November 24, 2004

Computer Gurus: Please Hope Me! Blue screens. Constant freezes. All that good stuff.

First: Compaq laptop. 2135 CA (I think). Windows XP. Athlon XP 1800+. 256MB RAM. Nearly two years old. Out of warranty. It started to freeze up Monday. I managed to boot it up again, ran it for a while, and was greeted with a blue screen. Lovely thing, that. It tried to restart, but unlike the little engine on the hill, it couldn't. Just frozen at random points in the boot sequence. Now it rarely makes it past the initial boot screen (if it makes it there at all), let alone into Windows. I was able to run a test on the RAM once before it froze -- that doesn't seem to be the problem. I tried to format the hard drive. After a few tries, I managed to get through it -- no dice. I don't think it's a heat issue, as the fan works fine and dust inside the case is minimal. It doesn't get all that hot anyway. So I figure I'm looking at a hardware problem, but I'm not sure what type. Does it sound like this is the case -- maybe a bad power supply or a motherboard issue? Anything that isn't terribly expensive? Should I wonder over to Apple's store, or is there hope?

posted by Smo 20 years ago
  • I check for viruses every time now. Just 'cause. Try an anti-virus boot disk (I was once told that virii can get into the CMOS, but that just seems crazy). Back in the day these guys were used a lot. Y'know just thinking about it, try any boot disk, see if it's happy with that. That'd at least give you an idea if RAM is indeed involved or not.
  • Smo, the first thing I'd check is the power supply.
  • Buy a Mac. :)
  • What did the blue screen say?
  • Smo, are you saying you successfully reformatted the hard drive? Did you successfully reinstall the OS after that? If so, and you're still freezing and bluescreening, it sounds like hardware. Can you boot into Safe Mode? If you can run fine in safe mode, then it's a problem where a driver REALLY hates one of your pieces of hardware, and in my experience, it's Sound and Video cards that have been temperamental. If you can't live long in Safe Mode, it leans me toward RAM, the motherboard, or the power supply. Personally, at or around this point I would take it in somewhere and accept the cost of a tech in exchange for having someone else worry about it for a while...
  • First, remove add in cards and extra memory. Then: If you can, and dare to, make a Knoppix CD and see if that boots and runs fine. That will eliminate the OS as a point of contention. If that works, head to www.Memtest.org and make thee a boot disk. Let it run for a while. If that works, it's not memory or a memory controller, and probably not the CPU. If you made it this far, off the top of my head I'd bet that you have a bad part on one of the system boards. Time to call in the warranty, I'd say. Good luck,
  • Some more information: The boot order is floppy -> CDROM -> hard drive. I ran this memory test from a floppy which runs before Windows has a chance to boot up. It froze up a few times before it could finish, and even a few times before it could even start. But it did pass all the tests when I finally managed to finish it. I tried an OS boot disk, and got similar results -- when I could get into it at all, it seized up at various points. I don't know exactly what the blue screen said because my computer tried to reboot itself before I could read all of it. Basically, something like "Windows encountered a problem, and had to shut down to protect your files and folders." That's all I managed to catch, and I wasn't able to change the auto-reboot setting so I could read it again, but it only came up once or twice anyway. Mostly it just froze. Before I wiped the drive, I tried Safe Mode, and I got the same result: a freeze/crash. I did successfully reformat the hard drive, but I wasn't able to complete the fresh install of XP after I formatted it -- it froze before it got that far. I've tried a few times, but the prospect of finishing an install before it freezes seems rather unlikely at this point. I figured that since I did wipe the hard drive, if it was a virus, it would likely go with it. So I doubt that that's the problem, but maybe I'm wrong on that (but I run a good hardware firewall, and I never open attachments or do a lot of the stupid things people usually do to get a virus/trojan). I've tried disconnecting and reconnecting the RAM module as well as the hard drive. The sound is just the vanilla on-board variety, so there's nothing to do there. I haven't opened it up all the way, though, so I haven't had a chance to get at the Radeon video card that came with it, but I'm skeptical of the utility in doing so. I haven't altered any of the hardware since I bought it. I'm far better with the software side of things than the hardware, and I don't want to spend a lot of money fixing this thing. I would have trouble paying more than a few hundred dollars, and I don't want to spend money on experimental I-hope-this-works type repairs. If it's an expensive repair, or likely to be one, I'd rather buy a new machine altogether. Thanks for the help, though. I'll tinker a bit, if I can get it up and running. I haven't yet priced a new power supply, so I don't know what to expect there, price-wise. I'm guessing that a new mobo wouldn't be cheap, though.
  • Laptop disk drives wear out with much the same symptoms that you're reporting. Try replacing the drive.
  • One possible cause: an insect or layer of dust on one of the circuit boards. These things happen.
  • It could definitely be a fan issue. Sometimes a defective fan will die after a while of operation, or will work at a much-reduced capacity. Also, the video card may have a separate fan on its processor (especially if it's a fancier-type 3d card), which can also fail.
  • I'd try a new power supply but sounds to me like a hard drive problem.
  • First: Compaq laptop There's your problem. In my experience, Compaqs seem to last about 2 or 3 years before there is a mysterious explosion/crash type thing. Of course, most of my experience is with the desktops, so I could be mistaken. If you can recover your memory, you may want to consider just getting a new system, since most places I know of will charge you over $100 just to look at the computer.
  • I guess I'm pretty lucky. My Armada 7700 is still alive and kicking.
  • I'm thinking a hard drive problem, too. But the memory test with the floppy isn't all that promising. You might want to check an online retailer like New Egg, or even Ebay for a compatible drive to replace it. If you can boot into the BIOS, take a look at the System Status... it will show you the current system temp, which should be under full load. If your laptop dumps in the BIOS, it's not the hard drive... could be RAM, but is more likely an issue with the motherboard or the power supply.
  • compaq. if they're shipping them out like HP did (considering they're the same beast, pretty much) it came with a system restore disc, yes? worth a shot, as it ought to have some test utilities on it. and knoppix. really. try it. runs from RAM, so if your hard disk is crap you can still run it and test the rest of your system hardware. however my HP laptop refuses to boot from the latest knoppix build, so YMMV. give it a shot. and "buy a mac" isn't that helpful. some people really don't like them, folks. seriously. they're pretty and all but i like windows and i'm sure there are lots of others who do as well, as weird as it may sound.
  • I was going to recommend a mac as well. I support windows at work and use a mac at home. I won't start in, but the difference is striking for me. Caution Live Frogs- This is suprising to me. I haven't really heard from anyone who has tried them and not liked them, so thanks for causing me to think about that. However, I think the "get a mac" comments were solicited by Smo's mention of Apple as a consideration in the original post.
  • Please hope me....hmmmmm ;)
  • It's likely that you have a dead disk on your hands. This would be indicated by a clicking sound coming from the area of the hard disk. It's not uncommon for laptop makers, particularly compaq, to use disks with crappy plastic springs for the reader heads that can weaken and slip with use. If you have a dead disk, there's nothing you can do to fix it. You can replace it, but your starting point is a 2 year old compaq, so I'd say "Get a Mac".
  • I'd have to agree with the consensus that it is most likely the harddrive that is causing your problems. The indicator would be that reimaging is not working, you can't boot into an OS. I work on the technical support side for a University that runs a full laptop program and this is our number 1 hardware issue. Bottom line, Harddrives have life expectancy (although unfortunately you don't know til they are dead how long they will last!). Especially big companies like Dell, HP, Compaq, and Toshiba have many issues with harddrives because of the sheer quantity of laptops they are producing. The inexpensive option would be to call Compaq and order a new harddrive. You would probably be looking at spending $100. Installation can sometimes be done over the phone easily (as is the case here with some Dell models) but it's possible you might need to pay a tech to put it in for you. The more expensive option is just to spring for an entirely new laptop. Yeah, macs are great and all, but you really just have to decide for yourself. Sometimes you trade functionality (or should I say EASE of functionality) with Windows for the stability of a Mac. So it's something to think about. PS: Don't be discouraged about putting a new harddrive in a 2 year old laptop. If you're looking to upgrade a bit a new harddrive, perhaps and extra stick of memory to bump it up to 512mb, and maybe a new video card and you would have yourself a pretty nice laptop indeed. It's all a matter of how much you are will to spend upgrading as opposed to just junking it and buying a new one. And I've just realized that I've rambled way to much so I'll end on that note.
  • Your computer (specifically the CPU) is overheating. I lost two of them in one week to faulty cpu fans. The fans stopped and exhibited the exact same symptoms as you are describing. I would guess that if you turned it off for the night it would work slightly better for the first 5-10 minutes (depending on how many other high heat items you have in there). As I said I went 3 weeks trying everything to fix mine before I looked at the cpu fan... it actually melted the cpu into the slots and couldn't be removed. The second one 3 days later I cought, but never trusted again.
  • Compaq tech support is next to useless, by the way. You guys are way better. I really appreciate the help and advice. Okay. I hopped onto the Knoppix torrent, burnt it to a CD, and tried to run the memory test and get into the OS. I was able to run the test after much difficulty, and it came up clean. But I wasn't able to get into Knoppix itself before the machine froze up. (I had never actually used any version of Linux, but from the limited experimenting I've just done in the last few hours on another computer, I have to say that the OS is a lot less scary than I thought). So: not the hard drive or the memory, most likely. From here, it sounds like I'm looking at the power supply or the CPU, as Balthazar suggested. It does work a bit better after a rest, but it seems to run a little better after I work it a bit as well. Anyway, I guess my next step is to open it up and take a look inside. Thanks again.