Does this sound terminal?

[spanglechick]

Since last night, puter (ibm thinkpad x31) is shutting down instantaneously, with long bluescreen messages in biosy type font that don't stay up long enough to read more than a few words of.

something about 'pool' and some other things that make no sense to me. not the same message each time - at least three different ones.

now puter will start once out of maybe every 20 times, but shuts down before i can do a system restore or get online. sometimes it freezes at the beginning of startup, sometimes it doesn't even get that far, although i can hear the fans going.

sometimes it tells me that the start up file has been corrupted, but sometimes not.

Occasionally it tries to start in bios.

what do we think?

am at my wits' end to be honest. Car is dying and now this and i can't afford to replace or repair either, really.

 

[ExtraRefined]

Sounds like a hardware rather than software issue. Download a bootable diagnostic CD and test the memory, hard drive and run a CPU stress test. Memory and hard drive are reasonably cheap replacements, if it crashes during the CPU test it's most likely overheating.

If it passes all of those then look at repairing / reinstalling windows, but any software fault would most likely be repeatable, not eratic.

 

[spanglechick]

hmm - can't burn discs on this (grinder's) puter and i don't think i'll be allowed to download anything at school. but i will work it out.

the biggest problem is that it hasn't actually booted up at all since i last posted. this thing isn't going to work if i don't get the laptop going, is it?

 

[spanglechick]

bump?

do i need to buy another laptop? can anyone recommend a repair service?

 

[Scarlette]

bump?

do i need to buy another laptop? can anyone recommend a repair service?

I am quite keen on the PC World people. Mainly because my mum seems to be having an affair with staff at PC World and is so evangelical about how great they are that I have become indoctrinated. Though they did laugh at my last laptop issue.

However, in other news, I managed to work it so that my laptop (which I had trodden on in stilettos) was covered by (somehow) my parents home insurance, despite the fact that I haven't lived with them for years. But they claimed they bought it for me and that I lived at home and in London. Despite it not being expressly covered in their insurance, I got £400 voucher with no questions asked. Obviously this is a blag and maybe a bit wrong but it did save me lots of money.

 

[The Groke]

Without knowing the contents of the "Blue Screen of Death" it is as likely to be a software issue as it is a hardware issue.

Do you have any information or files that you need to recover from the laptop or are you able to just wipe it and start again?

Did you get recovery/Operating system disks with your laptop?

Has the thing been subjected to any knocks or jolts or spillages?

Do you recall installing any new software or hardware in the machine before it started misbehaving?

Was your anti-virus/malware software up to date?

Can you just lure Kanda round to fix it?

 

[spanglechick]

Do you have any information that you need to recover from the laptop or are you in a position to just wipe it and start again?

Did you get recovery/Operating system disks with your laptop?

Has the thing had any knocks or jolts or spillages?

Do you recall installing any new software or hardware in the machine before it started misbehaving?

Was your anti-virus/malware software up to date?

Can you just lure Kanda round to fix it?

No, yes

Don't think so

Not more than usual

No

avast - it does it automatically, no?

apparently not...

 

[The Groke]

No, yes

Then unless you are prepared to fanny about troubleshooting when you are not really sure what you are doing, the easiest option is likely to be to get hold of a Windows DVD/CD and do a full re-install of the operating system and all of your software.

I am sure someone here could provide you with one if you can't find the original disks your machine came with - if indeed there were any.

 

[spanglechick]

Then unless you are prepared to fanny about troubleshooting when you are not really sure what you are doing, the easiest option is likely to be to get hold of a Windows DVD/CD and do a full re-install of the operating system and all of your software.

I am sure someone here could provide you with one if you can't find the original disks your machine came with - if indeed there were any.

but how can the disks work if it won't switch on?

 

[Iam]

It is powering on, though, by the sound of it. It's just that the operating system won't start...

 

[The Groke]

but how can the disks work if it won't switch on?

Oh sorry - I have to confess I didn't read all of your OP properly.



Can we start again?


Yes - it does sound like a hardware issue if the fans are whirring away the thing seems to have life but you are not even getting BIOS or POST properly.





It could be various things - CPU, Motherboard or dodgy RAM etc, none of which are easily "user service-able" in a laptop.

I am afraid I don't know of any reputable, reliable, good value PC repair outfits in the UK any more.

I presume it is not still under warranty? Did you buy it from new?

 

[The Groke]

You could try downloading "knoppix" which is an operating system which will run straight from the CDRom.

If you boot from this successfully and it runs fine, then you are likely looking at software issue rather than a HW one.

 

[spanglechick]

I presume it is not still under warranty? Did you buy it from new?

Nope. was a recon job.

You could try downloading "knoppix" which is an operating system which will run straight from the CDRom.

If you boot from this successfully and it runs fine, then you are likely looking at software issue rather than a HW one.

right... but it's probably HW...

 

[ExtraRefined]

Before spending money trying to fix it, you could try booting it with the hard drive and cd drive removed. If these are really badly broken they may cause the machine to not post. If it's got two sticks of RAM, try removing each in turn (removing both won't work).

 

[spanglechick]

Before spending money trying to fix it, you could try booting it with the hard drive and cd drive removed. If these are really badly broken they may cause the machine to not post. If it's got two sticks of RAM, try removing each in turn (removing both won't work).

 

[mauvais]

It isn't this problem with AVG, is it? http://www.computerweekly.com/Artic...urity-update-cripples-windows-xp-machines.htm

 

[ExtraRefined]

If a machine's failing to POST - ie it dosen't appear to do anything, no manufacturers splash screen, no prompt to press F2 for setup, no memory self test, it's certainly a hardware issue of some sort. You need to work out what.

The easiest way is by a process of elimination. By removing all the components the machine can POST without, you know it's not these that are the source of the problem. So, remove the HDD, see if it will POST. If the HDD is the source of the problem, with it removed, the machine will POST and then display an error to the effect of "boot device not found". You should now be able to boot off CD and confirm the fault. Vice-versa with the CD drive - if it's the source of the fault, removing it will allow the machine POST and then boot from the HDD.

If the RAM is faulty, in all probability the fault will be limited to one stick - assuming you have two, you can remove one and see if it POSTs. If it does so reliably, the other stick is faulty. If you only have one stick, you'd need to borrow an identical replacement to do this test, since you can't run without RAM.

If you did all of this and it's still not working you're probably stuffed, as no other components are easy replacements on a laptop.

 

[spanglechick]

It isn't this problem with AVG, is it? http://www.computerweekly.com/Artic...urity-update-cripples-windows-xp-machines.htm

not unless avg is the same thing as avast.

ExtraRefined - that sort of makes sense, but i'm near phobic about opening my laptop. i'll have to psyche myself up.

 

[elbows]

No, avg is a different antivirus.

Normally when I see computers in such a state as yours, either the hard drive has started to die, or windows has managed to corrupt itself. Still the fact yours was going wrong at different points could point to a heat, cpu or ram issue, its hard to say without seeing it.

You could put your ear against the laptop whilst booting it and see if the hard drive is making any particularily bad noises - not so easy if you arent used to hearing what it normally sounds like, but if it ticks and clonks in a repetitive stuck sounding sort of way, that woud suggest the drive is knackered.

Oh this advice is not exactly great, sorry about that.

 

[laptop]

I'm thinking the word "pool" on one of the blue screens of death is a reference to memory (RAM).

So:

• touch a metal water pipe to earth yourself
• turn off computer
• open it up
• look for memory cards (SIMMS)
• remove and re-seat them.
• while you're in there, dust.
• close up, turn on and sacrifice a white goat.

Do not touch any of the metal strips on the edge, or any other metal, while doing this.

Or ask whether anyone has any SIMMs with the same amount and speed of RAM on them.

 

[soulman]

Are you having any problems with the battery/powerpack?

 

[spanglechick]

Are you having any problems with the battery/powerpack?

no. yay! I understood that question.

 

[soulman]

It's just that I had similar problems with an old laptop. After going through everything it turned out that the battery was knackered and wasn't holding enough power to boot it up properly.

 

[laptop]

• open it up
• look for memory cards (SIMMs)

Not rushing for a deadline now.

SIMM looks like this:

 

[spanglechick]

little bump here.

Brother in Law has had a look and he says this:

Right. It's boogered basically. It's looks like the hdd has some major corrupted sectors exactly where the system files should be.

Second problem is that it doesn't have an optical drive and whilst I can probably jury rig something up to read a CD, I don't have a repair disk for XP PRo. I don't suppose they gave you a backup/repair CD for this machine when they sold you it?

I have a brand new spare HDD, that I can put in and installing XP is a doddle, but I do need a repair CD. Your machine has a licenced copy so that's not a problem... i.e. I can re-use the licence.

It's just that disk I need and unless I find something else, it's not going to the great laptop heaven... unless the motherboard is boogered and that "might" be a possibility, as I suspect your graphics is shared on-board the motherboard and your screen has a bloody great white line across it...

so. does anyone have an XP pro repair disc they can lend us?

pretty please?

 

[Bob_the_lost]

You can normally get a repair / recovery disc off the manufacturers for free, not sure how that'll work now the brand's been sold onto lenovo though.