LITTLEBLACKDOG.COM

Stray Dog Joined: 26 Jan 2008 Posts: 1

keep getting error screen saying "A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer. UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME. If this is the first time you've seen this stop error screen, restart your computer. If this screen appears again, follow these steps: Check to make sure any new hardware or software is properly installed. If this is a new installation, ask your hardware or software manufacturer for any windows updates you might need. If problems continue, disable or remove any newly installed hardware or software. Disable BIOS memory options such as caching or shadowing. If you need to use safe mode to remove or disable componens, restart your computer, press F8 to select Advanced Startup Options, and then select safe mode. Technical information: *** STOP: 0X000000ED (OX82F8C900, 0XC0000006, 0X00000000, 0X00000000)."

I have tried many times to get around the error screen, but no luck. It will not allow me to start in safe mode, so i am unable to disable anything. Can anyone help me???

Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2008 1:55 pm Post subject:

either the hard drive is dying, the memory is bad (like seriously), or the hard drive is corrupt. Disable quickboot in BIOS to force it to check the memory with the built in checker. If it passes that little test, it may just be corrupted hard drive. but to fix it would probably require taking it out of the laptop and putting it in an external enclosure to connect it to a working system to diagnose the problem fully.

some other dogs may have better ideas... so hand around.

also... while you're waiting, if you have a system you can use other than the laptop (which I assume is the case since you made a post) and it has a CD burner... download a copy of the Ultimate Boot CD and burn it. Then boot up the laptop with that and run the memory tester (memtest 86+ is recommended under mainboard tools, memory)

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com

This program has helped on more than one occasion to resurrect machines.

another one for accessing the data if you want to dump it to an external hard drive and just reformat afterwards (if the memory is ok... let it test for at least 5-7 passes as sometimes heat has to be built up before the failing bits will fail) is Helix Live CD

http://www.e-fense.com/helix/downloads.php

this one will absolutely not touch your hard drive unless you do something to it. Though there is a linux learning curve to it if you want to modify anything. just reading stuff is point and click. if you have an external drive that's formatted fat32, you can easily dump stuff off for safe keeping.

Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2008 3:25 pm Post subject:

This sounds like a dying (or corrupted) hard drive. Either way, bad things have happened to the boot sector of the hard drive.

Rebuilding the file system isn't an option unless you can remove the drive and mount it as a secondary drive in another system, or use one of the aforementioned utility CDs.

I use Spinrite to try to fix these types of problems. Yes, it costs money. But generally it works. However, sometimes the disk is on its way out and there isn't going to be much you can do for it.

One thing you can try is to let it cool right down (or try the freezer trick), and see if you can get it to boot that way. If you can, backup what you can off of it.

Oh, and welcome to the forums!

EEps · Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2008 6:22 pm Post subject:

I just got 4 Lattitudes and one of them is doing exactly that. Tried installing a fresh install over the current system but got error messages about the CD. This is a brand new CD with no scratches and various files will error out during the install. I think it's gonna be the RAM and not the HDD. I'll end up swapping a few pieces around and see what happens.

Welcome to the forums...just be careful who you let sniff yer butt... Wink Smile

Butt Sniffer Joined: 22 Aug 2003 Posts: 1822

OP,

Sounds to me like you may be having the same issue I had with my gateway.

1. Replace your IDE cable with a new one.

2. Swap your ram and check for bad ones.

3. After you do both 1&2, reinstall your OS with the complete restore CD they give you.

Should be good after that. If not, hard drive could be going.
(Haha.... I guess I should write this under a blog titled what I learned from my POS gateway. Laughing

)

Butt Sniffer Joined: 22 Aug 2003 Posts: 1822

BamZipPow wrote:
I just got 4 Lattitudes and one of them is doing exactly that. Tried installing a fresh install over the current system but got error messages about the CD. This is a brand new CD with no scratches and various files will error out during the install. I think it's gonna be the RAM and not the HDD. I'll end up swapping a few pieces around and see what happens.

Welcome to the forums...just be careful who you let sniff yer butt...

Yeah it could be your RAM or it could be your cables. Anyway, with me I was having CD install errors because of a bad piece of ram and a bad IDE cable.

Definitely be careful about those butt sniffers... you don't know where their nose has been. Laughing