Dead laptop after attempted RC install

I'm pretty sure that I already know what the answer is here, but I thought I should post this anyway just in case I have overlooked something...

My laptop is a Toshiba Equium L40 (the 10X variant with 2GB RAM).

About a month ago I restarted my laptop and found that it was stuck at the BIOS screen, where I could hit F2 to enter the BIOS, or hit F12 to enter the boot menu. However, as soon as I hit one of the options the laptop would freeze. After a little fault finding I removed the internal HD and found that it would boot from a Live CD and let me access the BIOS menu etc. I pooped the HD back in and I was back to square one.

I tried the HD in another machine and it did the same thing, therefore I determined it must be the HD.
I bought a new HD and installed it and everything worked once again.
Since then my machine has been running perfectly with Windows 7 build 7077.

Today I downloaded the official Windows 7 RC build from Connect, stuck it on my USB stick and prepared to install the RC.
It booted straight away, I chose my drive for a clean install, it did the copying Windows files and then the expanding bit... All was fine until it restarted. It was stuck at the BIOS again! Exactly the same as last time.

Now I have tried a cold boot, removing the battery and power for a few minutes, removing the USB drive, booting without the battery, booting without power, and still nothing. I can press F2 or F12 but nothing happens.

I have never seen anything like this before, and I refuse to believe Windows 7 could do anything like that. What I find odd is that it had been working perfectly for a month or so, yet dies when I am installing an OS.

Does anyone have any ideas? I'm thinking along the lines of a bad HD controller or something sinister hardware wise... Being a laptop I don't really see what options I have other than trying a new HD, which obviously I have already done once. I'm not going to, nor can I afford to keep replacing the HD.

Is it a casualty of war?

Sounds dead to me... But if you get a new HD dont reinstall seven until its Released. I mean, if the problem only happens when you upgrade the OS dont upgrade the OS. I would reccomend going back to an earlier OS

Yeah, it's certainly looking that way.

The first time it happened was nothing more than a routine restart, it was the second time, this time, when it died whilst performing a clean install of the official Windows 7 RC build.

Thank you for the advice mate, but there's no way I could ever go back to Vista now.

Plus I'm on the official beta, have a Technet subscription, and am a member of Microsoft's IT Pro Momentum program. There's no way I would sacrifice the latest and greatest because of flawed hardware!

If it's totally dead then hopefully I should be able to sort something out insurance wise, I just can't believe the damn thing died the same day the official RC hit. I can't express how angry and upset I was. I know it's only a computer, but it's basically my life...

Well, You could always install vista and do an upgrade install to seven. maybe it would work, who knows. :)

Dazeon said:

About a month ago I restarted my laptop and found that it was stuck at the BIOS screen,

Thats like what happened to me yesterday. I tried installing the windows 7 RC and I got the install up but then something about a corrupted file appeared so I shut my computer down after I canceled everything out but then I tried starting my computer up the next day and my computer got stuck at the start up screen and it wouldnt even let me into the BIOS screen or anything. I have no idea what is going on.

That does sound exactly like my problem, I wonder if there's more going on here than I originally thought? Could this be Windows 7 related?

I know it's the hard drive that has died both times, but as I managed to get my laptop working again after the first failure (by adding a new hard drive).
Something else is causing the problem and killing the drive, I was thinking it might be the HD controller that was at fault but is it possible that Windows 7 is the culprit?

Mine is still completely dead, and I really have tried everything short of taking the laptop totally apart, and I refuse to purchase yet another hard drive!

Have you managed to get into the BIOS or get your computer booting again Loco Metal Head?

I'm debating whether to report this on Connect, but I don't really want to mention build 7077. Thoughts anyone?

Nope, I've been trying different things all night and nothing has worked.