Packard Bell won't boot

doolox

I have a Packard Bell MV32 laptop which came with no Recovery CD when bought 2-3 years ago.
The machine will not boot to windows nor will it let me use a pruchased WIndows XP software disc (purchased for my even older Desktop) to rebuild the windows image and get the laptop working again.
If possible I would like to save programs and data but do not know how. THe laptop doesn't have a floppy drive.
In safe mode it gets as far as loading or running agp.cpq driver and the goes to a blue screen and freezes.
It suggests I run CHKDSK/F but how can I do thois when I have no access to the operating system???
Is it possible to make up a CD to operate a rudamentary operating system in order to transfer files and data to a USB key and rescue data "trapped" on the laptop.
Is it possible to repair the defective operating software without doing a complete format?
In the past two months I have had to run CHKDSK on startup and had problems with the video drivers which I had to reload.
ANy help would be great.
I do not have any backup data fopr the laptop.

Alanstrainor

Download this Ubuntu Live. Burn it to a cd. Boot from the cd without installing ubuntu. This should then give you access to all your files. You can then use any storage media like a usb stick to backup your files.

RobbieMc

http://support.packardbell.com/uk/
Hi,

The simple answer is yes you can recover in most case's without doing a full rebuild.
Problem is, you have no backups to help, so it makes things a little harder, but no impossible.
Firstly, use the link above to gain some insite to your issue and possible help, you'll need the serial number or product number to get the correct help for your model.
2nd, recovery cd's have not been supplied with a lot of machines anymore, but the PB use's a recovery partition on the hard drive. To gain access to this recovery, you normally use a hot key like F10 or something and this will start the recovery process, there are normally options for the type of recovery, one of which will delete everything, another that will not.

But, if you have a suspected hardware issue, then this will not work. If you are unfamiliar with all this techbabble, then get the help from someone who knows PB laptops.

Keep us updated on your progress.

One final thing, there are a number of free program's and boot options from the internet, if you go down this route then make sure its from a good source, Pack bell should have a boot cd image on the support site

Regards,
Robbie

doolox

I pressed F8 when starting the laptop and got a list of files when the startup sequence started to run after the initial information screen "Packard Bell" on a grey screen and then the info about drives etc....

The system freezes with a blue screen after accessing a file called:-

partition(2)\windows\system32\drivers\agpCPQ.sys

The screen then goes blue with the following:-

A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent danage
to your computer

If this is the first time you've seen this stop error screen,
restart your computer, if this screen appears again follow these steps:-


.........you are then asked to disable any anti virus or backup utilities etc.. and run CHKDSK/F none of which I can do with no access to the laptop.

***STOP 0x00000024 (0x0019002fe,0xf798d604,f798d3d0,f7362773


I cannot make head or tail of this info but suspect that the agp refers to the video driver software and winder if this can be replaced directly with a known good copy possibly from the packard bell website or would this only make things worse.

As said before I had to run CHKDSK on the laptop and also had one incident where I had to reload the video software when the machine came up in VGA mode.

doolox

I haven't fixed computers for 7-8 years when Floppies ruled the earth and a big hard drive was 5-10 G...
How do you burn a CD?
I could not find any reference to ubuntu live only ubuntu for desktop or server bnut none for laptop.
what is the difference between ubuntu and ubuntu live?

I know I'm a pain with all the questions but anxious not to make a mistake and foul up.
( I've already made one by having no backup for nice to have stuff on machine...esp since usb hard drives are so cheap.........)

sulur

Hi,
I suppose you must have tried a number of things to fix your laptop by now. Have a look at the BIOS when booting, and see the HDD size, If it is correct then exit with 'save default values'. Seems like it could be the HDD on its way out. You could buy a HDD caddy under 10 Euros and get all your data/OS out in no time using another PC if you could access

Cheers

doolox

Packard Bell website names the HDD as a PATA 60 G drive , Seagate Momentum 4200, which is another way of saying it is an IDE drive, do you need SATA drive to work with a HDD caddy?

Could I install the laptop HDD as a secondary drive on a HP desktop, vintage 1998 or would the technologies be too different?

When I try to run a Microsoft Windows XP CD (not OEM) on the laptop to do recovery it only comes up with the same error.

Also tried safe mode and found out about the agpCQP file error.

mp22

ubuntu for desktop will do select option to run without making any changes to your pc

Alanstrainor

doolox wrote: »

I haven't fixed computers for 7-8 years when Floppies ruled the earth and a big hard drive was 5-10 G...
How do you burn a CD?
I could not find any reference to ubuntu live only ubuntu for desktop or server bnut none for laptop.
what is the difference between ubuntu and ubuntu live?

I know I'm a pain with all the questions but anxious not to make a mistake and foul up.
( I've already made one by having no backup for nice to have stuff on machine...esp since usb hard drives are so cheap.........)

Download ubuntu desktop. Burn it to a cd. Insert the cd into your laptop. Power on your laptop, there should be a bios screen (it'll probably say packard bell on it) which will have an option to enter a boot menu. You'll probably have to hit F12 or something. When you hit that, select "boot from cd/dvd drive". This will bring up an ubuntu screen with a few options, select "try ubuntu without installing". This will bring you to a windows like desktop where you will find a my computer with your c:\ drive showing. And fingers crossed it'll be as simple as double clicking on the drive to access all your files. You can then plug in any storage media you wish, be it a usb key or external hd to backup your files.

sulur

If you have access to the desktop with XP it will be a lot easier you should have no technology issues. Get one of the above or similar adaptors costs around 10 Euros or less. connect them to your Laptop HDD. Turn off the desktop, remove the ribbon cables off the CD drives, and the Floppy drives if any. Leave the Desktop HDD connected. Set the jumper settings of your Laptop HDD to Cable select (CS).Connect your adaptor to one of the ribbon cables that you removed from the CD drives.Turn on your desktop and you should be able to access your Laptop HDD under My computer. If you use the USB adaptor all you have to do is connect the adaptor to your Laptop HDD and USB to the Desktop and get all your files/data. Photos above are just for reference.
Cheers

doolox

I bought an IDE to USB converter caddy in Maplins and was able to access my laptop HDD from my daughters 6-month old DELL inspiron no bother.
My old Desktop has old USB rev 1 ports (only two of them at the back) and they do not work
but | can always but a PCI to USB rev 2 card and get at them that way.
My daughter didnt want me doing any thing with the HDD such as CHKDSK etc on her machine in case I got it wrong so I'll have to do it on my SLOW (800MHz ) desktop.
Thanks to SULUR , Alanstrainor,Mp22, and Robbie Mc and all who have helped me get this far.
Any recommendations on a good laptop to buy as I am thinking of upgrading to a new one, my fifth computer since 1990........
As a matter of historical interest here was my first four:-

Digital PC with 386 12 Mhz cpu and 4 meg of memory.
Compaq with 166 Mhz Pentium with 16 Meg later upgraded to 48 meg.
Hp vectra with 800 Mhz Celeron cpu and 256meg
Packard Bell Easynot MV35 with 1.4 GHz mobile Celeron and I don't know what memory and a 60Gbyte hard drive which crashed.....

doolox

My laptop is back up and running fine.
I put the HDD into the HDD caddy I bought at Maplins for €32 and also had to upgrade my USB stuff on the Desktop to USB ver 2.0 and then I could access the corrupted HDD.

As requested by the error message I ran CHKDSK/F.
To do this a ran "CMD" in the start menu "run...."
Once in the COMMAND.EXE prompt environment (like DOS), I ran CHKDSK/F.
I was asked is I wanted to dismount the drive (Drive E: ) and did it.

After about 10 minutes the job was done and the utility fixed some problems.
After that it was simply a matter of replacing the HDD into the laptop and it rebooted, after a few reststarts to "fix" some registry problems.

After the final restart I have Windows messenger back which I do not want and am now afraid to delete it again in case the disk coughs and dies again.

The next thing will be to replace the 60G hard drive with a new one of greater capacity if I can figure out how to move all my stuff over to a new drive.

Is it hard to replace a HDD on a PC even if you have an original Windows XP CD, not OEM.?