Laptop won't boot...bad HD or bad mobo?

[MHRX]

hi everyone, I was just wondering if anyone could help me out with a computer problem I have. My friend has a compaq R3000 laptop, and she told me recently she had some virus on her computer. It turned out to be a vundo virus. I tried clicking interet explorer, but it wouldn't load up. So I resetted the computer, and now it won't boot up. It flashes the "compaq" screen where I can enter bios, etc. but after that it makes a little funny clicking noise and the HD and disk drives don't appear to work.

I myself have the exact same model laptop as my friends. (they were really cheap on sale a while back, heh). Could I take out my HD and try it on hers? Or vice versa? (could that cause something to transfer to my computer?) Neither of us have our reinstallation cd's with us (both home for thanksgiving).

I was mostly curious if this sounds like a software problem or a hardware problem. There are a bunch of laptops on sale tomorow, it might be cheaper to get a new one if it is in fact the hardware. Sorry for all the text, can anyone help us out? Thanks so much in advance. (BTW sorry if this is in the wrong forum, I wasn't 100% sure on where to put it)

 

[TimeParadoX]

Did she get rid of the virus? If not then maybe you can switch HDs like you said and see if it works on your laptop and if it does then the virus probably screwed her laptop up

 

[N3051M]

hard drives clicking don't particularly sound too good.. you should get it checked out via a simple diagnostic program from the manufacturer of the HDD..

Could I take out my HDD and try it on hers? Or vice versa?

theoretically i don't see why not.. the only trouble you may encounter (not likely in this case, being both same model etc) is a simple "hardware id do not match" or something..

If you got a bit of time you can carefully pull apart the laptops (don't loose any screws!) and fit them with new HDDs (if they were the problem) with whatever capacity you wish.. it will save you a grand or so from buying the latest, that is, unless you really want the latest ..