PC driving me mad!

Cerenia

This is an Advent 5401 laptop, less than a year old running Vista, and only came back from repairs about 2 months ago because it was overheating like crazy.

Over the last couple of weeks, its been playing up more and more, IE crashing multiple times, being unable to come out of standby mode without having to physically turn off the laptop and back on, and sometimes everything crases, even IE. I've not installed anything new in the last 2 months, have done full virus scans within the last week, did a full one with Avira yesterday, and its just taken me 15 mins, with 2 PC restarts to get an IE page open and working.

Is there anything simple I can just check or do to help lighten this issue? Tempted to just send it for repair, but need it over xmas Thankyou!

nameless121

i would send it back for repair. but before you could download Speedfan to monitor the temperature to see if its still overheating. you could also try a bios upgrade.

nameless121

also look at these, http://www.user-guides.co.uk/download/advent/advent5401/advent-5401-bios-update.html
a registry cleaner for your laptop can fix some errors

Cerenia

Nope, not very PC literate - last time I went into Safe Mode, I somehow killed my PC Other half's looking at putting me onto windows 7, i think that might be the only way of getting rid of this.

JDPower

Do these errors only happen when laptop is warm? Do you only use it on a solid surface with no vents obstructed? If it's still overheating you could look at getting a cooling pad to sit it on, I had an old laptop that suffered the same way and this saved it and I always have current laptop on the pad just to prevent any future heat damage.
If it was shutting down alot from overheating the OS may be corrupted so you could try running check disk, instructions HERE, but ultimately if that is the case it may require an OS reinstall.

But to cut a long story short, if it's still under warranty send it back for repair (though if it is an OS issue they will just reinstall and send it back leaving you without a laptop for however long they keep it)

(Oh and ignore the previous comment suggesting using a registry cleaner unless you want to potentially make problems much much worse)

Edit: You mentioned running two virus scans, what did you scan with? Have you run a spyware scan, if not try downloading, updating and running Malwarebytes Anti-malware and/or SuperAntispyware

Cerenia

I have SAS, MBAM, Avira, and occasionally do online checks with Kapersky, unless it crashes mid way.

It does it randomly, sometimes when just turnt on, sometimes when getting warmer, thing is, when I got the laptop, I stated I wanted one for 'heavy usage' as my last one would get tempermental after about an hour of usage.

Donnie

Cerenia wrote: »

I have SAS, MBAM, Avira, and occasionally do online checks with Kapersky, unless it crashes mid way.

It does it randomly, sometimes when just turnt on, sometimes when getting warmer, thing is, when I got the laptop, I stated I wanted one for 'heavy usage' as my last one would get tempermental after about an hour of usage.

You really expected to get good technical advice at PC World/Currys?

JDPower

Cerenia wrote: »

It does it randomly, sometimes when just turnt on, sometimes when getting warmer, thing is, when I got the laptop, I stated I wanted one for 'heavy usage' as my last one would get tempermental after about an hour of usage.

And do you use it only on hard surfaces or do you have it sat on your lap/sofa/bed? This would be even more essential with a 'heavy usage' laptop as it will produce considerably more heat.

macman

The fact that you've had 2 with the same problem makes me think that the way you use it must be a factor. Try putting it on a hard surface.

nameless121

JDPower wrote: »

(Oh and ignore the previous comment suggesting using a registry cleaner unless you want to potentially make problems much much worse)

If a registry cleaner has been made for an individual laptop model number then it will be to fix a known problem otherwise I would not have suggested it. Look at the link.

JDPower

nameless121 wrote: »

If a registry cleaner has been made for an individual laptop model number then it will be to fix a known problem otherwise I would not have suggested it. Look at the link.

I did look at the link, that isn't an Advent specific reg cleaner, its a general cleaner that sticks the name from the search result in front of its name (they don't even know it's a laptop!) in the hope of duping people into paying for it.