Fixed Disk Parameter Table or BIOS error

[Ewan]

Hi, Please can somebody out there help me before I chuck
my laptop out of the window. I switched on the other day
to be confronted by our old friend "blue screen of death"
at which I rebooted and initially got the "non system
disk or disk error" message. Now, when I switch on, I
get the "Fixed Disk Parameter Table or BIOS error. System
Halted" error message on a black screen. I cannot boot
from a boot floppy, nor can I boot from the Win2k cd. F10
whilst booting will not take me into the BIOS settings
either. There are 3 mid length beeps when powered on.
Technet does not have any info on this either.

Does anyone out there know how to fix it or is my hard
drive irrevocably dead?

Thanks,
Ewan

 

[Dan Seur]

1. What does BIOS say about the drive?
2. Get and run the manufacturer's downloadable hard drive diagnostic.
3. Talk with the mfr's tech support folks. Mention not only the drive
anomalies but also the beeps.

 

[Guest]

Hi, I am totally unable to access anything on the
machine, all I get is the error message and the beeps.
It's terminal isnt it?

 

[Steve Duff [MVP]]

This sounds more like a failed system board or
bad memory in the laptop. Try reseating the
DIMMs if you know how to access them -- one
may have just popped loose.

I do not think you have a hard drive failure from
what you have described. Which is of course Good News.
However bleak things may look now once the laptop
is repaired or replaced you have your files back.

You need to contact the laptop manufacturer
to find out what the beep codes mean -- and
they do mean something. But it is specific to the
bios and system board maker. For example
three beeps for an AMI BIOS means a base
memory failure.

Best of luck.

Steve Duff, MCSE, MVP
Ergodic Systems, Inc.