Since my last request like this was successful, I'm here to plead for computer help again.
Anyone know about diagnosing a laptop that won't boot? Two nights ago my 1.5 year old Compaq laptop running XP Home slows to a crawl and then I get the dreaded BSOD. It was late and the reboot was taking a while, so I just shut down and went to bed. Unfortunately, I shut it down before the memory dump was complete. I hope that I don't regret that later.
Last night, after midweek, I fired it back up again. It was slow to boot, and it ran a check disk before I got to the log in screen. The check disk revealed some errors, but I wasn't able to read everything before it went on to finish booting. I don't think they were errors with the physical disk, but I don't know. After that, it came up fine, but slowly. I was able to work for an hour or so. Then while it was just sitting there (I was watching TV at the same time), I got another BSOD. Uh-oh.
Then it would not re-boot. It tried for a while and then came up to the black screen saying that Windows failed to boot successfully and giving choices for Last Known Good, Safe Mode, etc. I tried Last Known Good, twice, but it failed each time. So I tried Safe Mode With Networking and that failed too. Since each attempt took awhile and it was now after midnight, I powered it down and went to bed.
At a two of the reboots (there were at least 3 attempts, probably more) I got a repeated text error message about the onboard NIC and to check the cable. This repeated several times and I ended up shutting it down as it seemed to be stuck in an endless loop.
I haven't installed any new software recently, the only recent changes to the system are Windows updates. I run AVG free anti-virus which updates every day and the free version of Zone Alarm for a firewall. I'm behind one update on Zone Alarm, its been bugging me to update it for a week or two. Neither has reported anything suspicious. Based on that I'm guessing its a hardware issue.
So, tonight after I get home I'll try again. I have a couple of theories, based on that NIC error message and on my gut (scary 'cause I don't have any idea what I'm doing).
- Bad fan resulting in heat buildup. That would explain why it worked for a while and then quit only after it got hot last night. If this is the case, I would expect it to boot fine tonight and run for a while. If it does, I'll be sure to listen for the fan to kick on.
- Bad on board NIC. This is only because of that error message I got. If it fails to boot again, I may get inside and unplug or remove the NIC and see if that helps. I rarely use it, I connect to my home network wirelessly.
Forgot to mention. All of this was on outlet power. My battery has given up on me and is only good for 10-15 minutes at best, so I'm now tethered to the wall.
Since it seems you're taking stabs in the dark: If you still think it's heat and the fan seems fine, it could also be dust. This is the perfect time of year to open 'er up and really blow that sucker out with some canned air, since the high humidity will keep static down...
We just moved into a new (new to us, that is) house. Since everything was apart anyway, I opened our desktop computers up, took them outside, and my leaf blower blew more dust out of them than Lubbock in a windstorm.
Hmm. It booted up just fine, no safe mode or anything, and I'm typing on it right now. We'll see how long it runs. Oh, and I just heard the fan kick on.
20 minutes. But it's back up again now. I did notice that there are 2 fan openings in the bottom, only one is pulling any air. I've read as well that there are suposed to be 2 fans in the laptop. Maybe I was on to something after all ...
heat overloads won't show up on a cold system boot--they take several minutes to occur. I recommend checking your system management log for errors. Right click on "My Computer", select "manage". Once the management console launches, open the "event viewer" tree. Three types of system logs exist: system, application, and security. Given the behavior, you are probably dealing with a hardware or OS issue, which would show up in the "system" tree. Look for errors with a yellow triangle and exclamation point. Double click on them and try to get a sense, from the error description, what is going on.
I suspect you have a hard drive failure in progress, but this is just a suspicion.
how come I don't get posting notifications anymore? Am I being shunned? :(
sorry for the triple post: it's the critical error messages (indicated by a red circle with an "X") that you are really interested in, particularly those that occur in close temporal proximity to your BSOD events. Right before a hard crash in XP there will usually be at least one entry of this type. If it's a "delayed write failure," then your hard disk is toast.
You're not getting them again? I get them every time. Hmmm. Have to look into that
I have gotten 'delayed write failure' messages in the lower right with no BSOD before, but those referred to a network drive.
I've browsed the log and there are indeed several red X's near the time of the BSOD's. Almost all of them are this:
IDE means hard drive, or CD-ROM. I'm not using the CD-ROM at the time, so ...Thankfully, all my data but my Outlook data file is on another PC and is backed up nightly.
port 0 on IDE is almost always the primary master, which would be your hard disk. It's possible that it is simply a loose IDE cable on the drive, particularly if the laptop was recently subjected to a high g shock. But more likely it's the drive dying. If you can keep it running long enough to run a drive test, there is a freeware utility I use called HDTune that will pull the SMART data off the drive. If the drive is failing there will be one or several SMART parameters that are in the "poor" zone. There are some types of HDD failures that don't even register with SMART, though. At least 2.5" drives are pretty cheap and easy to install yourself!
http://www.hdtune.com/
Thanks, I downloaded that and it showed 'OK' in the 'health status' and no damaged sectors after a 'quick' error scan.
I've got several HD test on my laptop from Compaq too, 2 BIOS based and one over the web. The HD passed all the tests.
I also downloaded SpeedFan which will give me access to the internal temps and more. It is able to access the same data as HD tune too.
As I type this, all the internal temps are showing 102C! The HD temp is 48C. I have no idea how accurate that is. The laptops been on and mostly idle for about 2 hours. I'll let it cool off for a while and check it again.
the internal temps are motherboard specific--some software cannot correctly read the sensors on some motherboards. If it were truly at 102C--above boiling--you couldn't hold it on your lap and the processor would be molten (most experience irreversible damage around 75 C). The 48 C reading from the HDD (which is supplied by the disk itself and it probably correct) is normal.
Like I said, some types of HD failures don't show up in the SMART data, especially read/write arm failures. I still think a bad disk is your most likely problem, although it could be an intermittently bad IDE controller on the motherboard. Never seen one of those, but it's possible.
Yeah, after I though about it a bit I figured that couldn't be right. After sitting off for a couple hours and rebooting it still shows 102C for most temps. There is one showing 41C and the HD is up to 48C again. According to this site and several others like it, the max for this specific drive (TOSHIBA MK6025GAS) is 55C, so like you said I'm OK there. SpeedFan's info said the max for this drive was 50C, which had me wondering.
So far, no lockups tonight. Guess it's time to get back to better blog topics. :-)
If you have any way to perform a backup, I'd suggest you do that immediately. At least, copy off the individual files you need to a CD or another computer. The problem may be heat or it may be software / hard drive. In either case your computer's remaining days may be limited.
Yeah, I'm doing that. It still runs but it seems that it won't at some time. I've got a 3 computer network here and we have all our data on one 'data only' drive on one PC. That drive gets backed up to a USB 2.0 HD nightly. The only thing of value on the laptop is my Otulook data file and I've backed it up already. At most, I'll loose a few emails at this point.
Time to price a new HD as it seems that it's failing, even though it passes all the tests. After every crash, the errors are HD related.
Well, I think it's toast. Trying to boot it up and I'm getting 'Delayed Write Failed' messages and it's taking forever. I'm hoping I can get access one more time to get the latest Outlook file as the back up I have is a day or two old.
Notebook drives area a little pricey. 60 GB for about $100. PLus I get the joy of reinstalling XP and all my other software as well as re-setting all my configurations.
Oh boy!
Newegg has a nice 40 GB toshiba for $60.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822149039
If your lappie came with a restore CD, reinstalling XP should be a one step process: boot to CD and select full restore. It will run amazingly fast with a clean install!