So, I have an Averatec 2300series 12.3'' laptop that quit working today. It is a dual core 1.6 with 2 gigs of ram and a 100gig hard drive running on Window HP Media Center Edition '05. I was using it, then the screen went to some random, repeating, geometric figure and froze.
It wouldn't respond to any key commands, so I forced shutdown.

I tried to restart, and got nothing. The lights on the front that say it is turned on light up, but I do not hear the hard drive or anything else for that matter. I left it unplugged and pulled the battery while I went to class today. Still doesn't work.

So, is it dead? Does anyone think it is fixable?
If it is in fact dead, how difficult is it to pull the hard drive and make it so I can get the info off of it?

Thanks

8/24/2009 8:43:40 PM

getting the files is a simple trip to tigerdirect store and get a 10-15 dollar harddrive enclosure

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3293594&CatId=2783

something similar to that

they had a few different ones that were 10-15 when i was there

[Edited on August 24, 2009 at 8:56 PM. Reason : .]

8/24/2009 8:53:17 PM

yeh, if the HDD isn't shot, it's as simple as an enclosure/cable.

I'm no whizz, but it sounds like this could be a HDD issue, if nothing is happening at all

8/24/2009 11:58:04 PM

bump

8/26/2009 11:39:46 AM

no BIOS screen/logo comes up or what? "nothing" can mean different things depending on who is saying it

as far as getting data off.. if the drive isn't completely f'ed then that won't be a problem. just get a cheap enclosure.

8/26/2009 11:46:45 AM

You technically don't even need the enclosure if you have a desktop with a spare SATA port. Hell, you could do what that other guy did and use your primary/sole SATA cable, and pray you get as lucky as he did booting up his laptop HDD under completely different hardware without BSOD.

[Edited on August 26, 2009 at 12:19 PM. Reason : ]

8/26/2009 12:18:51 PM

^true, if it's sata

for that small version of IDE though I bought a $.99 adapter on ebay and just let them hang by a power cable in another desktop or something sometimes

8/26/2009 12:29:41 PM

Black sceen, doesn't even appear to be on.

I only have another laptop to use. I am on a 17'' HP ZD8000 from 5 years ago. My 12'' laptop is what I used for class once I stopped needing one for graphics and started needing it for notes.

Any info you can give me on how easy it is to get to a hard drive on a tiny laptop?

8/26/2009 2:08:48 PM

If you're not getting anything at all, then your problems are bigger than just a bad HD.

8/26/2009 2:54:45 PM

^^probably one or two screws and a cover on the bottom of the laptop and they're most likely marked with a 'pancake stack' or generic cylinder. Downloading your manual now...



[Edited on August 26, 2009 at 4:25 PM. Reason : .]

8/26/2009 4:21:52 PM

So, if I get absolutely nothing, then what are possible problems?
The symptoms were minimal, and sudden: the geographic screen display and then completely frozen, then dead.

Guessing here; Could onboard video die, and kill the mother board? If this is the case, can I still pull the old hdd and put in in an enclosure to use it?

8/26/2009 4:26:31 PM

What kind of shapes? If the problem was the hard drive you would still see the Averatec splash screen and have the ability to boot from CDROM or USB key. Memory could possibly be a culprit, but no fans spinning is :sad face: :puzzled:

Have you tried using a regular LCD or CRT monitor with the VGA port? Smaller laptops can be awfully quiet, especially when cooled but I assume you're familiar with the decibel level of your 4 year old machine by now so...

[Edited on August 26, 2009 at 4:38 PM. Reason : ]

8/26/2009 4:34:53 PM

They shape displayed was kind of like a small part of a kalidescope/ firework image, linearly arrayed about 300 times across the screen.

It does not work with an external monitor. No life found.

Does someone have one of these external enclosures that I could borrow?

[Edited on August 26, 2009 at 5:35 PM. Reason : .]

8/26/2009 5:34:11 PM

I have one. I can also tell you from experience with this particular model that they're mostly shit and poorly built. Your data may be salvageable though.

8/26/2009 6:01:12 PM

I paid a couple hundred for it, a couple years ago, so I'm not upset at the value. I just wish there had been some warning so I could have backed up the work I have done recently and pulled the pictures off of it.
Hopefully I can still do that.

8/26/2009 7:09:14 PM

yeah, we got one for my sister on closeout and it was perfect for her (before netbooks were existent really) until it basically burst into flames and everything stopped working.

8/26/2009 11:20:01 PM

OK, so the hardrive is removed and in an enclosure.
It reads most of the files fine.

I had all of my pictures in a folder on the desktop, and in the desktop folder.
Now, it says I don't have access to the desktop. Any ideas on how I can fix that?
It won't let me copy the folder to my current desktop, and says folder is empty if I check properties.

8/27/2009 9:12:34 PM

i know linux doesn't give a shit about windows file permissions. but i'm sure there's another way around it.

8/27/2009 9:46:00 PM