Computer help needed
Turbo Mini Forums

My laptop at home has started freezing, sometimes before its even loaded windows, other times it will load and run fine for 3 or 4 minutes then the screen just freezes and i have to unplug and take the battery out to turn it off.

Not sure whether its got a virus (its got norton on so shouldnt) or just knackered, its only about a year old though so and im pretty careful with it...

The only thing i can think of thats happened to it out of the ordinary is my cat jumped on the keypad about 3 days ago and the screen went heywire so i restarted it, but it worked fine afterward..

Im stuck on the isle of man, so all my friends are either accountants or farmers so if any of you guys with any IT knowledge could shed some light on it id be extremely grateful.

Jo

"Turbo's make torque, and torque makes fun"

"did you know you can toast potato waffles?"

Does it smell of cat piss ?

Edited by Dangerous on 19th Oct, 2006.

Metro turbo weekend driver,Mini turbo in the making again!

Give cat a bollocking

Apart from that I haven't a clue sorry.....

Check it has not been overclocked in Bios and burnt out the processor. Quite a few companies overclock them to make then seem faster.
Do you get any beeps from post? (beeps when computer starts?)

Shame you are so far away I would look at it for you.

"Turbo's make torque, and torque makes fun"

"did you know you can toast potato waffles?"

Try bringing it up in "safe mode" (push and hold F8 as it boots I think) if it runs Ok then its probably software. At least you can try looking for a virus and/or delete your porn (Though just deleting it doesn't actually do much good to anyone determined enough)

website:- http://www.terryhunt.co.uk

Joey

We need more information such as is your computer connected to a home network?

If so is i wireless, cable, USB etc. If so does the problem go away if you disconnect it from the network.

Window will search for network divices and loads the appropriate drives etc on start up so i could be that.

Check you system for any mail ware which norton will not find. Two very good tools for this are

Adaware SE personal found at

http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/

and spybot search and distroy which can be found at

http://www.download.com/3000-2144-10122137.html

both need regualy updating and running. This should help keep your system free from undesirable crap, which you can get when just browsing the internet.

Finaly run a defrag this can be found in
start > Programs > accessories > system tools > disk deframenter.

Let me know how you get on.

Okeydokey cheers for your help guys.

Weve got wireless broadband, the laptops got internal wireless capabilities, ive been having a play last night and the following occurs:

Turning it on with the wireless (switch on the front) ON, it will start loading up then just freeze either during load up, or shortly after loggin on.

Turning it on with wireles on and holding F8, it just comes up with the "In touch with tomorrow...TOSHIBA" screen and doesnt even try to load windows.

Turning it on with the wireless turned OFF....i can hear the hard drive start to spin up, then it just dies immediately.

(im not sure if the above happened because i had to pull the battery out to turn it off after it last froze..?)

On a second attempt with the wireless OFF, it goes into windows start up then freezes..

so it seems that ultimately with the wireless turned on or off it makes little difference.

I have however noticed that playing with the screens seems to make a difference, i.e if its refusing to even start, ill open and close the screen a few times then it will work..?

Also on my old toshiba laptop, the internal battery on the mainboard (?)thats in charge of the time and date etc died and thats how i got this replacement. i think that had similar symptoms as this...

also, to even further complicate things ive just been trying to start it, and it wont even give signs of life, but after twiddling the power cable int he back of it it sparks up...

but its got a full battery and is charging ok so.....?

Could the cat have sat on a combination of buttons causing it to self destruct? should i get my gun?

cheers

jo

"Turbo's make torque, and torque makes fun"

"did you know you can toast potato waffles?"

oh, btw i run lavasot and spybot all frequently, good programs.

"Turbo's make torque, and torque makes fun"

"did you know you can toast potato waffles?"

er think ive made it worse...

press the on button, flashes orange once (which ive only ever seen it do on standby) then after a few seconds goes green and the hard spins up, it makes a "vud...vud" like it does when its loading something then dies straiht away.

its doing this constantly now...hmmmm could it be battery related?

when i plug it in, the green light comes on the front led, and another to say its fully charged (its amber when the battery inst full) so....?

"Turbo's make torque, and torque makes fun"

"did you know you can toast potato waffles?"

Send the bugger back to Toshiba......

I have had two Toshiba laptops and both have been faultless hardware wise, so maybe you have been unlucky?

Rip the battery out and run it on the mains and see if you still get the same problem.