually make clicking noises at a regular interval.

 

Shut down as in powered off? Or rebooting? Bad hard drives or the like would result in a hang, a reboot or an error message. But a shut down to a power off state is another kettle of fish. This sounds more like an overheating issue to me.

What was the status of this machine prior to trying to do this install?

Gary

 

(3) year old Notebook (brand). w/2.4Ghz CPU.

Burned... that I've used several times before.

 

Does it actually shut down or does it reboot?

A reboot could mean a critical failure (e.g., error during copying). A shut down is worse, most likely a scenario of overheating or battery failure.

If you go into your BIOS and monitor temperatures, do they look okay?

 

Completely shuts off. Just like a dead short.

That battery is already dead, so it's most likely an overheating issue I'm guessing.

Doesn't have the feature unfortunately.

A laptop repair guy I know suggests that it is the HD OVERHEATING. He says laptop HDs are prone to overheating and shutting down like this.

I'm wondering if the HD just has a bad sector. ??????

 

Well, if the hard drive had a bad sector, it probably would restart, lock up or pump out some error rather than just shut down. The PC doesn't rely on the hard drive like it does on the CPU.

You'll need to run various checks from a boot disc. Get the Ultimate Boot CD. It acts as a boot disk and contains tools to test RAM, hard drives, CPU and more. If anything is wrong on your PC, these tools will definitely determine the cause of it.

It's a free tool, just download and burn.

 

I'm with those who think it is heat, specifically CPU overheating. A p4 with a modern chipset will shut down to protect itself if temps raise too high.

During installation, the CPU and harddrive are working overtime at a constant high load...the harddrive heat is adding to the issue because it is not being disappated, but if the harddrive overheats its beasically going to burn out the bearings and grind to a halt, never to work again.

The CPU, though, will shut down.

If it were me, I would dissasemble the laptop, clean the fans and vents, and reapply a fresh coat of AS5 and reassemble.

If you continue doing as you are doing, you will eventually kill the processor.

 

Well....I've now tried (3) different HDDs and still the SAME result.

I've downloaded Ultimate Boot Disk and ran many, many diagnostic tests. All hardware checked out just fine.

I did CPU, RAM burn-in tests, several different HDD scans/tests and ALL check out.I used different XP CDs as well. These CDs worked fine on other installs.

I've also tried to address any overheating issues using various, creative methods!

I've flipped open the keyboard (to expose the HDD CPU/Fan) and put a small vial of frozen liquid (in a small vial of course!)on TOP of the where the CPU/Fan sits.

I also raised up the back end of the laptop to expose the fan underneath as well. ALL to NO avail!!!!!

Anyways, check out this reply I got from another board....

Interesting. In one of the tests I did on the CPU, I saw where it was reporting 1/2 of the expected values.

It's a 2.4Ghz CPU running 400Mhz. It was reporting in as 1.2Ghz @ 200Mhz.

Now, is the Bus speed limited (restricted) to the RAM bus speed ? I believe this machine has a 256MB PC2700 (200Mhz) chip in it. I'd have to yank it to be sure.

Could this cause the CPU and system bus run at 200Mhz instead of 400Mhz ???