Help For Laptop Problem

Student Lounge College Life
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<p>So I don’t know where else to ask this, so here goes. And it’s a bit lengthy, so sorry. ;[</p>

<p>I’m having severe laptop problems. I can’t have my laptop on more than five minutes without it completely stopping responding. Like, it just freezes, no matter what I'm doing (just typing on word, on the internet, playing a game, scanning, etc). It was fine last night when I tuned it off, but today when I turned it back on again it started do this. Multiple times. So after shutting down and turning back on a butt ton of times because it kept freezing, the next thing I try to do is a virus scan after I turn it on again. Oh wait! It froze! Joyus. </p>

<p>So, I turned it off then turned it back on (using the power button) then I went into safe mode to see if it was just the basic computer itself. Everything (well, that can run) runs just fine in safe mode. I can open word, type a document, browse the internet, and that’s just fine and dandy. Never froze one while in safe mode. I was expecting that, so I restart. I was going to do a system restore while running windows normally. Now I’m in the process of doing a system restore… only it’s been saying “Preparing to restore your system…” for the past half hour almost. And I’m worried about turning it off to go in to safe mode, and maybe doing a system restore from there, because it said do not turn off your computer during this process… and I don’t want to eff it up more than it is.</p>

<p>So my question for anyone with some knowledge is what could be causing my computer to do this? Should I turn my computer off right now, after it’s trying to restore right now, and just do a system restore from safe mode (even if that’s not reversible)? And if I can’t fix it, should I just go into Best Buy or something and hand it over for them to check it out (I know they mostly ship stuff out anyway because they can’t actually do jack, but I have a warranty with them, so yeah…)?</p>

<p>And two separate times after I restarted it, it went in to this weird scan first thing…I have no idea what the eff it was doing. Checking for errors or something. It was funky, though.</p>

<p>And fyi, I’m on a different laptop right now that I've rented, that’s how I’m writing this. =P</p>

<p>Thanks! Any help is greatly appreciated!</p>

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<p>I’m going to add I have an HP laptop running Windows Vista. Oh and the thing my computer did twice when I restarted it was, well it said, “One of your disks needs to be checked for consistency”. So yeah. :[</p>

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<p>The Disk scan thing might indicate that the hard drive may have some damage. That might be why it’s locking up and thrashing. There is a lot of malware going on right now also. That’s not usually a problem is Vista unless you turn the UAC off. In a normal mode I’d start the task manager (control, alt, delete) and see if the cpu is running at or close to 100%. Best Buy would be a help if it’s hardware related and you have a warranty with them. Otherwise their support costs are quite high. You might want to try a phone call to HP first.</p>

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<p>:\ I really hope it’s not the hard drive. But, maybe this is a stupid question, if it was the hard drive, wouldn’t I have the same issue even in safe mode? Because I didn’t.</p>

<p>I’ve checked the task manager before, and it was normal. Hell, just to check I had it up, and then opened word. As everything froze, it was running at 36% or so.</p>

<p>I think I’m just going to do a system restore from safe mode, and then if that doesn’t work, I’ll do… something else. D:</p>

<p>Thanks, swoosh. :]</p>

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<p>Normally when a drive is checked for consistency it was either shutdown improperly or Windows decided that something is wrong with the drive. That doesn’t usually go away. Try the restore from a safe mode. If it runs fine in a safe mode that makes you believe that it’s software problem. You might want to unplug any other devices (printers etc.) as you want to eliminate as much as possible while you troubleshoot. If the problem is the hard drive you can take it back to Best Buy or Call HP for replacement. I’d ask them for the restore/reinstall disk. If the drive is bad they might give it to you for free. Otherwise it’s like $20 I think. Drives are cheap, like $60 on-line. You would probably want to get it running in a normal mode to backup your documents. USB drives probably won’t work in safe mode.</p>

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<p>ARRGGGHHHH! D: Totally just got the BSOD while trying to run in safe mode, but as I think it’s relevant, I had also plugged in my USB drive to save stuff to. :[ I copied down the technical information. Here’s the first part, since I don’t know if I got the rest correctly: STOP: 0x000000f4 followed by a bunch of other number and letter combinations. I googled it, and it doesn’t looked good… </p>

<p>Well, the consistency thing would make sense since I’ve shut it down improperly every time, since there’s really been no other way to do it. And I guess I lied! Laptop decided to change it’s mind and NOT run in safe mode… I think? I just tried again and it worked… and then it stopped working…</p>

<p>I’ve had nothing else plugged into it other than the USB drive in safe mode the one time.</p>

<p>I don’t get what happened. I turned it off last night and then turned it on this morning. It didn’t work this morning, so while I was sleeping something must’ve happened. :&lt;/p>

<p>I just don’t want to lose all of my notes and pictures and stuff. :[ I need those notes. They’re my life right now. And no, I hadn’t backed it *all *up. I was going to do that this weekend… ;[</p>

<p>Oh. And now it won’t start. It’ll get to the opening logo, and then it’s just a black screen. Damnit.</p>

<p>I guess I’ll head in to Best Buy tomorrow and ask them what they think of it. I have to go get my cell phone fixed anyway. Technology and I have just not been getting along this past week.</p>

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<p>[Connecting</a> a hard disk drive in slave only mode leads to system halt during resume from standby](<a href=“http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;330100]Connecting”>http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;330100)</p>

<p>That won’t be much help to you since this is a laptop. But just to let you know, it’s probably a harddrive issue or a corrupt OS. In either case, you’ll probably lose your data so find a way to back it up if you can. You can always do safe mode with networking and try to email yourself some of the real important stuff.</p>

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<p>So, this thing is bipolar or something. It wasn’t letting me do safe mode at all. Or just starting up normally, and I had all those problems, etc etc. I tried once more in safe mode (with networking) to do what you said BP, and it wouldn’t load. After I selected safe mode, it just stopped at the loading screen then restarted… and now it’s working normally. I’ve had the thing running for over an hour, I’ve been on the Internet, typed up notes, all the regular stuff I was doing before that caused it to stop responding, and it’s been just fine.</p>

<p>I got the chance to back everything I need up, so I did that. I don’t know what I should do next… I don’t want this to happen again, and if it’s a hardware issue, it might (or will)… Should I take it in to Best Buy or something? I have a feeling they’ll just say wait until it happens again, or it’s fine or just not be helpful. :\ I don’t know. That stuff doesn’t happen without a reason, though, and I don’t want it to happen again.</p>

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<p>Call HP. They’ll probably walk you through a reinstall. If they believe it’s hardware then take it to Best Buy. You might be without it for a while. Best Buy won’t fix it for free if it’s software. They’ll probably charge you a couple hundred bucks. The Warranty is only for hardware beyond what you get from HP.</p>