hd not showing in BIOS

nuxguy · 11-06-2014, 12:39 PM

Hi,
I have a laptop (should i have posted in "laptops" section?) and the HD does not show in the BIOS.
It also takes longer than it should to even enter the BIOS.

Question:
How can i tell if the machine has a PATA or SATA hd please?

The machine is a Sony Vaio PCG-7134M (on the base) or a VGN-NR38M_S (in the BIOS).

p.s.
(Question 2)
Does anyone know why there are two machine types??
(On base of machine & in the BIOS)

ondoho · 11-06-2014, 01:33 PM

are you sure there's a hard drive in the laptop?
there should be an easily removable lid on the laptop's base, take a look.

or, maybe the contacts aren't so good anymore, try to wiggle the hd a little and see if it shows up in bios.

or, maybe the hd has died.

jefro · 11-06-2014, 03:53 PM

Look at drive would say what drive it is.

Look at tech specs on sony web site for computer will tell what drive it is.

It is possible to boot to linux even if it doesn't show in bios. Generally you do want it to report correctly. There may be a scan for drives.

Could be bad drive, connector, controller or some setting in bios too. Some power issue maybe.

nuxguy · 11-07-2014, 11:56 AM

ondoho & jefro

I have looked on the Sony web site, can't find the info i need (even trying both of the model numbers). I tried sending their tech support team a "contact" but it showed wait until it timed out (repeated this until i got annoyed). Maybe that's something to do with the fact that they have effectively binned the laptop part of their buisness - although they do say they intend to continue to provide "support".

Yes, there is a drive in the machine as it was working and then stopped. However, there is no removable plate on the bottom of the unit. The hd is only accessible by removing the entire base (there are various videos showing this). Yes, i could take the bottom off to look (check) but these days i find taking screws out very hard, especially tiny one's, due to my RA. I was hoping to buy the correct replacement drive i need, maybe upgrading to SSD in the process, and then ask a local shop to fit it for me. This would be cheaper than just asking them to fix it for me. Or asking them to take the bottom off twice.

rokytnji · 11-07-2014, 02:28 PM

Find a live cd that has lshw like application installed on it. Like a Parted Magic Live cd.

Code:

sh-4.3# lshw
<snip>
*-scsi:0
          physical id: 1
          logical name: scsi0
          capabilities: emulated
        *-disk
             description: ATA Disk
             product: ST3160021A
             vendor: Seagate
             physical id: 0.0.0
             bus info: scsi@0:0.0.0
             logical name: /dev/sda
             version: 3.06
             serial: 3JS21EB3
             size: 149GiB (160GB)
             capabilities: partitioned partitioned:dos
             configuration: ansiversion=5 sectorsize=512 signature=d0c4b2ef
           *-volume:0
                description: Windows FAT volume
                vendor: RECOVERY
                physical id: 1
                bus info: scsi@0:0.0.0,1
                logical name: /dev/sda1
                version: FAT32
                serial: 22d1-40e3
                size: 7190MiB
                capacity: 7190MiB
                capabilities: primary fat initialized
                configuration: FATs=2 filesystem=fat
           *-volume:1
                description: Windows NTFS volume
                physical id: 2
                bus info: scsi@0:0.0.0,2
                logical name: /dev/sda2
                version: 3.1
                serial: 9650a0ba-6090-5c44-a398-eb6ec7e3bb7c
                size: 39GiB
                capacity: 39GiB
                capabilities: primary bootable ntfs initialized
                configuration: clustersize=4096 created=2003-08-25 15:30:45 filesystem=ntfs label=HP_PAVILION modified_by_chkdsk=true mounted_on_nt4=true resize_log_file=true state=dirty upgrade_on_mount=true
           *-volume:2
                description: Linux swap volume
                physical id: 3
                bus info: scsi@0:0.0.0,3
                logical name: /dev/sda3
                version: 1
                serial: 85e762f3-0e7f-4f15-93ef-2b584ce53c45
                size: 2GiB
                capacity: 2GiB
                capabilities: primary nofs swap initialized
                configuration: filesystem=swap pagesize=4096
           *-volume:3
                description: Extended partition
                physical id: 4
                bus info: scsi@0:0.0.0,4
                logical name: /dev/sda4
                size: 100GiB
                capacity: 100GiB
                capabilities: primary extended partitioned partitioned:extended
              *-logicalvolume:0
                   description: Linux filesystem partition
                   physical id: 5
                   logical name: /dev/sda5
                   capacity: 9000MiB
              *-logicalvolume:1
                   description: Linux filesystem partition
                   physical id: 6
                   logical name: /dev/sda6
                   capacity: 39GiB
              *-logicalvolume:2
                   description: W95 FAT32 partition
                   physical id: 7
                   logical name: /dev/sda7
                   capacity: 52GiB
<snip>

nuxguy · 11-07-2014, 04:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jefro

...
It is possible to boot to linux even if it doesn't show in bios. Generally you do want it to report correctly. There may be a scan for drives.

I booted Knoppix 7.2 from a USB drive and ran Gparted & the Hardinfo prog inc with that release.
No matter what i did Gparted could not see the failed drive.
Then i took a few screenshots (attached), the file names include the Hardinfo option plus an HTML of the report option showing the details i thought might be of help. TBA i'm not sure exactly what i saw, hence me posting it, especially as it seems to say the machine has no USB's - even though i know i booted from USB.
Dunno if this matters but this Knoppix USB stick boots quite quickly on every machine i've ever used it on. However, on my broken Sony it was slow - really S-L-O-W, probably about double the normal boot time. It also took longer to get the menus, etc. Is it possible that the booted system was getting stacks of errors from the BIOS about the duff hard drive and that was slowing it down?

jefro · 11-07-2014, 04:19 PM

I'd assume that this tends to point toward diag of hard drive. "Gparted could not see the failed drive."

I've seen many systems with drive issues that took very long to boot. It is common to act like that.

We are back to diag of hard drive, power to, controller, connectors, daughterboards and such.

nuxguy · 11-07-2014, 05:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nuxguy

--more..

N.B.
txt file is really HTML ... just drop the .txt extension

jefro · 11-07-2014, 08:16 PM

Unless someone else has better clues, then I still say this. We are back to diag of hard drive, power to, controller, connectors, daughterboards and such.

Didn't load web text into browser but it shouldn't improve diag path.

rokytnji · 11-07-2014, 09:01 PM

Quote:

Didn't load web text into browser but it shouldn't improve diag path.

I did jefro for grins. It just showed the pendrive and the cd drive. No hard drive.
I'd take it apart and junk the internal drive for a good one.
Parted Magic has a drive tester built in but if it is busted. Busted is busted.

EDDY1 · 11-08-2014, 01:54 AM

Quote:

The machine is a Sony Vaio PCG-7134M (on the base) or a VGN-NR38M_S (in the BIOS).

vgn is the model #, I have a sony vaio pcg-3h1l, but the model# is vgn-fw480j. I ordered parts with the pcg# & there's a wide range so you could end up with the wrong parts. Also I did get the wrong part.

ondoho · 11-11-2014, 07:25 AM

nuxguy, how did these weird spots get onto the screenshots?

i mean, these are real screenshots, you didn't take actual pictures of your screen?

this might seem like an offtopic question, but it might also point to further hardware problems.

jefro · 11-11-2014, 02:49 PM

"I did jefro for grins. It just showed the pendrive" Thanks rokytnji