Won't Boot- Hardware Problem?

[jonfiredaman02]

Four days ago, when i turned on my zen (30 gig ), it wouldn't go past the boot screen, all i got was a blank screen, and nothing happened. However, about ten minutes later, it seemed to have started up just fine. However, yesterday, the same thing happened again, only it didn't fix itself. I tried reading other posts on this forum for help, but none of them seemed to exactly fit my circumstances.
most of them seemed to say that a bad hard drive was the problem, but i'm not sure if thats happening here. I can hear the HD spinning up when i turn it on (though it stops when it gets to the blank screen). Also, I read that if the hard drive is bad, doing the disk cleanup or formatting might take a while or not work. When i did them, however, the cleanup was pretty quick, and the formatting (after i had tried everything else) took about 5 seconds, and all the hard drive space was recognized. Also, it won't charge by usb (though charging from the wall plug still works) and my computer won't recognize it, so i can't try reinstalling the firmware
Does this mean it could be something wrong with the main board? My zen is out of warranty, and while i think i could replace a broken hard drive, i dont think my skill extends any farther than that. I would be so grateful for any advice.
Thanks for reading my overly long post too...

[CrowdAds]

[Almoxil]

Have you tried plugging it into another PC, jonfiredaman02? If you manage to get it recognized by other computer, you will be able to try reloading the firmware.

[ZenChick]

Based on everything in that problem description, I'd have to go along with the "bad hard drive" diagnosis, but it seems to be more of an elecronic failure than a physical failure - that is, the interface is getting hung up.

[jonfiredaman02]

Well, thanks for all the help, but as i was trying get a different pc to recognize it, it just totally died. the screen flashed a bunch, went white, and i couldn't reset it, or even get it to charge or get the blue light on or anything. So i opened it up, and saw the problem- one of the chips somehow separated from the board, i don't know how, but there was no way i could have fixed it.
thanks anyway though.

[ZenChick]

Ugh! What a horrible way to go!

*bows head in silent reverence*

Rest in Peace.

[RCM]

Still puzzling as to why a chip came off, unless it was dropped or something got a bit too hot, was it dropped at all?

[FrododorF]

Originally Posted by RCM

Still puzzling as to why a chip came off, unless it was dropped or something got a bit too hot, was it dropped at all?

sounds more like heat than shock, it would take a pretty hard collision to knock a chip off the board, but heat could warp one or the other pretty easily

[jonfiredaman02]

yeah, it wasn't completely off, but the solder points were broken or craked or something along a whole side of the chip. I had dropped it a few times but not recently.

and thanks for the condolences, i guess my zen is in creative heaven now...