Gateway Notebook NX570X HD Failure

[jenlyeng001]

My son has the Gateway NX570X Notebook and after discovering that the AC adapter needed to be replaced in order to turn the unit on, and upon that point, the HD didn't want to boot. The black screen of death appeared and basically wasn't going to boot. Indirect technical support from PCDirect stated the HD was bad. I wouldn't doubt this since it was given to my son and had a slew of issues that he was trying to fix so he could have his own laptop. This was a Vista OS, more than likely 32 bit, but not quite sure since I can't power it on.

If you could please explain more to me about the possibility of fixing the BIOS or any other reason as to why I would be getting the BSOD. Whatever may be the problem, I have no back-ups of any of the following: boot disc, system restore, drivers/utilities/OS and would need to do everything either through a USB boot or CD (preferably kindly forwarded files that I can upload to and burn to a CD or USB thumb drive). Again, this laptop was simply given to my son and if he could fix it, then he gained a computer of his own. Any and all links that are geared to my questions (actual and possible troubleshooting answers are welcome). I will need to buy a replacement HD, but before I do, I would like to know if this is in fact the exact point of problem or if there is some other diagnostic tool I can run (step by step instructions please) after we get the AC adapter in order to even have power to turn it on.

I have no idea how the HD is formatted to boot, whether HD first or floppy, etc...So any info to get me started is exactly what I need. Step by step please. I really appreciate your or anyone else's help that can help me help my son. Blessings!

 

[jenlyeng001]

I can open the bottom of the laptop and hopefully be able to see the manufacturer for the HD and try to find the diagnostics program for it. Do you think that it's possible that the HD itself is preventing Windows from installing?

I can't say for sure that the iso disc I created was a bad copy, but I always verify the disc and not burn it at the highest speed to also help prevent minor burning problems. It's not impossible that the disc had a less than par burn, it was the last DVD from a stack that may have been scratched in weird places. ;-)

 

[zdbc13]

Well, the basics are 1. test the hard drive and 2. test your media.

Use this tool to create a usb (4gb min) to load windows instead of a dvd

http/www.microsoftstore.com/store/msstore/html/pbPage.Help_Win7_usbdvd_dwnTool

 

[zdbc13]

Test the drive with your live usb using Disk Utility.

 

[jenlyeng001]

Well, the basics are 1. test the hard drive and 2. test your media.

Use this tool to create a usb (4gb min) to load windows instead of a dvd

http/www.microsoftstore.com/store/msstore/html/pbPage.Help_Win7_usbdvd_dwnTool

Gotta get a larger capacity USB flash drive before I can do this and with Christmas and gatherings I have not been able to do the Disk Utility. Will do within the next couple of days. Thanks again! I will let you know as soon as I can!

Also, I have a new task with our 6 year old desktop...oh boy, I think the HD got fried. :-( The other day our power went out twice within a couple minutes, odd thing though is it wasn't a complete shut off. It was more like a reverse power surge. Unfortunately, I have never had it on a surge protector (our wiring is older and none of the outlets are grounded). Now we can't load to Windows at all. Power it on, blue error screen comes on and something to the effect of a possible electricity outage problem or a possible issue with a newly installed program. No programs had been installed, but like I said we had the power go off twice. My son was using the computer when this happened. Any thoughts about this?

I have tried booting through the reinstall disk to do a system repair as I can't even load to Windows using Safe Mode (not good), it gives me the option to configure to the last known good setting and it can't load, goes to the blue error screen. The error screen is the same one each time. I don't recall if the boot sequence ever had this available, but when I changed the boot sequence (to load from the reinstall disc), I noticed that it says the SATA drive is not there. ??? Like I said, I don't recall if that was ever any different, but I would think that it was since SATA is a hard drive.