Is my computer dead?

Locus

I have a Lenovo Z60m ThinkPad. It's about a year and a half old with Windows XP Home on it.

I was doing what I usually do with it (IM, surf the web, use a little MTGO) when a book fell on it and it just froze completely. I waited about 10 minutes to see if it would fix itself, and when nothing happened I unplugged it and removed the battery to manually restart it. The restart was going fine, but when it got to the XP startup (with the little blue bars that go across the bottom of the screen) it stopped and I got a blue screen.

This screen told me Windows had been shut down to prevent damage to my computer, followed by "UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME." It gave a couple of suggestions that didn't really help, and at the very bottom was "Technical Information: ***STOP: 0x000000ED (0x82359A68, 0xC0000006, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)". I restarted a few more times trying to get Windows to start, but even in Safe Mode I got this blue screen.

Hopefully someone can tell me what the problem is, and how to fix it. I'd like to avoid shelling out money to buy a new computer.

Gorgeeen

Put a linux CD in and install a different boot loader or something. GRUB or LiLo

Crashtard

Have you tried putting the windows cd and doing a windows repair or install?

vonPoonBurGer

C'mon man, Google... first link when you search for "STOP 0x000000ED". Follow the instructions under "Damaged File System". If they don't work, your drive may be toast. Even if they do work, the drive may still be going bad, and you may be looking at partial data loss.

Dhalphir

You seem to think that the book was the triggering cause...was it a heavy book? heavy enough to knock something loose, perhaps?

Locus

Thanks to everyone for their help so far!

I called Lenovo and their answer was basically "buy a new computer." Even if that is ultimately what I have to do, I'd still like to get any information I can off of it.

If I don't have access to a Windows cd right now, could I just borrow one from a friend and use that to repair it (at least temporarily)?

If that doesn't work, can someone explain to me the GRUB/LiLO thing? I have a vague understanding but at the end of the day I'd need someone to walk me through it.

And, yes, I am fairly certain the impact caused this, since it was working fine up until the textbook fell on it at which point it stopped working.

Dhalphir

Locus wrote: »

Thanks to everyone for their help so far!

I called Lenovo and their answer was basically "buy a new computer." Even if that is ultimately what I have to do, I'd still like to get any information I can off of it.

If I don't have access to a Windows cd right now, could I just borrow one from a friend and use that to repair it (at least temporarily)?

If that doesn't work, can someone explain to me the GRUB/LiLO thing? I have a vague understanding but at the end of the day I'd need someone to walk me through it.

And, yes, I am fairly certain the impact caused this, since it was working fine up until the textbook fell on it at which point it stopped working.

If Lenovo isn't going to help you out anyway, you might as well pop the computer open. Even if you're utterly clueless about whats inside, you might spot an obvious connection that has come loose.

Eat_Fire

I wouldn't recommend taking your computer apart any further then you are comfortable. i.e. Don't get 50 screws out of it and not be able to put them back in.

From the sounds of it, your hard drive got messed up when the book fell on it. It may have just corrupted some files and a reinstall of XP could fix it. There are several free hard drive test softwares available online that you can burn to a bootable CD and run on your computer. Check out download.com or just google "memory test software."

The memory test programs will check to see if you have corrupt sectors (aka bad spots) on your hard drive, or if it is completely messed up.

If you just want to try a new hard drive and go from there, notebook hard drives are generic (except for a few sonys and dells) for the most part and you can grab one at any electronic retailer for under a $100.


A 3rd option of course is just to pay someone to work on it, most places you will end up spending about $100-200 on labor. If all else fails and its too expensive to fix, sell it on craigslist or ebay for part money.

Uncle Long

Thinkpads are usually pretty tough computers so if something was knocked loose I'd be willing to bet that it wasn't knocked completely loose from its connection. If I were you I'd try to reseat the hard drive. It may just not be fully connected and usually the hard drive on a thinkpad is in a fairly easy place to get to (i.e. under a panel or in the side). Also try this with your memory. The easy stuff first.

Thandor

borrow that cd from your friend and do a repair installation. There's nothing you can do w/out that unless you would like to install linux. I'd be willing to bet it simply corrupted some files.

Evyl

I'd say there's about a 99.9% chance that a head crash occurred details here.

Just get a new hard drive and it'll be fine.