Randomly Shut-down. Slow operation

[JCmartin]

Hey,

I'm running a Pavillion - p6144f using Windows 7 64-bit that I updated ontop of Vista.

Recently, my computer restarts after it has entered the hibernation mode. After restarting, it will usually go to a black screen "Reboot and select proper boot device or insert boot media in selected boot device and press a key". I've entered the set-up by pressing F8 and it just appears with two grey boxes and " SYSTEM HALTED". F11 won't work to start a system recovery and when i press ESC to enter the boot options, it only shows my DVD drive.

However, after trying 3 or 4 times, it lets me get through and resume windows.

I am trying to update my BIOS from this website but when I try to open the application i get " The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion."

Overall, the computer is very sluggish. I have filled my USB with critical work documents and would like to restore the computer to factory settings. Including getting rid of the windows.old files assoicated wiht the previous vista installation.

Any ideas?

Thanks so much for your time and look forward to some positive responses.

[old_geekster]

JC, welcome to the forum.

It sounds like you have a failed hard drive.  I am not certain if you have the SMART diagnostics in the BIOS, but if you do, I suggest running it to see if it is the hard drive.  The symptoms certainly sound like it.  Also, the error message that you receive.

Please click "Accept as Solution" if your problem is solved.

[JCmartin]

Ran the diagnostic test and the Hard Drive did fail.

Error code: BIOHD - 1
Error: communication with device failed
Suggestion: turn off your system and verify the drive cables are securely attached.

I rebooted, which worked, and then was able to successfully install the BIOS update for some reason this time.

[JCmartin]

Downloaded Hardware Diagnostics tool and have got this twice during the SMART extended self test:
"An error occurred while trying to read the SMART data from the device".

Downloaded the HP Recovery Manager Application Update but it won't let me install saying
"The update did not install successfully ( 259)"

Should I open the case and check to see if the physical hard drive is connected?
 

Some more issues I haven't mentioned included incredibly choppy youtube/flash videos and no sound output.

Thanks alot for the help so far I'm open to any suggestions. 

[old_geekster]

JC, it is my pleasure.

You can check the connections to the hard drive, but I suggest backing up all of your personal data.  I believe that a hard drive failure is going to occur.  Once the backup is complete, it should be fine to use the drive until it does fail.  I use two USB thumb drives and a USB hard drive for backups.

Please click "Accept as Solution" if your problem is solved.

[JCmartin]

Opened up the case and checked the connections. Everything looks fine.

All data has been backed up.

Another thing - the hard hard drive seems to be making a crunching "thinking" noise. This has been going on for awhile.

Is there anything I can do to repair the hard drive? It is a Western Digital WD10EADS