help ! error message on black screen!

[kachador]

Have Gateway solo 1400 laptop, worked adequately until yesterday.
Suddenly I heard ticking from inside computer. Then screen went dark.
I unplugged everything. Tried to re-boot, but get black windows xp
screen and error msg "We apologize for the inconvenience but Windows
did not start successfully. A recent hardware or software change
might have caused this."

Then we get 5 options to restart laptop: safe mode
safe mode with network
safe mode with command prompt
last known good configuration
start windows normally

None of these 5 options work. This message repeats endlessly.........
I need help! Is it time to euthanize the Gateway laptop?
many thanks.....

 

[Malke]

Have Gateway solo 1400 laptop, worked adequately until yesterday.
Suddenly I heard ticking from inside computer. Then screen went dark.
I unplugged everything. Tried to re-boot, but get black windows xp
screen and error msg "We apologize for the inconvenience but Windows
did not start successfully. A recent hardware or software change
might have caused this."

Then we get 5 options to restart laptop: safe mode
safe mode with network
safe mode with command prompt
last known good configuration
start windows normally

None of these 5 options work. This message repeats endlessly.........
I need help! Is it time to euthanize the Gateway laptop?
many thanks.....

The "ticking" sound is not a Good Thing. It sounds like your hard drive
has died.

Malke

 

[kachador]

Yes, seems to be. I tried to re-boot from original Windows XP cd.
The laptop sounded like an air-raid siren. Thank you for confirming
my worst fears. Will visit the Dell web site soon.

 

[Plato]

Have Gateway solo 1400 laptop, worked adequately until yesterday.
Suddenly I heard ticking from inside computer. Then screen went dark.

Commonly a sign of a hard drive gone bad.