Hi group,
My laptop (almost 4yrs old) keeps crashing, or rather the screen,
keyboard (numlock) and mouse totally freeze up. I don't know what's
wrong with it, so maybe you could help me out if I describe the
symptoms. It's getting worse all the time, lately windows and linux
will freeze a few seconds after booting. Even the windows and linux
(ubuntu) installers freeze up in exactly the same way, as does the
latest Knoppix live cd, so that right now I'm out of OSes even The
fan and screen do stay on, so I don't think it's processor overheating,
and obviously it's not OS/virus related, so I thought harddisk, or
maybe mainboard? Does that make sense? And if so, what can one do? I've
read about freezing and lightly tapping the HD, is that any good here?
Thanks for any advice,
Emar

Emar wrote:


--
John Doue

Anything in the entire system can cause this. The first thing to test
is memory, using a non-OS memory test program (one of the "memtest" or
"memtest86" programs, or Microsoft has a diagnostic also). If the
memory is ok, I'd try another hard drive if you have one. If it's the
motherboard, the repair cost is going to be prohibitive.


Emar wrote:

good tip. i ran memtest86 from a cd, but before it could finish it too
crashed/froze up. I guess that effectively rules out hard drive
failure, and memory too perhaps (it did run 40 minutes, completing 70%
of tests, without reporting any errors). Time for a new notebook.

It rules out the hard drive. It does not rule out memory.


Emar wrote: