Laptop Woes Constantly crashing... why?

[Grafitti 0]

This is more out of curiosity, since i've already sent my laptop in to the store for repair, but they're not that adept at pinpointing the exact causes of problems sometimes, and so i'd like to get other people's input on what it could be. Basically it's a laptop that i've used heavily for around 3 years, the presario 2500 series, which I've found has a reputation for overheating. --yes, i've definintely found that to be true. I upgraded the memory to 1 GB (2x512) a couple years ago, and it seemed to be working ok all that time. Now: it randomly freezes. nothing will move, no buttons work except the power button, or pulling out the battery. the screen stays normal most of the time, but when this freezing happens one pixel line of the mouse cursor starts flickering. or if it's not freezing, anywhere from right when it's logging on to 5 or 10 minutes later, i get a BSOD with different messages. Sometimes it says IRQ NOT LESS OR EQUAL, or PAGE FAULT IN NON PAGED AREA, or WIN32K.SYS ERROR. Then, when i power off, and reboot, the fans go on, the lights come on for a second, but then nothing more happens. screen stays dead, hard disk doesn't start, nothing. I have to open the ram cover, pull out the chips and stick them back in, and then it will start up again as if nothing happened, until it freezes or BSODs again. i've tried single chips, in either slot, and i get the same problems each time. Then the last couple of days, it would only boot into safe mode, it sometimes refused to boot windows (running XP Pro) with a different file error each time. Once it'll be ntfs.sys is corrupted. so i turn it off and boot up 10 minutes later and it works fine. Then the next time it crashes it has a config.sys error. So I don't get if it's a hardware or software based error. the first set of problems had me convinced it was hardware-related, but the second batch of problems seem software based. I have issues with the BIOS as well. it's a Phoenix bios, and had basically no troubleshooting-related settings, or anything except changing the boot order and sticking a password in.

[Omkar™ 0]

Oh, Grafitti, those woes must be really anoying then !

 

Since you're working with Windows, I'd be glad to diagnose it as a virus attack. No, that's not just an amateur comment. You most probably have a memory-resistant worm in your PC. And worse still, it has affected the MBR of your Hard-disk(s). I see no reason why the virus should remain in the RAM after you power OFF, but in your case, if un-plugging the RAM chips works, then you might be having some trouble with your motherboard power management. This means that your RAM chips are still getting power when you 'power off' your laptop. Hence, even removing the batteries should solve the problem (temporarily! )

 

Its not very convenient to diangnose your problem as hardware-based or software-based. But as per my calculations, if its a virus, then its obviously software-related. It wouldn't be any use doing a virus-scan (If you can do it, anyway ) since it would be memory-resident and your scanner wouldn't be able to do anything about it! The solution I recommend is to check whether your laptop works with a different hard disk. If it does, you can erase the MBR of your hard-disk to keep the virus during boot-up and then quarantine it using a scanner.

 

I understand that having fatal problems with your laptop when you've got work to do can be very annoying So three cheers if your repairman can fix it, if not try my solution. I can help you out more if you're stuck with no one to fix it, since I have tackled MBR-related virii myself, better than technicians, on my friends' PCs. Hope you got your work going on standby resources!

[yordan 10]

I would use a very experemintel method. I suggest you boot on the Knoppix Live CD, and try working a couple of hours, mainly surfing the web or writing down some text files or viewing jpg pictures.If your system does not freeze, if it works perfectly during several hours, then, this means that you probably have a software issue.Then, probably, simply formatting the hard disk and re-installing windows from scratch will solve everything.

[Omkar™ 0]

See the extreme effect of virus-makes, that team up with Microsoft? We all have the habbit of associating virii on Windows with a hard disk formatting!And starting from scratch installing Windows (That too XP Pro) is not a peice of cake, Yordan. It takes the whole day and at the end you're still unsatisfied since you got to put on a whole lot of 'starter' software before you can get started working on it! So, if you can work with another OS just fine, then I'd suggest you keep it till you can!

Edited September 7, 2006 by Omkar™ (see edit history)

[Grafitti 0]

Oh, Grafitti, those woes must be really anoying then !

Since you're working with Windows, I'd be glad to diagnose it as a virus attack. No, that's not just an amateur comment. You most probably have a memory-resistant worm in your PC. And worse still, it has affected the MBR of your Hard-disk(s). I see no reason why the virus should remain in the RAM after you power OFF, but in your case, if un-plugging the RAM chips works, then you might be having some trouble with your motherboard power management. This means that your RAM chips are still getting power when you 'power off' your laptop. Hence, even removing the batteries should solve the problem (temporarily! )

 

Its not very convenient to diangnose your problem as hardware-based or software-based. But as per my calculations, if its a virus, then its obviously software-related. It wouldn't be any use doing a virus-scan (If you can do it, anyway ) since it would be memory-resident and your scanner wouldn't be able to do anything about it! The solution I recommend is to check whether your laptop works with a different hard disk. If it does, you can erase the MBR of your hard-disk to keep the virus during boot-up and then quarantine it using a scanner.

 

I understand that having fatal problems with your laptop when you've got work to do can be very annoying So three cheers if your repairman can fix it, if not try my solution. I can help you out more if you're stuck with no one to fix it, since I have tackled MBR-related virii myself, better than technicians, on my friends' PCs. Hope you got your work going on standby resources!

 

I wondered about that, but since i have to disconnect the adapter AND remove the battery before my "chip pulling" technique does any good, i'm leaning towards it being hardware-based. Not that i entirely rule out a virus infection. with windows, it's easier than any other system for that to be the problem. One other point of interest though. I don't have another hard disk to try out, but when i first bought it i did, and it refused to boot off the other hard disk. tried it in several other computers and it worked perfectly. Also it occasionally had issues with waking up when in standby. luckily i have 2 desktop computers to work on still, but no more travelling and working at the same time. I also use PGP whole disk encryption, zonealarm firewall, and NOD32 antivirus, so i'd be rather unhappy if it turns out to be a virus.

News! I don't have the option anymore to try Knoppix, and i'm sure glad i made a backup of my hard disk before i sent it in, as i just found out the technician wiped the hard drive to see if that was the source of the problem.

Though Omkar, I agree with Yordan, that once a windows system has been infected, even if it's cleaned, it's often more of a hassle to bother fixing all the things the virus messed up than installing from scratch. i have an easy way, have an 80GB that i've pre-loaded with all latest patches, programs, everything in top shape. when i need to reformat someone's computer, i back up their crucial data and simply duplicate my good drive onto theirs, and then copy the data back. a couple hours, and no more installing 50 different programs after you finally got through with installing windows.

Edited September 7, 2006 by Grafitti (see edit history)

[yordan 10]

We all have the habbit of associating virii on Windows with a hard disk formatting!

I just wanted to make the difference between hardware problems and software problems.Booting on a Live-CD, if successful, shows that there are no hardware problems.
Then, we knowh that software problems have to be solved.
Re-installing is one solution, not the only one, but sometimes the most efficient one. And installing from a recovery CD sometimes needs no more than half an hour for a basic install.
And maybe a working basic install is more interesting than a failing system.

[Grafitti 0]

Yes, reinstalling is sometimes the most time-efficient solution. In any case, I'm planning to sell the laptop once it's repaired. I've been offered $500 for it, and I'm willing to go a year without a laptop till i've got enough saved up for a new one.