Laptop freezes every time

[superbee]

Hi there, someone gave me an acer travelmate 2480 laptop to fix.

It had a ton of viruses and it would go super slow, took forever to get the mouse across the screen and it would freeze up to.

I just wiped it clean and went to do a fresh xp install.

The xp instal froze several times, i had to pull the power plug and the battery and put it back in to restart the computer and get the instal to continue.

I deleted everything and did another install and the same thing.

So now xp is installed and it will boot up and after 3 seconds or so of the desktop showing the laptop will freeze up solid everytime, and have to pull power cord and battery, power button held down wont do anything.

BUT, i can boot in safe mode and its fine.

im not a guru at computers but to me that sounds like a bad piece of hardware, and when windows boots up and loads the drivers for whichever piece of hardware is bad it hangs. I could be totally wrong.

so i went into safe mode and disabled every piece of main hardware.

restart and it still hangs. The stuff i didnt disable was main things like the hard drive, and processor, and the odd ball stuff that i dont know what it is like the system buss or all the stuff like that.


whats your guy's thoughts?

[alfie2]

first check if there are dust blocking exhaust vent or in-take.
then
check memory, follow by hard drive.
that woulld be the standard way of doing things.

[EzyStvy]

Did you install the chipset/video card etc drivers for the machine?

[Slaander]

sounds like bad memory, if you have 2 stick of ram in the laptop, try to remove one and install xp again. if you don't have 2 stick, maybe see you can get one from friends or work to test it out. if xp able to install with out freeze, bingo

[glc]

Memory can be tested.

www.memtest.org

[superbee]

ok i took the memory out of MY BROKE laptop (harddrive bad)

and i put the memory in it and it does the same thing, loads the desktop and you move the mouse and it will be real choppy for about 3 seconds then it will freeze.

so that rules out the memory.

[superbee]

BAH i should have known it wasnt memory anyways, it runs fine in safe mode. You use your ram in safe mode too!

[Jaggannath]

My guess is the drivers are wrong... that hardware spec should be able to run XP comfortably. Maybe you could try Windows 7??

[EzyStvy]

Originally Posted by EzyStvy Did you install the chipset/video card etc drivers for the machine?

Did you do this?

[glc]

Originally Posted by superbee BAH i should have known it wasnt memory anyways, it runs fine in safe mode. You use your ram in safe mode too!

NEVER make that assumption! You have to explore all troubleshooting options.

If the install kept freezing on you, you have a hardware issue SOMEWHERE. If it's not the ram, it's probably either overheating or the motherboard is bad.

It could also be a defective CD drive, causing a corrupt installation. If it kept freezing, it's very likely you have corrupted system files.

[superbee]

heat doesnt appear to be the issue.

Cd drive, i have a spare one of those, i can try that i guess.

[superbee]

Originally Posted by Jaggannath My guess is the drivers are wrong... that hardware spec should be able to run XP comfortably. Maybe you could try Windows 7??

It came with xp origionally......




Video drivers, i never manually installed them. Video card is disabled in hardware setup in control panel.

[Slaander]

as what I found the Acer TravelMate 2480

Acer TravelMate 2480-2153 (Celeron M 1.73GHz, 512MB RAM, 80GB HDD, Vista Home Basic)
Mobile Intel 940GML Express
Intel GMA 950 Dynamic Video Memory Technology 3.0

my question is, since it comes with vista basic, does the xp installation disc from another pc? or that is retail copy? if not from this laptop sure that will be driver issue due to the os was not for this unit.

and last is Celeron chip, and try to disable the internal cache in the bios and see it let you install. if so that is the cache problem on die on cache.

and the VGA default driver for xp is always lagging, so get the right driver and install in safemode.

[superbee]

ahh sorry, now that i think about it it did have vista, i was only on it for 10 mins or so, sounds dumb that i forgot i know.


Ill give that a try tonight, thanks slaander.

[Slaander]

For those recovery disc is set for Certain laptop/pc with chipset driver already install (Intel,Nforce,ALi, ViA etc) so when window start loading drivers and once load up the chipset driver and the hardware is not set for those driver, that is where the hang come from.

[superbee]

this is a generic copy of xp, not a oem brand versionl. Its a dated version tho, you forsee anyway around this or not.

[Slaander]

if so try get in to safemode and install the intel chipset driver, once finish boot back to normal and see it still hangs

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Sear...lation+Utility

[glc]

If Acer does not offer a full set of XP drivers for that model, you are going to have to put Vista or Windows 7 back on it.

[superbee]

ok update, this computer DID have xp like i origionally thought. HAs the sticker on it too that says xp, vista compatable. and has the xp sticker on the back.


Anyways, got the chipset drivers installed and got the video car drivers installed.

One time i got it to boot into windows real mode and was able to do anything i wanted. but it was at a snail pace, eg- took 3 seconds to move the mouse an inch across the screen.

The ctr alt del box showed processor runnning at almost 100 percent the whole time.

THIS IS EXACTLY HOW THE THING RAN BEFORE.

WHich brings me back to, THIS ISNT A DRIVER ISSUE.

I belive that something hardware related is broke, and whatever it is I guess is getting disabled in safe mode. I dont belive its any of the main common hardware pieces such as video sound lan cards ect.

should i give up and tell this person its something like mother board or chipset or processor or something?
again, its at the stage it was prior, only difference is i can boot into safe mode unlike before the os install because i dont have those nasty viruses preventing it or whatever.


thanks for the help to this point.

[glc]

Before you give up, please run diagnostics on the ram and the hard drive - it's pretty simple to do.

[superbee]

at that link you gave prior?


ps went through joplin a month ago on the way to a truck show in noel

[glc]

Yes, that link is for memory diagnostics. You can download hard drive diagnostics from the hard drive manufacturer if it's WD, Seagate, Hitachi, or Samsung. If it's Fujitsu or Toshiba, you will have to use Hitachi's software, and you can only do basic tests.

[Slaander]

a thought, did you go in the bios and check the video set up? if the laptop only has 512 megs ram and the video using 384, you don't have much for the system, make sure set the video ram at 64 megs.

another though, cpu over heating also make the computer slow.... does the cooling fan spinning?

[superbee]

the laptop started doing this with all stock configurations. This isnt something caused by me redoing the OS.

The laptop freezes at the EXACT point everytime, and it doesnt in safe mode, that rules out your two ideas slander.


and GLC i havent doen those tests yet because of lack of time, and no net connection on the laptop, but since it runs just FINE in safe mode, wouldnt that rule the harddrive and memory out? And like i said, i already tried different ram also.

[glc]

You don't need a Net connection - diagnostics are all run by booting with a floppy or CD, which you make on another machine.

No, as I said before, you can NEVER rule anything out. Why are you fighting me on the need to run freely available diagnostics?

One of the most valuable tools in my arsenal is the Ultimate Boot CD. This has all the diagnostics you could ever want. If you are fixing computers for people, you NEED it.

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

[superbee]

sorry to make it sound like i was trying to dissagree. as soon as i get a chance Ill try this next.

[Slaander]

for me fixing this many pc/laptop, if installing os got bsod/locks up 90%/100% is memory the left over 10% is the cpu/hard drive(cpu over heading due cooling fan is dead/ bad sectors on hdd) I worked on a amd Desktop has bad cooling fan, it spins but very slow so it costs huge problem; when it starts it goes normal and then slow down until screen lagging then completly locked up. I have to put in new cpu and new cooling fan to fix that desktop.

Symptoms is just like what you say. and if the cpu been over heating for a while, that chip is kinda toast, since is already damaged by high temperture, even you change the cooling fan that didn't help.

[superbee]

ugh, i dont have a floppy drive on the laptop, and i dont have a program to burn an .iso image onto a cd for that memory program. which would tell me if the hardrive is good or bad since i (swapped out good ram and that didnt fix it)

[glc]

http://www.cdburnerxp.se
http://www.imgburn.com/
http://www.deepburner.com/

Freebies.

[superbee]

k thx, ill give those a try tomorrow. Just a little agrivatting it will run all day long in safe mode.