Alienware issue

[desertdude]

I am trying to help out a friend who has a refurbished Alienware laptop. For a while it would not boot at all. Immeadiately suspected an overheating problem. Took off the heat sink, and replace the thermal paste (of which there was almost none). Now it boots into windows, but locks up after a minute or two. I am pretty sure that it's the CPU, but before spending $140 on a replacement P4 2.8 Ghz, I would like to be sure that that's the problem. I tried to contact alienware to find out what it was turned in for in the first place, and they wouldn't tell me. They said that she was the first owner. Any advice would be appreciated. Is there a program that will let me get an idea of the cpu temp before the computer locks up? Just a though to help verify.

[DonVito]

If you are able to get it downloaded and installed, Speedfan should do the trick.

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download337.html

[desertdude]

Thanks for the help, I was just able to try speedfan out last night, and that laptop is hot. The CPU was at 55 C just from playing MP3's in windows media player, and locked up. Since the system is refurbished, I wonder if there is something that is causing the CPU to burn up after a while. Do I dare to put in a replacement, and risk it.

[glc]

That's a desktop processor and will be very difficult to keep cool no matter what. 55C should still be way below the slowdown/shutdown threshold.

[desertdude]

what else wold be causing it to lock up? If you shut it down after it freezes then the next time you try to start it the system will lock up sooner, and sooner till you can't even get to the splash screen from the bios. I figured it must be the processor overheating.

[thefultonhow]

It could also be the video card.

[juppy]

Could be the ram memory too. If she has more than one stick in there, try running one stick by itself and see if the freezing problem goes away. If not, then try the other stick and do the same thing. If the problem goes away with one stick but not the other, then the one it messes up on is likely bad. Oh yeah, I said one stick.....that's if its ddr or sdram.....if it's rdram, you have to have 2 sticks to complete the circuit. I'm not sure what that thing has in it.

[desertdude]

Thank you all for the help. I will try testing the ram tonight to see what happens. I am pretty sure it's ddr. How would I figure out it it was the graphics card. The screen stayed up, but it was frozen, and the audio locked in the tone that was playing at the moment it froze. Thanks again for the help.

[thefultonhow]

Thank you all for the help. I will try testing the ram tonight to see what happens. I am pretty sure it's ddr. How would I figure out it it was the graphics card. The screen stayed up, but it was frozen, and the audio locked in the tone that was playing at the moment it froze. Thanks again for the help.

Try reinstalling the OS, but NOT installing video card drivers for a while. If the computer doesn't freeze up, it might well be the card.

[desertdude]

After the last lock up, it wouldn't boot at all. I was a little frustrated, and really busy with work, so I hadn't messed with it in days. Today I finally took a look at it again, and remembered that I hadn't yet tested the Ram. Took out 1 chip, and it wouldn't boot. Replaced it and took out the other chip, and bing. There it was booted nicely, and kept on going. Juppy you were right. I wouldn't have suspected the ram, but that is what it was. Thank you all for your help.

[juppy]

Glad you got it going again. :)