FIX: Laptop Hardware Problems

Posted At : January 4, 2008 1:24 PM | Posted By : Chris Schofield
Related Categories: Hardware

I recently blogged about how my Dell laptop was starting to act strange by not recognizing the hard drive and excessive heat problems. While I couldn't figure out how to resolve the heat issue, I did manage to fix the majority of other problems.

First, to fix the problem of multiple errors and the laptop not recognizing the operating system, I reinstalled Windows. That was easily accomplished by simply insterting the Windows XP CD and running it from boot. Then I proceeded as if I was installing Windows (do not use the restore option). Then I repaired Windows. This will overwrite the current windows files and replace them with the files from the CD. The problem with this is now you have to install all of the patches for Windows. When Windows attempts to do this almost all of the updates fail due to the updater (which was reinstalled) not being registered with Windows. I'll post the link when I find it again. Sorry. The updater worked fine after that.

After installing all of the updates, I proceeded to uninstall all programs that I did not use. You should be careful when doing this as you don't want to remove any programs that your system needs to run.

Then I ran the disk clenaup in the Accessories folder in the Windows Start Menu. This removed nearly 1GB of unnecessary data.

Ran disk defragmenter again and now I have my screaming machine back to normal. It even boots up faster than ever before. Amazing what happens when you clean things up. It's a wonder why I never listend to my Mom about cleaning my room?

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Laptop Hardware Problems

Posted At : December 5, 2007 9:14 AM | Posted By : Chris Schofield
Related Categories: Hardware

I have a Dell laptop that, until now, has treated me well for almost 2 years. Sometimes when starting up, some BIOS screen appears stating that it cannot detect any boot disks. Clearly, the hard drive is still installed, but is not recognized. Also, the infamous blue screen of death has randomly appeared several times over the past few weeks. Recent thoughts run across my mind about losing all of my invaluable data. Thankfully, I use MozyHome for backing up the essentials, although I've never restored files with MozyHome. That makes me nervous. The errors from the blue screen of death made me suspect that either the RAM is bad or Windows has been corrupted. So, after searching the error messages through the developers best friend, Google, I found that it could either be corrupted Windows files, a virus, bad RAM, or hard drive problem.

Now, I ordered the RAM from Crucial a few months ago. So, while it may not be logical, I don't think its the RAM. The main suspect is the hard drive. This is because if it was a Windows file corruption I would expect the errors to be more consistent. While that may be giving Windows more credit to consistency than it deserves, I'm no expert and thus I have to follow my gut.

Another reason why I suspect the hard drive is due to some heat generation. Last night I started up the laptop and it worked fine. So I was able to backup everything I needed onto a flash drive. But I noticed that after a few minutes, the hard drive was hot! At first I thought it was the battery. After checking it I confirmed it to be the hard drive! I shutdown the laptop and pulled out the hard drive and it was almost too hot to handle. That just doesn't seem right.

I'll first try replacing the hard drive. Dell sells them for about $125. The problem is I can't find my Windows XP disks to reinstall Windows if I get a new hard drive. But I could just buy some disks, or borrow someone elses. I still have my product key. More to come as the saga continues.

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