archived post from SillyDog701 Message Centre

[photoman125]

Can anyone tell me where the hard drive is located on this machine I need to put another one in just to format it

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[Tidus]

Hello Photoman,

I service a lot of Tiny machines, and i am glad to tell you that the hard drive is just under the left hand side of the trackpad. Remove the 5 screws underneath the trackpad, at the front end of the machine, they're all in a row, and the trackpad should then unsnap.

The hard drive is located in its own caddy, on the left, with a ribbon cable coming from it, and there's one screw on the upper right corner of it. This is the only screw you need, the others holding it in were the trackpad ones underneath.

To get the hard drive out of the caddy, there's another 4 screws on each side of the hard drive. It should then slide out.

Good Luck

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[photoman125]

Many thanks, don't suppose you can tell me how to get into the bios setup, just wanted to check something

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[Tidus]

Hello Photoman,

The BIOS key is usually F2, it is on my Tiny A440 laptop, and most other Tiny machines, but it could also be the Del key.

Do you want a service manual for your machine? I have manuals for all Tiny machines, free of charge! It'll help you with any troubleshooting and upgrading queries you have, as well as asking me!

Good luck friend!

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[photoman125]

A manual would be a great help many thanks

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[Tidus]

OK, I'll have it sent to ya straight away!

Update: You can get to it on my KJC SillyDog space here: http://kjcomputers.sillydog.com/service_manuals/tiny/laptops/A360/, and it's in there. I'll be uploading any drivers i have to here too in the future!

You'll need WinRAR to open this archive, i had to use RAR format to compress it enough!

Good Luck!

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[snailofsatan]

hello Tidus i was wondering if you might beable to help me diagnose my problem on my A360 too please with your experience..?

my screen appears to be faulty, it looks like it's completey broken, just staying with a blank black screen even though my computer boots up..

it displays fine through TV out and the with an external montior through a standard lead...

...but when i look closely at the LCD screen at an angle.. i can just make out that it is actually working.. i can see windows etc... just not lit up!! like as if a backlight is not on..

do you know if i need a whole new screen, or just that inverter part? or could it be just somehting loose maybe?
thanks again
kev.

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[Tidus]

Hello Kev,

I must apologize to my users, our server has been down for the past 3 days, i've ben out in London, and the server was off, we were there longer than expected.

Your problem is definitely the backlight/inverter system, i've had a few Tiny laptops, and my wife's Dell Inspiron 5100, do this to me.

You'll need to replace either the inverter, or the backlight, but i recommend changing the inverter first, the backlight is tricky to get out the screen, and contains Mercury. If you snap it accidentally, it can be poisonous.

It's a 99% chance it is the inverter, in most of my repairs, it has been.

You can usually find one on eBay, and i'll have a search around the shed at home, i have a load of old Tiny machines parts, the missus keeps badgering me to get rid!

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[snailofsatan]

i've got a replacement screen off ebay so i'll let you know how the repairs go this evening!! hopefull it will work

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[snailofsatan]

argh damn it, I just tried my laptop again and now when i press the "on" button, the strip of 5 lights next to it cycle though the check by flashing from left to right and the harddrive starts to crunch but only for about 3 seconds and then stops.. it's not booting anymore, and not even getting as far as the bios!!!! any ideas what might be wrong.. maybe something is loose inside from last time i looked inside to fix my fan? any suggestions of what might be wrong would be very grateful!!!

kev


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[Tidus]

Whoa, Kev, i forgot about you, it's been so long!

You've replaced the whole screen? You've got guts my friend! I would've changed the inverter first, much cheaper! Your machine is now not booting? Try wiring it to the external VGA as you did in September, see if that helps, and turn your system speakers up, and listen for any POST beeps.

Believe it or not, a faulty screen, and/or inverter and wiring can cause a machine to do this! Primarily because if the wiring is faulty, it shorts the board out, but even if the wiring is fine some laptops require all earth, return ground and signal leads be connected before the thing will POST! I had a Fujitsu Siemens laptop do this to myself & Kara, our electrical technician, after replacing the inverter. The machine would not POST, no beeps, anything. We disconnected the TFT interface cable from the motherboard, then the inverter wiring, and ground shield, wired the laptop to a monitor, and the damn thing booted!

Check your wiring again, and MAKE SURE any grounding shield straps are screwed down (the inverter may be screwed to the TFT back surround, with a little earthing strap on one screw, with tin foil round it (Gericom laptops are bastards for this, they love tin foil!) The last Gericom i did, the foil had to go round the inverter (the inverter had a plastic sleeve round it first, otherwise obviously it would've shorted!), then the strap had to be screwed on top of the foil, securing the whole lot to the back surround, before the inverter would kick, and ignite the CCFT!

If ya need anything else, give me a bell!

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[snailofsatan]

hello mate, thanks for getting back to me!!! hehe, i thought i might as well change the whole thing as it had the invertor included and was quite a good price

there's no beep coming out and when i plug in an external monitor the same thing happens, do you think the processor might have finally burnt out or something? or more likely due to grounding? i did take it apart quite alot a while ago when i was changing the fan so something might have happened then

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[Tidus]

Right, let's start from the beginning,

Your machine stopped booting after you changed the whole screen & inverter. I assume the screen plastics were with it too, as a complete unit? This may be long winded, but put your old screen and inverter back in, and see what happens. I need to know if it is faulty wiring. If it isn't, i'm going to give you a service manual, and i want you to follow it step by step, stripping the machine down, making a note of where every screw went, then build her back up again, to see if it cures the problem.

Put your old screen and inverter back, and we'll take it from there.

Just before you take your screen apart, or touch the inverter, please, please, take all power out, including the battery. I've had a friend killed by the 1000v starting voltage of an inverter firing a CCFT, because she thought the battery was flat, and even the slightest kick of power to an inverter will attempt to fire it. And i forgot to tell her to take all power out. I don't want another death on my conscience!

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