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Koolpc
30-10-10, 14:52
My mates laptop has been formatted a few times now to try and solve the problem where and it all runs fine for a while and then next day he starts it and XP keeps coming back to the Safe menu screen!!

I then decided to do a test on his HD with the WD utility which failed at the 'Smart' scan.

When i put his HD in my pc all is ok. It shows up fine and is accessable.

Would the above 'Smart' error cause the issue he has?

I am currently running memtest to rule the memory out. Thanks for any advice.

Laptop is a HP nc4400
wonderlust
30-10-10, 14:53
I had an issue recently where an HP laptop (G72-112) was imaged with acronis and would lock at the bios screen.

I had to do a zero fill to clear the issue.

Might be worth a try?
Koolpc
30-10-10, 14:57
This doesn't lock at the bios screen though. It goes past that but keeps looping to the Safe Boot screen. Might be worth a punt though.
KarlHungus
30-10-10, 14:58
Could be a bad sector, as wonderlust suggested could be worth a shot zero filling it or using a deeper format using something other than the standard windows format. You could also try a hdd regenerator application to attempt to repair any bad sectors, ive some success doing this in the past with faulty hard disks.
Koolpc
30-10-10, 14:59
So, you guys think it is the HD that would cause the above issue? Not the ram or cold boot problems?
KarlHungus
30-10-10, 15:36
So, you guys think it is the HD that would cause the above issue? Not the ram or cold boot problems?

You said it failed at the smart scan which would indicate something is wrong with the hdd. Thats the first place i would assume the problem is.
Koolpc
30-10-10, 15:41
I have tried the smart scan test with the drive plugged directly into my pc and one with the drive in an enclosure.

It only fails the smart scan while plugged into the enclosure!!
KarlHungus
30-10-10, 15:48
Hmmm, i would still scan it for bad sectors.
Guest
30-10-10, 15:53
If its a hp laptop then the shift key is probably stuck. See here http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&docname=bph08029
One of the options listed should sort it out for you.
Koolpc
30-10-10, 15:58
Shift key is fine.
Computer Robot
30-10-10, 21:06
what is the smart error though? Can you not use a program like speedfan in your other pc to get more information about the fault?
Guest
30-10-10, 22:53
Shift key is fine.
Did you check all 7 solutions?
Koolpc
31-10-10, 10:17
Well, put in a new Hard drive and so far all seems ok!! I will keep testing today etc.