Laptop crashing

[techforay]

I am running windows xp. When I power up my laptop i get the option to start in safe mode, normal, last know sucessful configuration ect. No mater what I select the laptop shows the windows logo, flashes a blue screen that i do not have time to read and then restarts. I tried putting in my xp disc and selecting R and it says it can not find a hard drive. Can someone help?

[Midknyte]

Make and model would help. If XP can't see the drive, make sure the drive is set to IDE mode in the bios.

R is for the recovery console. That's wrong if you want to do a repair install.
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

I'd do a hard drive and memory test before you waste time trying to repair windows.

[techforay]

the laptop is a compaq presario c300. I tried to make sure the drive is set to IDE in the bios but for some reason I am not seeing any option to do that. The only thing I can change on the main tab in bios is the date and I can not access any sub menus. I did do a hard drive diagnostic test in bios and it did not inform me of any problems. Can you provide any more info on what you mean by hard drive and memory test. I am a amateur at this stuff.

[Shinma]

For testing memory modules,
One option/link,

• MemTest86+

For testing the HDD,
Refer to the HDD manufacturers' website for downloading/creating/using diagnostic software.

[Midknyte]

UBCD5 has memory and hard drive diags. Link is in my signature. You need to know how to burn isos also.

[techforay]

am i correct in understanding that i burn these diaonastics in iso format on a disk and boot from disk?

[Midknyte]

No. you download the .iso and burn it as an image.

If you don't know how to burn .iso files, read the UBCD FAQ

[techforay]

Thank you for your direction. I have burned this file and booted it. I noticed that there are several functions for this disk. Is there some info on which diagnostic to run

[Train]

A tutorial.
http://forums.techarena.in/guides-tutorials/1044121.htm

[techforay]

when i run the hard drive diagnostics for western digital the program stops at "Invalid opcode at 5281 ffff 0286 e0a0 0000 0000 0000 0000 e0a0 0000 0170 0000 0d86

[Train]

Run the seagate program.

[techforay]

I figured out how to get past the invalid opcode but not it runs untill I displays a Q:\> and waits

[techforay]

I did the short test and it passed, I have options to do a long test and a acoustic test. should i do these also

[techforay]

The long test passed also. Can someone give me the next step. I really appreciate tht help from you people

[Shinma]

Run memory diagnostics software...