Vista won't boot

Hi,

I have a Compaq Presario series laptop that is a couple years old. I am aware that this laptop is prone to overheating. Despite shutting it off and keeping it on a cooling stand which has a fan built in, the computer gets very hot.

What does this have to do with vista? Well, I booted up my computer this morning and it will not load. It will load safe mode, and I can retrieve any file it seems that is currently saved on my computer. I am confused because the check disk pointed to a failing hard drive, so I am not sure if that is my problem or not, because the only thing the computer will not do is load vista regularly. The screen goes black and all that is visible is the cursor. The overheating tends to make me think the drive finally went though.

Also, if I do need a new hard drive, what is the best route to go? I don't know anything about them. I contacted Compaq earlier today and they said my notebook was no longer under warranty and to take it somewhere else to get it fixed. I am currently at college with no car and this is quite difficult. I am contemplating just buying a new, cheaper computer because as I understand hard drives are an expensive fix.

Any advice is welcome, thank you.

 

Well i dont think its only a hard drive failure ?
You said u put it on a cooling stand and yet it was heating like hell ?
True the laptop is meant to over heat ... but i dont think its to that extent ? Well if you have the money for it, id recommend buying a new laptop because even after fixing the hard disk , the heating will become worst over time and you will have to deal with the same problem with the mother board ,the cpu, and so on ... if you dont have the money for it and want a temporary working laptop, you ought to get a new hard disk ... a cheap one id say.

 

Well I COULD afford a whole new laptop, and am willing to do that but I can't tell if the overheating is like a permanent issue. I just am really lost in this situation, because I am a college student and am in debt already lol. What I'm saying is I don't want to buy a new hard drive just to have it fail again a year from now or so. I'm sad lol.

I don't know, I keep it continually on a cooling stand and regardless it gets really hot around the back and upper part of the computer. I mean, it gets so hot it burns me. I don't know if it is poor manufacturing or design or what (the fans are on the bottom though) but it gets this way after about a hour of use.

What confuses me is why can I still pull stuff off a hard drive that failed. Is it just the windows section that got messed up? I don't know how these things work really. Thanks.

 

Does the laptop heat up to a degree that it automatically shuts off on its own ? Because i just bought a new Hp laptop and it burns as hell aswell, to the point where i cant put it on my lap anymore, but so did the other one that ive been using for 1 year so ...