Guess whose laptop died AGAIN

[DarkwingChuck]

Yeah, I have all the luck.

It all started yesterday morning. First it was freezing up. Then it was running but taking forever to do everything, like a 10 minute wait between clicking an icon and the window opening. I tried checkdisk and started getting an error when I rebooted that a registry file was missing or damaged but was recovered. Then it started endlessly looping when I tried to boot up. I tried to repair the Windows installation, no help. I figured last resort I'd reformat. After lots of stalling it eventually got to 42% and blue screened referencing partmgr.sys as the culprit.

So yeah. Can't boot, can't reformat, can't do nothin. Any suggestions, sympathies, or Nelson Muntz style HA-has appreciated.

[American Hero]

Re: Guess whose laptop died AGAIN

I had the same problem, unfortunately I couldn't fix it. I sent it to some tech guy that works at a local hospital with my mother. It cost me 50 bucks, but it works now.

[JLaCroix]

Re: Guess whose laptop died AGAIN

Yeah, I have all the luck.

It all started yesterday morning. First it was freezing up. Then it was running but taking forever to do everything, like a 10 minute wait between clicking an icon and the window opening. I tried checkdisk and started getting an error when I rebooted that a registry file was missing or damaged but was recovered. Then it started endlessly looping when I tried to boot up. I tried to repair the Windows installation, no help. I figured last resort I'd reformat. After lots of stalling it eventually got to 42% and blue screened referencing partmgr.sys as the culprit.

So yeah. Can't boot, can't reformat, can't do nothin. Any suggestions, sympathies, or Nelson Muntz style HA-has appreciated.

Do you have an HP PC with an AMD-based Processor? XP SP3 has been said to cause these issues on setups like that.

Do you have a Windows XP CD? If so, put it in your drive, boot to the desktop as normal (if you can) open a command prompt and type:

sfc /scannow

It should take about an hour, and you won't lose programs or files.

If that doesn't work, you'll probably have no choice but to do a repair install of XP. (Not a reformat or reinstall, a "repair install" which is different and I can explain if the need arises). A repair install WILL work unless you have a crazy malware infection or defective hardware.

[OnyxVeil]

Re: Guess whose laptop died AGAIN

Yeah, I have all the luck.

It all started yesterday morning. First it was freezing up. Then it was running but taking forever to do everything, like a 10 minute wait between clicking an icon and the window opening. I tried checkdisk and started getting an error when I rebooted that a registry file was missing or damaged but was recovered. Then it started endlessly looping when I tried to boot up. I tried to repair the Windows installation, no help. I figured last resort I'd reformat. After lots of stalling it eventually got to 42% and blue screened referencing partmgr.sys as the culprit.

So yeah. Can't boot, can't reformat, can't do nothin. Any suggestions, sympathies, or Nelson Muntz style HA-has appreciated.

If it will boot up at all (just to the loading screen) you could do a system restore.

It sounds like a hard drive problem, but unfortunately I don't know alot about switching parts in laptops, except RAM.

[JLaCroix]

Re: Guess whose laptop died AGAIN

If it will boot up at all (just to the loading screen) you could do a system restore.

It sounds like a hard drive problem, but unfortunately I don't know alot about switching parts in laptops, except RAM.

Yeah, switching hardware on laptops can be extremely easy or extremely hard depending on the model. Usually, switching the hard drive is a piece of cake. In most of the laptops I worked on, the hard drive would be in a removable compartment on the bottom. Rarely have I ever even needed a screwdriver to change a laptop hard drive. However, you have to be careful because some companies may make their laptop hard drives proprietary in some way, although that's VERY rare now days.

[OnyxVeil]

Re: Guess whose laptop died AGAIN

Yeah, switching hardware on laptops can be extremely easy or extremely hard depending on the model. Usually, switching the hard drive is a piece of cake. In most of the laptops I worked on, the hard drive would be in a removable compartment on the bottom. Rarely have I ever even needed a screwdriver to change a laptop hard drive. However, you have to be careful because some companies may make their laptop hard drives proprietary in some way, although that's VERY rare now days.

The only hardware I can exchange on my laptop without a screwdriver is the Battery.
But, I don't need to change anything anyway...

Most of the computers I've worked on were desktop computers, or car computers (haha). Desktops are so simpe to get at though, usually just twist something off, flick some lever type thing/things up and take off the side panel, and you can access nearly everything.

On laptops though, lots of people will think there computer is broken when it just randomly shuts off, but alot of the time it just gets too hot and needs a good cleaning, but that obviously isn't the problem here.

My opinion though Chu˘kRi˘h is to take it to one of your friends if they're intelligent with computers, or take it to a computer shop, if swapping the hard drive doesn't work. You'll have to get JLaCroix to help you with that one though.

[JLaCroix]

Re: Guess whose laptop died AGAIN

The only hardware I can exchange on my laptop without a screwdriver is the Battery.
But, I don't need to change anything anyway...

That sucks, who made your laptop?

Most of the computers I've worked on were desktop computers, or car computers (haha). Desktops are so simpe to get at though, usually just twist something off, flick some lever type thing/things up and take off the side panel, and you can access nearly everything.

This varies more than you may think. For example, a few months ago one of my clients brought a computer to me with a defective power supply, the most common problem I have. They had an HP Minitower case, and the power supply was a proprietary one that no one sells. Normal sized Power Supplies won't fit in that case. I had to saw, cut, and bend the metal frame on the inside just to fit a normal power supply in there.

On laptops though, lots of people will think there computer is broken when it just randomly shuts off, but alot of the time it just gets too hot and needs a good cleaning, but that obviously isn't the problem here.

While you're right, a good number of recent laptops will overheat and shut off because of a BIOS update being needed. Even my laptop I just bought has this problem, which is where the BIOS forgets to tell your fan in your laptop to come back on after Standby. (Acer Aspire). The fix was to download and install a BIOS update that would make the fan come back on after standby or hibernate. This is the case on a TON of laptops out there now, thanks to Acer and probably others.

My opinion though Chu˘kRi˘h is to take it to one of your friends if they're intelligent with computers, or take it to a computer shop, if swapping the hard drive doesn't work. You'll have to get JLaCroix to help you with that one though.

With all due respect, please try the command I posted first, because it would take less time than it would to bring it over someone's house and you have nothing to lose. Computer shops will try to rip you off, so you want to make sure you do everything you can first to try to save yourself the trouble.

However, my shop doesn't charge rediculous amounts of money to fix something like this, I would probably only charge $20 or $30 depending on what the problem is, with a free diagnosis, but I doubt you live in Flint MI.

[OnyxVeil]

Re: Guess whose laptop died AGAIN

My laptop is a HP Pavilion DV6000

This varies more than you may think. For example, a few months ago one of my clients brought a computer to me with a defective power supply, the most common problem I have. They had an HP Minitower case, and the power supply was a proprietary one that no one sells. Normal sized Power Supplies won't fit in that case. I had to saw, cut, and bend the metal frame on the inside just to fit a normal power supply in there.

Yeah, I did put the "nearly everything" in there, because I have heard of crazy things like that before.

While you're right, a good number of recent laptops will overheat and shut off because of a BIOS update being needed. Even my laptop I just bought has this problem, which is where the BIOS forgets to tell your fan in your laptop to come back on after Standby. (Acer Aspire). The fix was to download and install a BIOS update that would make the fan come back on after standby or hibernate. This is the case on a TON of laptops out there now, thanks to Acer and probably others.

Yeah, but can't you usually just go into the BIOS settings and change the fan problem without needing an update? I think I may have saw it in there before, but i'm not too sure, it would also depend on the BIOS type.

With all due respect, please try the command I posted first, because it would take less time than it would to bring it over someone's house and you have nothing to lose. Computer shops will try to rip you off, so you want to make sure you do everything you can first to try to save yourself the trouble.

I did say to try taking to someone elses place if swapping the hardrive doesn't work, assuming that his computer won't boot up at all. I did also suggest to do a system restore if it does boot up to just the loading screen (I've had that problem)

And yes, trying them in the simplest order would probably be the best idea...

[JLaCroix]

Re: Guess whose laptop died AGAIN

Yeah, but can't you usually just go into the BIOS settings and change the fan problem without needing an update? I think I may have saw it in there before, but i'm not too sure, it would also depend on the BIOS type.

Yes, you can go into the BIOS settings to configure the fan, but that doesn't help you in the situation that I'm referring to. When you go into standby or hibernate, the fan shuts off. It's not needed since you're either in a low or no power state and would just waste battery. When you resume your machine, the motherboard is supposed to monitor your temperature and when it hits a certain point its supposed to turn on the fan.

The problem was, regardless of your BIOS settings, that after you resume from standby the BIOS would give incorrect temperature values, making it think the fan was not necessary to be turned on. With the BIOS update in question, it would correct this and make it read the temperature correctly after a resume making sure the fan would still come on as needed.

My wife was using my laptop and the computer got so hot she had a burn mark on her leg. Not a major one though. Acer recognized the problem (but it took MANY complaints) and fixed it in a BIOS update.

I did say to try taking to someone elses place if swapping the hardrive doesn't work, assuming that his computer won't boot up at all. I did also suggest to do a system restore if it does boot up to just the loading screen (I've had that problem)

It's no big deal, just a matter of personal preference. My personal preference is to avoid System Restore if you can. My experience with System Restore was that when it restores the settings, some applications stop working and things generally become a mess, but your experience may be different.

The system file check is good because it checks your Windows system files to make sure they're intact and not corrupted, and it replaces them as needed. Although I've not had it happen, I theorize that some Windows Upates may need to be installed again after doing so. Not alot of people know about this really sweet utility built in to XP and I find it very useful, it solved quite a few problems for me.

And yes, trying them in the simplest order would probably be the best idea...

Right. Conflicting advice can sometimes cause the user more frustration though, which I try to avoid as much as I can. Nothing you said was wrong or anything, but us techie people gotta work together, you know?

I'm starting to wonder if we should have a Technology/Computer Help forum here...

[DarkwingChuck]

Re: Guess whose laptop died AGAIN

Do you have an HP PC with an AMD-based Processor? XP SP3 has been said to cause these issues on setups like that.

Nope, Dell Pentium 3.

Do you have a Windows XP CD? If so, put it in your drive, boot to the desktop as normal (if you can)

I do have one but no it doesn't boot.

If that doesn't work, you'll probably have no choice but to do a repair install of XP. (Not a reformat or reinstall, a "repair install" which is different and I can explain if the need arises). A repair install WILL work unless you have a crazy malware infection or defective hardware.

I guess it was because it didn't work when I tried that yesterday.

[JLaCroix]

Re: Guess whose laptop died AGAIN

So you tried the repair install of XP? (Not talking about a reinstall). If you did, you may want to test the memory.

[OnyxVeil]

Re: Guess whose laptop died AGAIN

Yes, you can go into the BIOS settings to configure the fan, but that doesn't help you in the situation that I'm referring to. When you go into standby or hibernate, the fan shuts off. It's not needed since you're either in a low or no power state and would just waste battery. When you resume your machine, the motherboard is supposed to monitor your temperature and when it hits a certain point its supposed to turn on the fan.

The problem was, regardless of your BIOS settings, that after you resume from standby the BIOS would give incorrect temperature values, making it think the fan was not necessary to be turned on. With the BIOS update in question, it would correct this and make it read the temperature correctly after a resume making sure the fan would still come on as needed.

My wife was using my laptop and the computer got so hot she had a burn mark on her leg. Not a major one though. Acer recognized the problem (but it took MANY complaints) and fixed it in a BIOS update.

Yeah, with my old Acer laptop, without needing to into hibernate or standby it would get to hot and shut off, but I don't the problem had to do with the BIOS. I think the laptop was too dirty and it had bad airflow, because it would only shut off when your using it, not while it was in standy or hibernate. It would mostly get too hot when you use more memory consuming applications, but it got to a point where you could barely use anynthing on it.

I also did notice it seemed to be an Acer problem, they are kind of cheap laptops in my opinion. Allthough I have seen some good models...

[DarkwingChuck]

Re: Guess whose laptop died AGAIN

So you tried the repair install of XP? (Not talking about a reinstall). If you did, you may want to test the memory.

Yeah, I tried that then reinstall then reformat. None of which were able to complete.

[JLaCroix]

Re: Guess whose laptop died AGAIN

Yeah, I tried that then reinstall then reformat. None of which were able to complete.

What was the error message? It's starting to sound like a bad hard drive now.

[OnyxVeil]

Re: Guess whose laptop died AGAIN

What was the error message? It's starting to sound like a bad hard drive now.

That's what I said, lol...