Pavillion 6573Z

[dunklegend]

My brother in law has the computer described in the title and he says that it was working fine but there were some power outages in the area the computer was running and he heard a crack and the pc shut off. He says he opened the case and saw that it has a battery so he replaced it, and now the pc turns on but it tells him "No operating system can be found". When I heard the problem I thought that it could be the PSU or the Hard Drive.

The computer turns on so at least I know that the PSU is working. He says he can't get into the BIOS to check that it recognizes his HD. I know that by replacing the battery he cleared the CMOS so maybe that's why it doesn't recognizes the HD.

Anyway he lives in another city so he'll be bringing his PC so I can check what's wrong, when he arrives maybe it's going to be very simple like correct his BIOS settings, but I wanted to post this to hear some ideas, as to what could it be and how could this be fixed.
If I can't fix it at least I'll make a backup of his data (he uses the computer for inventory and as a point of sale cash register) but I don't know if I can save something if the hard disk is fried.

Thanks in advance for your suggestions.

Nothing is as easy as it looks

 

[dunklegend]

Anyone?

Nothing is as easy as it looks

 

[dunklegend]

wusy or RichPLS it looks like it's only you 2 guys out there right now do you have any ideas what this problem might be?

Nothing is as easy as it looks

 

[RichPLS]

Could be a number of things...but it does not sound like a hard drive to me.


<pre><font color=red>°¤o,¸¸¸,o¤°`°¤o \\// o¤°`°¤o,¸¸¸,o¤°
And the sign says "You got to have a membership card to get inside" Huh
So I got me a pen and paper And I made up my own little sign</pre><p></font color=red>

 

[dunklegend]

What do you think it might be?

Nothing is as easy as it looks

 

[RichPLS]

I would check the bios and see what drives it is recognizing, and go from there.
If it was a electric surge, could or damaged the controller on the motherboard.

<pre><font color=red>°¤o,¸¸¸,o¤°`°¤o \\// o¤°`°¤o,¸¸¸,o¤°
And the sign says "You got to have a membership card to get inside" Huh
So I got me a pen and paper And I made up my own little sign</pre><p></font color=red>

 

[dunklegend]

How can I check if it was the controller?
If the HD was damaged do you know of a program that let's you recover data from it.

Nothing is as easy as it looks

 

[dunklegend]

OK Thanks, once I have the computer I'll post my findings, and if I still have problems maybe you guys can help.

Nothing is as easy as it looks

 

[endyen]

The HPs use a different key to get into bios, it's one of the F keys , maybe F1, F7 or F9.

 

[dunklegend]

I could enter BIOS now with the F1 key but I tried the hard disk in 3 computers and BIOS doesn't recognize it.
Any ideas?

Nothing is as easy as it looks

 

[dunklegend]

It looks that the HD's PCB is bad. I gave the HD to a friend that has some seagates laying around to see if one of the PCBs will fit.

Nothing is as easy as it looks