Dell Studio 15 hard disk problem

[aj4xxx]

Hi,

I have a Dell studio 1558 with an i5 processor and ATI Mob Radeon HD 5470 which is sort of 2 years old, and I've been getting some problems lately.

1) the lappy doesn't show me display when i switch it on. perhaps after 30 attempts to switch it on, it does. so i diagnosed it from the boot screen and i got the message code 2000-0146, which apparently is a hard disk failure. So i downloaded seatools to check the integrity of the hard disk and it indeed showed that there are some bad sectors in the hard disk.

2) Second thing is, i keep getting these error message that the ati display driver has stopped responding and has reset- this after, the whole screen stops for a couple of seconds and as if something is happening and the display reappears. and then at times i get the bsod stating 'attempt to reset display driver failed' and then whein i try to restart it doesn't show any display, and then problem (1) repeats.

I've also been getting some weird lines/bars/coloured (esp grey) boxes on the monitor which more or less seem to be the starting point of the aforementioned problems and they all happen.

Are these problems related to the same source?

I took this to the dell service centre, which apparently for the lappies which aren't under warranty are dealt by a third party service group. i showed them this and they took a day to diagnose it and they said it's a fan problem and i told them it's something to do with hard disk. they said they checked the voltage and everything and it was ok and that the fan was the real problem. so i left it to them cos they're the experts and they charged me decent money for repairing it and then after repairing, i diagnosed it right there in the shop by the bootup menu and it showed the 2000-0146 error again. they were sort ofsurprised and they were like , 'no no this isn't much of a problem, the fan is. but since the lappy was displaying everytime it started at that time, i thought they really solved the problem and then, the fan sound even got smooth. but just after a week i get this problem all over again.
and also at times, at the dell bootup screen, i get these red boxes/lines and then it craches altogether during the starting windows logo and doesn't switch on again.

I can boot into safe mode if it shows me the startup screen and work happily and nothing happens and also whenever i tried to uninstall my gpu drivers, it worked fine. but the diagnostic tool showed that the video card is working fine and my mate even played crysis/prototype/FIFA/Football Manager even after it the problem started and when it's in it's good mood, it doesn't really complain much and it works smoothly. Even Device Manager shows no problem with the ATI hardware. I ddi a clean sweep of the ATI drivers using Driver Sweeper and re installed the video card's drivers from the start, but to no avail.

So basically, what seems to be the problem? Though I'm no expert I do know hard disks are funny creatures and they give us a million diff problems when they're corrupted. So is it just my hard disk that has failed or is my GPU busted too (please don't)? In case if it's busted too, why is it that I can play games and it doesn't crash right away when i open a heavy graphics application?
I can check with another hard disk but can't till my mate's done with his project (saved on his laptop.) I searched this forum for similar problems and all I could see was the 2000-0146 error code problems but not the two problems combined. Hence put up a new thread to ask. So any help now would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[dingo07]

if you have bad sectors, replace the drive and install a fresh copy of windows - first and foremost

then after installing all the correct drivers, you will see if the video is an issue

 

[aj4xxx]

Firstly, thanks for the prompt reply and - Yes, I can buy a new hard disk but can't right now and if it works, well and good.

And as long as someone doesn't come up with a 'Your GPU is busted for sure', I'm glad, and that's what I'm really concerned about. and am clinging on to the hope that it's related to the hard disk failure as I'll need to change the motherboard too alongwith the GPU if that's the case and that'd cost me a lot.

 

[danny2000]

They could be correct; The fan not working properly could be causing overheating and corruption to the o/s and file system.

Have you tried to run chkdsk?

 

[danny2000]

Also, test the hard drive using Dell's utility, by pressing F12 while it is booting-up.

 

[aj4xxx]

I remember running chkdsk too and it really didn't help. But i'll do it again just to be sure, once it displays.
And as for the latter, did you mean going to the 'Diagnosis' tool? If yes, then yes, it did show a hard disk failure error.

Thanks for the replies.

 

[danny2000]

most hard drives that are bad return an error code of "7".
The one that you displayed usually just points to corruption.

 

[danny2000]

Also, I just checked on Dell's website for your error code of 2000-0146 and it suggests setting your bios back to factory settings. http/support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/kcs/document?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&docid=266787#HDD

 

[danny2000]

Resetting the System Setup (BIOS)
to its Default Settings

Option 1:
Reboot the computer.
When prompted during POST, press the <F2> key to enter the setup screen.
On the System Setup screen, press the <Right Arrow> key to move to the Exit menu.
Press the <Down Arrow> key until Load Optimized Defaults is highlighted.
Press the <Enter> key on Yes to Load Optimized Defaults and restart the computer.

Option 2:
Reboot the computer.
When prompted during POST, press the <F2> key to enter the setup screen.
On the System Setup screen, press the <F9> key.
Press the <Enter> key on Yes to Load Optimized Defaults and restart the computer.

 

[aj4xxx]

Yup, thanks. i'll do that once this thing displays once

 

[aj4xxx]

So I swapped the hard disks of both laptops, and mine (which has my mate's hdd now) still isn't displaying while my mate's (which has my hdd) is working like a charm. Though it is showing errors by seagate it still is booting and working. but mine is still not displaying.

Sounds bad for me.

 

[aj4xxx]

Hi,

So apparently my RAM is faulty and removed the faulty one and now running on only 2GB. And it's been fine till now without any problems. But I'm concerned if that's the only problem or not. Haven't played any games except for FM because I don't want the computer to crash again and I want to test my gpu and motherboard if they're fine. Is there a way I can check the integrity of my gpu and motherboard?