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In the last year I had a problem with my notebook: sometimes when I push the power button it starts (I hear the fan) but nothing appears on the screen, I have to hit it on the bottom to make it start..

In the last month the problem changed: now it starts every time without need of hitting it but it shuts down without any apparent reason and then immediately reboots. This happens more frequently when the notebook is JUST turned on or when is turned on from a while but I am not using it. In addition if I instead boot Windows (installed on another partition) the problem disappears...

Gparted screenshot

My hypothesis is that the problem is in the hard disk, so I came to the questions:

  1. How can I verify my hypothesis? Is it plausible?
  2. Since Windows in in sda2, Ubuntu in sda5 and sda3 contains only data do you think it is a good idea to move Ubuntu to the left (resizing sda3) and then leaving the last part of the disk (where probably there is the problem) empty (in a new partition)?
Zanna
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Red
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  • With respect to the change of the problem, have you upgraded Ubuntu in the mean time? Eg to 13.10? Also, what model is your laptop? Sometimes there are known errors associated with older laptops. – Marcus Dec 23 '13 at 15:21
  • @mtdevans No, I have not updated Ubuntu, still version 12.04. My laptop is a Thoshiba Satellite A300 – Red Dec 23 '13 at 15:24
  • Have you used any tools like Disk Utility in Ubuntu to check the hard drive's S.M.A.R.T status to see if it is reporting any problems with the drive? – douggro Dec 23 '13 at 16:02

1 Answers1

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In the last year I had a problem with my notebook: sometimes when I push the power button it starts (I hear the fan) but nothing appears on the screen, I have to hit it on the bottom to make it start..

Thats a hardware problem and it is not related to your hard drive. The soldering of one of your chips (most likely your VGA) on your motherboard is broken. Simply speaking the connection between the chip and the motherboard became bad. When you hit it at the bottom, the connection between the chip and the MOBO is improved a bit and it manages to start.

You need a BGA Rework for your laptop.

But if you think that it is your HDD, then just boot from a Live USB, and use that one for a while. If it still shuts down, you can be sure that the problem is not with the HDD, if it won't shut down, then the HDD is the guilty.

falconer
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