Help my laptop is ill, any ideas?

spinningsheep

Right, im posting here in the hope that someone knows more about laptops than me, ie nothing!! I bought a Packard Bell Easynote 1004 from Currys in 2006. It is now out of warranty. Up till now, its been fine, but its decided to play up. After its been on for about 30 mins, every programme decides to stop responding. You close the offending programmes, and then it wont let you reopen them. You have to shut down the whole machine and then restart. Obviously no use at all. Also, the fan is pretty much always on, despite me hoovering the slot a few times, and runs painfully slow if i try to anything like open word as well as internet explorer. The upshot is that Currys have said it will cost me about £60 before its even had anything done to it, as an inspection fee, and it may mean the precessor is on the way out. I know nothing about these things, anyone got any ideas?

The other option is I cut my losses and buy a new one with the £750 i can get free through work, and i can claim them for Comet, so ive seen one on their site I quite like, dual core etc etc. Your thoughts please. Thanks.

Bollotom

Why not try System Mechanic 6 first? Google it as it's free and give it a whirl. Others may come up with other progs, but this got mine going again:D

IcyEars

That fact that is it the programs playing up suggests it is a software problem, nothign mechanical.

Ideally, a complete reinstall should fix any problems (if you have the original install discs for Windows XP/Vista/whatever). Rememebr to back up all your data first before you do it as it will wipe everything.

If this isn't an option, try CCCleaner (http://www.ccleaner.com/). It''s free and will clear out some of the rubbish that builds up in systems as they get used. Also, try running a Virus scan and a spyware scan (http://free.grisoft.com/).

Hopefully these will sort out the problems by deleting any unused/corrupted files and any registry issues.

The fact that things are crashing and then not restarting may be putting extra load on the cpu as it is unable to keep up with what it thinks the operating system is asking it to do. If this is the case, it will be working harder and thus producing more heat, which could be why the fan is running more.

Before thinking of buying, I would definitely recommend the steps above as it does not sound like a hardware fault at all. Buying a new one would give you a couple of years before the same thing happened again.

Icy

P.S. Apologies for any spelling mistakes but I'm using a friends computer and I don't like his keyboard!

James240

i had a packard bell eaynote laptop and if its anything like mine it gets hot very quickly and your right the fan is always on but it has always been like that since i purchased it 3 years ago.

pedantic10

You could try booting into safe mode (keep tapping F8 immediately after switching on and selecting Safe Mode). This disables all sorts of things possibly including Power Management. Every few minutes, check that the machine is not getting too hot; is so switch off. See if your previous problem recurs. If it does, this suggests (but does not prove) a hardware issue. If not, a software issue is more likely.

I once had used this on a Sony Vaio, which kept switching off immediately after booting up. The thing thought it was getting too hot, and switched off before it could even run. Having googled the problem, it turns out that the power management feature on that model was indicating a problem where there wasn't one, disabling power management gave a complete cure.

Your problem may be quite different, but it does no harm to check.

amcluesent

>I know nothing about these things, anyone got any ideas?<

Could be heat. Try getting a can of compressed air with a flexi-tube from a photographers supply shop and see if you can blast the dust out.

Fatal_Swan

Not a technical answer, but a consumer one! As your laptop's at most well under 2 years old, Currys themselves should be liable. Although they'll have fobbed you off by saying it's out of warranty (which it is), this doesn't override the sale of goods act, which states that consumers can expect their goods to work properly for a reasonable period of time - anywhere up to 6 years:

http://www.dti.gov.uk/consumers/fact-sheets/page38311.html

There have been several discussions of this on these forums, and not enough people are aware that they still have rights well beyond their warranty. At the least though it'll probably take some speaking to managers, a written letter, and possibly a call to (the brilliant) Consumer Direct to get them on your case if need be.