| Author |
Message |
Dan (Bobafett)
Intermediate Member
Username: Bobafett
Post Number: 1514
Registered: 9-2002
| | Posted on Thursday, October 09, 2003 - 3:24 am: | |
Can you futz with the bios on a laptop? If so, perhaps it thinks the ram is operating on a certain bus speed when in fact it's operating on something else? Like 100 vs 133? Of course, it probably owuldn't make it that far then...
--Dan |
Sunny Garofalo (Jaguarxj6)
Member
Username: Jaguarxj6
Post Number: 977
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, October 09, 2003 - 2:32 am: | |
Faisal was right on. It sounds like you have a flaky power connection or the A/C adapter is not providing enough current. Once the battery is drained, most laptops will automatically go into a hibernate mode due to a discharged battery. Sometimes, these hibernate sessions can be frustrating to reboot from without removing the A/C adapter and popping the battery out temporarily.
Let us know what you find out regarding the A/C adapter and the power troubles and we can give you suggestions on how to optimize system performance. |
Kenny Herman (Kennyh)
Intermediate Member
Username: Kennyh
Post Number: 1345
Registered: 8-2001
| | Posted on Thursday, October 09, 2003 - 12:39 am: | |
I have the worst experiences with computers- my last two computers were Dell's- and of course, they never worked either. I got this computer to try something new (my brother has one and its perfect)- and it doesn't work. It's nearly impossible to survive at school w/o a computer (mind you, the public computers won't let us check Ferrarichat!).
I have a Ad-Aware which is basically the same program and it got rid of all the "Gators" and other bugs that the web has brought me. I have updated Norton almost everyday and its schedualed to run twice a day, as well as optomize my system once. I run defrag once a week.
The computer has only started to act up today. |
Faisal Khan (Tvrfreak)
Member
Username: Tvrfreak
Post Number: 924
Registered: 3-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, October 09, 2003 - 12:27 am: | |
Sounds like you have a flaky power connection. Have your nerd friend open it up and take a look. Possibly some re-soldering of the wires to the pins (where the power cord connects) will cure it.
As for running slow, that's the world of Windows--something upsets something, some settings conflict, and your 2GHz machine's performance suddenly becomes 2MHz or worse. Try the following in order:
Download RegCleaner and see if you can spot useless crap that's loading and get rid of it.
Play with swap file sizes.
Play with moving the swap file to a different partition or disk if you have several partitions or two disks (unlikely since you have a laptop).
Get some diagnostic/benchmarking utility and see if it comes up with recommendations.
Run some disk utilities to optimize your hard disk.
Disable all accessories, such as the extigy. Add one thing at a time, until the "slowness" reappears. This might give you a clue.
Increase RAM.
Reinstall software.
Reinstall operating system.
Very annoying and time-consuming, I know. |
Kenny Herman (Kennyh)
Intermediate Member
Username: Kennyh
Post Number: 1343
Registered: 8-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, October 08, 2003 - 11:51 pm: | |
I own a Sager Labtop (the guys who make the Alienware Labtops). It's generally been perfect until I came to school.
The second day of school I left to go to class and came back and my computer was off- but the odd thing about that was I didn't turn it off. I turned it back on, it booted most of the way, then shut down. I repeated a few times- then notice the little LCD light of where the battery is wasn't on. I unplugged the cord and put it into another outlet- figuring maybe the outlet was dead (it was plugged through a surge protector. Didn't work. After several calls with the company they told me to send it back to them and they'd take a look- it cost me $55 to send it cross country (certified etc) to California. I got a call back a couple days after they recieved the computer saying my computer was fine (I didn't send the power cord)- they said it must be the power cord so they sent my computer back and sent me a new power cord (only after TONS of screaming about how the power cord is there responsibilty- the cord I have now was in perfect condition- never fell, never got cut, no liquid on it etc..
To make a longer then necessary story short(er)- my computer worked well once I finally recieved it- 2 weeks after I sent it to them.
Everything was perfect until today.
I noticed everything has been running a bit slow- the songs were skipping (MP3's), the video I downloaded of a Porsche 993tt vs a Ferrari 348 was choppy etc- nothing was running quite right. I restarted.
The computer of course didn't turn on - it went to the "what mode do you want to turn your computer on in: safe mode, the last working setting, etc"... Didn't work whatsoever. I check the LCD screen, the light was on.
I restarted a few more times, turned of the computer, turned on the computer; no dice.
Fed up with my POS, I unplugged everything and took it over to a friends room; his roomate is a computer nerd (he built his own computer w/ 10 USB ports, all these cool red lights, glass case etc). You know when you go to ask for help with something and when you try to show them whats wrong, it works? Yeah, it worked.
After restarting several times to try to show him the problem (it worked everytime besides loading up rather slow)- I brought the computer back to my room to put back in the charger/other connections.
I plugged the computer in, turned it on. NO DICE. I tried again, again and again. Still no good. I decided to take all of the cables out of the back of the computer- what is/was connected:
__________________________________
3 USB's-
-Soundblaster Extigy (which is basically an external sound card which allows me to play me Altec Lansins 4 speaker system)
-SM Belkin USB Flash card connector (allows me to transfer my pictures really fast)
-USB Mouse
My HP Printer (the old fasion printer wire)
Ethernet Cord
Power Cord
___________________________________
It turned on without any of those plugged in (especially w/o the power cord- I tried to disconnect everything but the power and it still wouldn't work). My computer turned on w/ nothing in there. After the computer was on, I plugged in the power cord and it was reading it (transfering power).
Sweet it works!
Wait, no it doesn't. I came back tonight after studying in the library for a big eco110m test and sat down to browse the site and listen to music- and only the left speakers work- I turned off the Extigy- then turned it back on- wasn't that. I checked the wires. Nope. Turned off and on my speakers. Nope. Checked the Winamp to see if the music was "centered"- it was.
My computer is going to hell. Please guys, I really really really need help- ideas?
Some possibilities I could think of:
USB hubs are ALL faulty now.
The whole back panel of the computer is fault (power and all).
My system hates me and likes to see me suffer.
Anyone? Help? Please?
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