Laptop Freezes and Clock Stops

[pradnie]

Since few days ago, my Dell Inspiron 6400 laptop has been freezing. This is how it goes.
I start the laptop, after 15 minutes, the clock stops and laptop freezes. Then I restart it manually. Again same thing happens. Strangely I do not get an error message that says the computer was restarted improperly and needs to run a scan/check disks. It goes start to restarting normally.

So what I did was changed the CMOS battery. Took the power battery out and plugged it start with the AC adapter. Again the clock stopped after about 20 minutes this time. The cursor moves for a while but if I insist on opening some programs, the laptop beeps continuously and I need to shut it down manually.

I have all my work on this computer and need to have it working. Any help would be appreciated, please.

Virginie

 

[BadBigBen]

Could be HEAT (thermal) issues, where the safeguards are activated and the CPU is stopped...

usually this is due to dust buildup on the fan intake or exhaust, causing no cooling of the build in CPU...

a thorough cleaning should get you back up and running...

just in case though make backups of your DATA now, while you still have the chance, before the laptop dies, incase the above thermal issue is not the problem...


Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[kjv1611]

Also, when you're backing your data up, I'd suggest trying to give as much ventilation to your laptop as possible. So for instance, for now, just avoid using it on your lap. Keep it on a hard surface - not a bed or couch or anything like that. If you have any sort of table fan, it wouldn't hurt to figure out where the main intake(s) is(are), and blow the fan on that direction. That way, if it is a heat issue, it may give you a little more time to get your data backed up.

A couple other pointers during this time: If you can back your data up while in Safe Mode, do that - less stuff will be running, therefore less heat. Also, if you're backing up to a USB drive, you don't need the network connection - if you can, make sure the wireless network connection is turned off - wireless switch on the laptop if you have one. But of course, if you do Safe Mode (not with networking), it should be disabled anyway.

 

[pradnie]

I managed to open my laptop to see if there was anything wrong with the fan. Strangely when I turn the laptop on, the fan does not spin. Should not it spin just like in a desktop?

I touched the hard-drive and I could feel and hear it working. So I guess everything is fine with the harddrive.

Now I guess the problem was with overheating, so I need to change the fan.

What do you guys think?

 

[kjv1611]

Yeah, more than likely, that means the fan is gone, and definitely needs be replaced. Hopefully the CPU isn't damaged. If you can find a cheap replacement fan, say on ebay or something, then that'd be a good way to go. But if you can't easily find it, and there is some decent age on the laptop, it may be time to pull the drive, and look for a new(er) laptop, then just transfer your data... just a thought, anyway.. of course all that does strongly depend upon your own budget and desire.

 

[Sympology]

Before doing that.. try something like this.

http://www.almico.com/sfdownload.php

(Disclamier I have never tried it, it's merely an example, what to look for, could be riddled with spyware for I know)

Not all laptops spin the fans up at boot. It's a way of reserving power.

Robert Wilensky:
We've all heard that a million monkeys banging on a million typewriters will eventually reproduce the entire works of Shakespeare. Now, thanks to the Internet, we know this is not true.

 

[pradnie]

What I did was, I got my house fan blowing some cool wind close to my opened laptop. The laptop kept running for more than 30 minutes without freezing. It used to freeze after about 10 minutes before. So I was persuaded that it was the fan that died and I have now ordered a new one. Once it arrives I will let you guys know.
Thanks for the advice.

 

[kjv1611]

Yeah, that's a pretty good test, and pretty good evidence of the issue for sure.

Let us know of the progress, and again if not already done (and if important to you at all), back the data up somewhere if at all possible. I'd probably pull the hard drive out, and connect to another computer to backup. That'd be especially easy and simple to do if it's a SATA drive. If it's ATA-6, you'll need a converter to attach it to a desktop.

I use this particular one very often:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...&cm_re=usb_to_sata_ide-_-12-156-102-_-Product

I've actually got 3 of them, currently, b/c I'm really bad about misplacing things, AND I've even used at least 2 of them at the same time on at least one or two occasions. I've even used it to connect a standard DVD burner to a system that didn't have an optical drive, or where the optical drive was bad (laptop), and I didn't have any that would fit it... of course it's meant to be temporary.

 

[pradnie]

Hello,
I got my new laptop fan, and I replaced the old one with it. Surprisingly, it did not spin at the boot up either. I went to BIOS to see if I could find a way to make it work and also to check my computer's temperature, but it was not listed there.
So now I have the same problem. The computer boots up, and if do not use it then it runs for about 15-20 minutes before the clock stops. But I try to use it, it just freezes. The mouse moves and after few seconds I get a loud, annoying consistent beep from the laptop and I have to manually shut it down.
Please help.

 

[BadBigBen]

it sounds like a total hardware failure...

probably only thing left to do would be to either get a new laptop or have a professional shop look at it (costly and they would probably tell you to get a new one anyway)...


Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[pradnie]

That is what I thought too. I have already backed-up all the data on an external hard drive.
But the strange thing is, I have started the laptop on safe mode and it runs perfectly fine. It does not freeze nor does the clock stop. So what could be causing this problem?

 

[kjv1611]

Well your previous symptoms seemed to say hardware, but if it's running okay in safe mode (still could be hardware - less of a load on the hardware in safe mode), and it could be a driver issue or malware infection.

So if you loaded your system up to the BIOS, what does it do? No problems there? If no problems at BIOS, then perhaps it's just a software issue.

If you want to really make sure that's all it is, without investigating the specific cause, then you can do this:

1. Wipe the hard drive clean to be sure everything is gone - assuming you have a Windows install disk, not just a restore partition. You can use DBAN or Active KillDisk from the

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com

2. Reinstall Windows.

3. Get Windows up to date

4. Install a good AV program - Avira Antivir or MS Security Essentials would be my first pick, followed by Avast! or AVG.

5. Install a good firewall if you can put up with some of the pop-ups asking for allowing access - lots of protection, but until you get used to the pop-ups and what they mean, a little annoying. Best in the business are Comodo Internet Security and Online Armor.

6. Install a couple antispyware/antimalware apps - Malwarebytes Antimalware - in case you do ever need it; SuperAntiSpyware - same, but does offer some real time protection in the free version, SpywareBlaster - just good for protecting system settings, and/or of course if you have your own preferences.

Whatever you end up doing, let us know.

 

[BadBigBen]

I have started the laptop on safe mode and it runs perfectly fine.

as KJV mentioned it could still be hardware, in Safemode most drivers are not loaded (except rudimentary windows versions, e.g. VGA mode) , and thus lots of hardware pieces are not activated when the OS comes up...

if you had mentioned this piece of info earlier, it might have saved you some money, ergo you would not have bought the fan...

now follow KJV's instructions on wiping the HDD and reinstalling the OS, but before hand make sure you have all the drivers from the manufacturers website (Dell or the hardware piece manufacturer, e.g. RealTek, nVidia, AMD etc.) so that you do not have to go scrounging around for them...

keep us posted...

PS: good that you backed up your stuff, most people forget this part and then are out of their minds when all fails...



Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[pradnie]

Well, I can get to the BIOS without any problem.
Anyway I am going to reinstall XP again and see if the problem disappears. I will keep you guys updated after this weekend.
Thank you everyone.

 

[kjv1611]

Be sure to WIPE the hard drive first to be absolutely certain nothing is left to cause any issues if it's software related or possibly malware/virus related. Using ActiveKillDisk or DBAN will MAKE SURE there are no software possibilities left.

In your situation, I wouldn't leave it to the Windows installer format utility.

 

[pradnie]

Ok, I tried to reformat my drives and ran into some problems.
First of all, as Kjv1611 has suggested, I tried to download both ActiveKillDisk and DBAN and run it, but my laptop froze.
So I followed the old traditional way.
I inserted my Win XP CD, and ran the setup.
My drive is partitioned into 2 drives. So I reformatted the smaller of the 2 partitions (Drive D), and installed windows there. Then I tried to reformat the main partition (Drive C, where all the files, old Win XP files, Program files etc) are located. And it did not let me wipe it off.
So I booted my computer (the new XP install) and from Command line I tried again. It looked at it was formatting. It goes all the way to 100 percent then it gives a message saying "System Partition is not allowed to be formatted."

What did I do wrong? I do not mind restarting all over again, if that could solve it. Please give me some step-to-step advice?

I thought programming was harder

Thanks.

 

[BadBigBen]

It surprises me that DBAN would freeze, while Windows Setup would work...

and the behavior is correct, in that you are not allowed to format the system partition (C, even if the install is on D:, reason is that the BOOT LOADER is on the C: partition...

to get around that, I would suggest you download Parted Magic, burn it to CD, boot from it and use the tool GPARTED to repartition the drive...

Parted Magic

http://partedmagic.com/

Using GParted

http://partedmagic.com/documentation/119-using-gparted.html

Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[pradnie]

Hey BadBigBen,
GPARTED was awesome. It worked like a charm. Thanks for the info.
However, now each time I insert a DVD, my windows media player asks for a decoder. I remember installing some kind of free decoder long time ago, but I cannot recall. Would someone know where I can get free decoder so that the DVD will play?
Thanks everyone.

 

[BadBigBen]

Jep, download the following Codec Package (it is safe and I use it also) it has all the codecs you will ever need...

K-Lite Mega Codec Pack

http://www.free-codecs.com/download/K_Lite_Mega_Codec_Pack.htm

Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[kjv1611]

pradnie,

Also, you can try an alternative media player that doesn't require any codec packages.

For instance, my current favorite for EVERYTHING is The KMPlayer. Before I found out about that one, my favorite was VLC, but KMPlayer is AMAZING. It doesn't look like much when you first open it, but it can play everything, has tons of options, and handles hi-def with no sweat.

For an example: On a machine running an early SATA 80GB hard drive, onboard graphics, Sempron 2600+ CPU, Biostar cheapie motherboard, every time I tried to play any hi-def content via Windows Media Player or VLC or anything else, most could crash the system. Oh, OS was XP.

I tried out KMPlayer (The K Media Player) - I tried it with the same identical hi-def content that crashed the system before, and it ran perfectly. I could skip around in the video file, and it gave no issues.

If you have a more modern and/or more powerful setup than that, then it'll definitely run with no issues, since it did on that one.

Actually, I first found out about it when I was trying out the nifty online app installer at

http://www.ninite.com

which is also worth looking at - it's free for home use.