Computer Guru advise needed.

[Hobbes]

Then just follow the directions?

Pretty much.

It will run a preboot assessment first that will take several minutes and then it will load a gui module that offers you multiple options.

Test only specific components
Test everything
Follow a fault tree of symptoms

I would test everything and expect it to take at least an hour to complete. Maybe longer.

 

[Danny Tanner]

Before you go on any further and risk further damage (both physically and electronically), do you have any data that needs to be backed up first?

Do you have one of these?

If not, I have one you can borrow. I can also lend you an external hard drive to back your stuff up to if you need it.

Are you getting any error messages? It could be anything from a failing hard drive to a corrupt file with Windows. Do you have a boot disk or your OS installation disc?

 

[dennishoddy]

I'll have to dig around, but I'm pretty sure I made a boot disc and got the OS instal when it was new. (3 years ago)

I don't have an external drive. I'll ask the guys here at work if anybody has one. Thanks for the offer.

 

[348]

Never distrust a computer.

 

[Hobbes]

Never distrust a computer.

and if the computer asks you "Does this this thumbdrive make my bottom look big?" you ALWAYS say NO.

 

[Twmaster]

Dennis, how old is your laptop?

As pointed out by others there are a few things that can cause your issues. Often it is the hard disk. It may be failing or it may simply have some corruption of critical files and needs to be wiped and have the software reloaded. Other issues, fairly common to laptops, such as loose connections and components. When I used to work on laptops for a living I saw more issues with connections than disks or software.

If you have some sort of bootable media I'd try booting off that and see how the machine behaves. If the thing acts the same you likely have some sort of internal issue. If it boots and behaves it's more likely a disk/data issue.

Either way I'd suggest you take Danny up on his offer and back up all of your data. Unless of course, you don't care about losing that data.

I'd be happy to help if things progress beyond a simple software reinstall.

 

[Zombie]

Dennis - worst case if you get to the city I would be happy to help you with it. Please pm me for my info or to let me know if I can assist ya. I have media for it worst case (or should) if not I have a link you can request a set from Dell directly...

If you can run the diagnostics - write down any error codes given and post or pm them to me. If it shuts off part way through diags let me know that too and at what point. I would run the custom tests - non interactive tests only

 

[dennishoddy]

Twmaster, its 3 years old.
Looks like I have a little work to do tonight.
Zombie, thanks to you and all the rest. I'll have more info to post tomorrow, hopefully from the laptop.