My poor laptop died

14 Feb 2005

Alas poor Compaq I knew him well......
The symptoms are: The beastie went into hibernation, and won't come out again. All the lights and fans are working, it simply will not access the hard-drive or boot from a floppy. So, anyone out there in the Thames Valley region able to take her apart, replace the broken bit, and most importantly, save my data (most of the work stuff is backed up on CD - Just some odd bits and bobs, and a shed load of holiday snaps! :( )
Answers on a PM please!
lhk
Kat

14 Feb 2005

Does it do anything on startup?
Can you get into the bios or will it not get that far?
I'm just wondering if you could get it to boot via usb? If so you can use flash linux on a memory stick as your OS while you retrieve your data dunno

Flippin computers.
Kitty xx

14 Feb 2005

Hiya
Im not a techie but have you tried taking the battery out, leaving it for a while then re-connecting it?
Worked for mine when mine did that once, i think all those naughty pics were too much for it at the time :twisted:

14 Feb 2005

I am an IT Engineer - have you backed all your data up?
What was excactly the problem?
Cheers
Chappylad

14 Feb 2005

Easy bits first - gen herts, yes, did all the normal trouble shooting bits including removing the battery and talking nicely to it, shouting at it, putting it in a dark place and ignoring it, all with no effect.
Kitty, basically nothing on start up - although every now and again it TRIES to get into the bios, but just runs out of steam (seems to be a bit like me - gets bored with the foreplay and falls asleep)
Chappy - I'll PM the gory details! - but yes, most anything of any note is backed up, EXCEPT my bloomin photographs mad

:x :x
cheers all, and for the PM's
lhk

14 Feb 2005

Only other thing is are there any beeps coming from it (no beeped out bad words you're using at it do not count rolleyes

)

14 Feb 2005

I don't know if I'm allowed to do this link lark on here but I'll risk it just once and see if I get my arse slapped, lol

14 Feb 2005

Scandal..... Daft question coming up.
Can you not do a search for all drivers on the laptop and copy them to a floppy, format the drive and then re-install your OS, then load the extra drivers from the floppy disk?
Option 2... do as before with the floppy and then do a "system restore" back to the date shortly after it was fixed last time?
(Bacardi and coke, please)

14 Feb 2005

Quote by Scandal
Only other thing is are there any beeps coming from it

Mine does that.
It tries to boot from the floppy and won't start unless there is a disk in the drive, but it doesn't boot from the floppy it boots from the c. The boot sequence even has the A removed and it still does it.
It just beeps and does nothing sometimes. Drives me nuts.
Then when you go to shut it down it flamin re-starts! confused

I have to leave it on all the time.
I can't reformat it cos the drivers on it were installed by the company who manufactured the machine they work and last time they charged me Â£300 to come and do it.
There's a very very very big drink in this for anyone who can tell me what's wrong and fix it without reformating.
Sorry KitKat as you were.
have you tried flashing the bios to the latest version
300Â£ to install drivers what model of laptop is it

14 Feb 2005

when your laptop boots up there is a screen which says how much ram you have, cpu speed etc. you will usuall see some text that will say something like
ami bios ver (where x is the version number)
write the number downand .......second thoughts post your laptop make and model number and i will have a look. btw how old is your laptop ?

14 Feb 2005

Aawwwww poor thing - Know exactly how u feel as I've had major pc probs this weekend and couldn't even get windows to load on the damn thing.
In desperation yesterday did a full reformat of the hard drive and mananged to get the machine working again - not sure for how long though cos it's very much a dinosaur now by todays pc standards.
Lost ALL my pics and files cos silly me hadn't got round to backing up everything on disc sad

so if any of you out there have some pics of me on pc please send them to me lol
Quite gutted about it to be honest - so many memories gone in a flash :cry: :cry: :cry:

14 Feb 2005

OK, I'm not clever enough to answer your questions about the drivers. All I can go off is when my Dell needed to be formatted and the screen size was bolloxed. I had to get the drivers from the Dell website for my specific laptop and install from a floppy which cured the problem.
That is about the limit of my knowledge on that score.
As for "System restore", if you are using XP and you click on Start>>All progs >>Accessories >> System tools , you may see an option for system Restore.
What this means is that your PC takes "pictures" of the settings, drivers, etc on your PC at given intervals. If your lappy goes tits up, you can normally restore it to a former state where you know it worked perfectly by picking a date to restore it to.
No "saved" work is lost by doing this.
DO NOT do that without getting a second and third, maybe a 4th opinion.
I'm just a parrot.
what the hell do I know about PCs? lol

14 Feb 2005

:lol: This fixing computers stuff gets more like sex all the time.
After leaving my laptop with no attention for the whole day - I tickled the little button, and off she went...... for nearly 30 seconds - and then stopped! confused

I NEARLY got to second base! cool

Now, my next plan is to slip a porn DVD in, leave her for a couple of days, and by that time she will be so gagging for action she is BOUND to go all the way! :twisted:
Just to be on the safeside - I am going to confiscate her battery too. smile

lhk
Kat

14 Feb 2005

Quote by KitKat
:lol: This fixing computers stuff gets more like sex all the time.
After leaving my laptop with no attention for the whole day - I tickled the little button, and off she went...... for nearly 30 seconds - and then stopped! I NEARLY got to second base!

Not sure it applies for this one, but some laptops had a power failure hibernation state. That is to say, if the power was cut, it would power up to exactly the point that happened. Now, in the even of a crash, can you guess what happened?
Yep, every time the thing was powered up, it would return to the state it was last in, ie, crashed. The fix was to send the damned thing back to be reset, although I'm sure it can be done at home, probably a BIOS reset or similar, although that does involve opening the thing up.
As for the cost of reloading Windows etc, 300 quid is outrageous! Anything and everything driverwise should either be provided, or can be found online. Or low cost low effort is find a friend who'll do it for beer smile

14 Feb 2005

Quote by Shambolic
As for the cost of reloading Windows etc, 300 quid is outrageous! Anything and everything driverwise should either be provided, or can be found online. Or low cost low effort is find a friend who'll do it for beer

From the way I was reading it the drivers are something to do with external machinery controlled by the laptop via hardwire or telephone. I think. Maybe. Or something

14 Feb 2005

Quote by SurreyBloke
As for the cost of reloading Windows etc, 300 quid is outrageous! Anything and everything driverwise should either be provided, or can be found online. Or low cost low effort is find a friend who'll do it for beer

From the way I was reading it the drivers are something to do with external machinery controlled by the laptop via hardwire or telephone. I think. Maybe. Or something
Ah, you might be right. Still seems on the pricey side - Surely anything controlled by the laptop can be set up by in house technicians, and anything on the laptop can be set up like any other computer?
But then, the ways of big business when it comes to IT are a black art to me confused

15 Feb 2005

Kat - not sure if you have tried this but a mate at work has had a similar thing happen in the past. He says to try removing the battery and booting it from mains. If it works once booted in this way it will narrow down the problem to a battery fault and you just need to get a new battery.
Not sure if that helps at all dunno

I just fancied posting in a techie thread :smug: .

15 Feb 2005

Quote by Shambolic
Yep, every time the thing was powered up, it would return to the state it was last in, ie, crashed. The fix was to send the damned thing back to be reset, although I'm sure it can be done at home, probably a BIOS reset or similar, although that does involve opening the thing up.

:shock: That sounds familiar - surely there will be a nice big read button inside saying "Press here to reset BIOS."
*Kat throws Lady Compaq roughly onto her back, planning to rip her knickers of so fast she would have elastic burns down her bus bars, how difficult can it be to find one little button using 10 fingers - and a tongue if needed"
Only to find - F***ing star drive screws! mad

(invented by the same numpty that invented the bra strap clasp) :x
The current situation is: I am trawling through the 316 megabytes of the documentation library to see if I can find anything useful - If not, it is off down the local "Mr Fixit" on Monday.
I am going for a read, I may be some time......
lhk
Kat

15 Feb 2005

Quote by KitKat
Only to find - F***ing star drive screws! (invented by the same numpty that invented the bra strap clasp) :x
Kat

Torx drivers, they can be bought in sorta fold outty tool things as a set. dirt cheap.

15 Feb 2005

or I could just go out in the freezing cold and get the ones in my garage. wink

:shock:
Nope - anything with a star drive says to me "take me out and you risk buggering things up completely' - so Monday morning it is in to the menders. cool

Unless I get drunk enough over the weekend to risk having a go myself! :twisted:
lhk
Kat

15 Feb 2005

Quote by KitKat
so Monday morning it is in to the menders.

Nope - you have to give me a chance to sort it!! 'cos as you can see - I REALLY am a techie confused

15 Feb 2005

Kat,
Please see (belated) PM - this is a known problem with your machine and should be fixable.......
*squeeze*
Mandy

16 Feb 2005

Quote by KitKat
or I could just go out in the freezing cold and get the ones in my garage.
Kat

There's a thought - Assuming it must use some kind of memory to hold at least the basics of the last state, then how about pulling the battery and putting the laptop in the freezing cold instead?
OK, not much of a thought, but the best I can do.
Chances are it's just fucked though, and the hibernation/ crash issue is just a red herring (cause there's some that did, some that didn't, and it was just a theory this was one of the former) sad