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2007-07-19 23:33:55
cospengle
Member
+140|6960|Armidale, NSW, Australia
I have a laptop (Toshiba Satellite M50). It was woking fine for the first 13 months (12 month warranty - lol@me), but now it has developed a problem. I thought it might have been a virus so I did a reinstall using the recovery ROM. It works fine for a little while, but after a couple of hours it starts to slow down and eventually gets to the point where I can't even close open the menu bar or open/close any windows. This happens every time I do a reinstall (about 5 times so far).

The last time I did a reinstall I did it with the wireless turned off (to make sure it couldn't be a virus. I watched a DVD for about an hour before turning it off, then this morning I ran the Norton Antivirus Setup (Norton comes on the recovery disc). I installed Norton and did the updates (had to turn on the network card obviously). I did a full system scan while I was at work and came home to find no viruses found - no shit. But then when I tried to close Norton it went slow again like before and then I got the "explorer has encountered a problem and has to close down" message. Now I can Alt+Ctrl+Del and Task Manager opens fine and I can move the window around with no slowness at all. I just don't have any icons or start menu. If I try to run explorer from the Task Manager it closes with the error straight away. If I restart I get the explorer error straight after windows loads.

To me it sounds like the HDD might be on the way out because it only happens after a while, but I ran chkdsk (I can open cmd.exe from task manager) and there were no errors.

any ideas?

EDIT: Memtest86 is showing no errors.

Last edited by cospengle (2007-07-19 23:59:18)

2007-07-19 23:51:03
Mitch92uK
aka [DBS]Mitch92uK
+192|6708|United Kingdom
possible overheating cos? Just the way you say after a few hours - ie. when some component reaches it's max temp. and starts overheating?

Reformat>Reinstall - unless you recovery CD is a fresh copy of windows try reformatting rather then using the recovery disk

How many processes? Your CPU and 512mb RAM may be struggling to cope ... i'd recommend reformatting or disabling as many startup programs as possible

Hope that helped

mitch
2007-07-20 00:05:14
cospengle
Member
+140|6960|Armidale, NSW, Australia
Thanks Mitch. I though the recovery CD would be the same as reformatting, but I'll try that next.

As for overheating, I thought maybe it's just filled up with dust after a while. But it seems to do strange things even when I first turn it on for the day, though it also seems to get worse after I've had it going for a while. I don't know much about laptops so I didn't want to pullit to bits to find out in case I can't get it back together (but if it's broken anyway...)

It's running about 30 processes, but as I said it was running fine for 13 months with the same stuff (or even more) running. So I think the software is OK.

I'll check for dust, do a full reformat and get back to you.
2007-07-20 00:06:08
Cheez
Herman is a warmaphrodite
+1,027|6911|King Of The Islands

mitch212k_2 wrote:

Reformat>Reinstall - unless you recovery CD is a fresh copy of windows try reformatting rather then using the recovery disk
If its anything like my Toshiba (A10 piece of crap), it uses Norton Ghost to blank the drive and start again, ie Reformat. Unless they've introduced a 'non-destructive' recovery.

If that's all you've been using (non destructive, that is), try backing up your data and doing a wipe if you never figure our what's going on.

Last edited by Cheez (2007-07-20 00:08:30)

My state was founded by Batman. Your opinion is invalid.
2007-07-20 00:11:56
Mitch92uK
aka [DBS]Mitch92uK
+192|6708|United Kingdom

cospengle wrote:

Thanks Mitch. I though the recovery CD would be the same as reformatting, but I'll try that next.

As for overheating, I thought maybe it's just filled up with dust after a while. But it seems to do strange things even when I first turn it on for the day, though it also seems to get worse after I've had it going for a while. I don't know much about laptops so I didn't want to pullit to bits to find out in case I can't get it back together (but if it's broken anyway...)

It's running about 30 processes, but as I said it was running fine for 13 months with the same stuff (or even more) running. So I think the software is OK.

I'll check for dust, do a full reformat and get back to you.
Np - not sure if you can get the dust out of laptops as i don't own myself - if it's possible definitely give that a go - just be careful!

30 processes doesn't seem too bad.

Try this before reformatting cos : http://www.tune-up.com/download/tu2007/

i use tuneup - loads of smaller programs within that one, it'll let you select what begins at startup as well as checking the registry etc.

Not sure if you mentioned defragging or not, if not you should also try that

Mitch
2007-07-20 00:12:35
cospengle
Member
+140|6960|Armidale, NSW, Australia
I don't have any data on there I want to keep. It was all saved on the network. Which is a first for me lol
2007-07-20 00:14:25
Mitch92uK
aka [DBS]Mitch92uK
+192|6708|United Kingdom
what kind of apps are you running on there cos?

If your CPU's being pushed too hard - mine does it sometimes when vid. editing - you'll get th explorer error
2007-07-20 00:32:25
cospengle
Member
+140|6960|Armidale, NSW, Australia

mitch212k_2 wrote:

what kind of apps are you running on there cos?
The last time all I did after recovery was Norton Antivirus and the DVD player (I forget the name), but not at the same time. The previous few times I just ran Internet Explorer.
2007-07-20 08:13:27
cospengle
Member
+140|6960|Armidale, NSW, Australia

mitch212k_2 wrote:

Np - not sure if you can get the dust out of laptops as i don't own myself - if it's possible definitely give that a go - just be careful!
careful,? Bah, I just completely disassembled my first laptop! AND put it back together . I only had 5 spare screws left over at the end ... very educational, I learned a few things:
1) Laptops DO collect dust (the CPU cooler was choked with it)
2) When you see an asian guy building a laptop, it's not just because they are smarter, it's also because they have little fingers
3) I should have payed for the extra 2 years warranty.
4) I need a new set of screw drivers.

I don't have to worry about dust anymore, but since it's Friday night, reformatting will have to wait for tomorro's hangover

 

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