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Laptop Help


andy_w_1986
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If anyone could help me here i would be very grateful. Basically my laptop (FujitsuSiemens Esprimo) randomly just freezes. When its frozen that is it, no ctrl-alt-del, it is dead to the world meaning i have to hold in the power button for 5 seconds and switch it back on again. It runs fine when just doing simple things such as running internet explorer but when i try to play a dvd, football manager or do a few things at once it just cuts out. Of the 160gb memory i have only used 32gb so memory shouldnt be an issue and whilst running some of the windows (vista) diagnostic things it says everything is working fine. Any ideas what this could be? It is driving me mad, my concern it might be a hardware thing and isnt that quite terminal with a laptop? My computer knowledge is very limited at best so any advice would be great.

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If anyone could help me here i would be very grateful. Basically my laptop (FujitsuSiemens Esprimo) randomly just freezes. When its frozen that is it, no ctrl-alt-del, it is dead to the world meaning i have to hold in the power button for 5 seconds and switch it back on again. It runs fine when just doing simple things such as running internet explorer but when i try to play a dvd, football manager or do a few things at once it just cuts out. Of the 160gb memory i have only used 32gb so memory shouldnt be an issue and whilst running some of the windows (vista) diagnostic things it says everything is working fine. Any ideas what this could be? It is driving me mad, my concern it might be a hardware thing and isnt that quite terminal with a laptop? My computer knowledge is very limited at best so any advice would be great.

 

Could be a couple of different things, mate.

 

First though, when you mention your memory amounts up there, bear in mind you're talking about the amount of space on your hard drive. What's going to be more of a concern for you when running several different programs at the same time is the amount of RAM you have installed (probably between 512mb and 2gb). RAM is where your computer actively runs programs and whatnot, your hard drive is where they are stored when not actively in use. (Now, don't misunderstand- it can affect things when you start to get really full because Windows needs some space to do it's thing, but you're nowhere close to that).

 

Since it sounds like you have problems when you're trying to do several things at once, you might consider buying some more RAM for your computer. It's fairly cheap unless you have a really odd setup or something. Can't imagine you'd pay more than 60-70 pounds to get a couple more gig installed.

 

If money's tight, try turning off unecssary programs- especially the stuff in your systray (that's the little area down in the lower right near your clock in XP). Autolaunching programs like iTunes, WeatherBug, RealPlayer, Instant messaging softwares, etc. Turn all that crap off and see if your freezing goes away or lightens up a bit. Another thing you could try messing around with is Task Manager. If you're running XP, hit control-alt-delete and look for the tab. The stuff that has your username as the owner, you can probably turn off and not make it so unstable you'll have to restart. Just make sure you're not doing anything super-important at the time and you probably won't lose anything.

 

The only other things I can think of off the top of my head that could be causing this are a failing power supply or overheating. Might want to blow out the vents, pick it up off the desk enough that it can circulate some air, and see what happens. I don't think I've ever heard of a laptop throwing a power supply, but if you were talking about a desktop I'd mention it for sure, so there ya go- probably unlikely, but anything's possible when it comes to dealing with these fucking things.

 

Good luck!

Edited by Cid_MCDP
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Switiching off randomly and when running memory consuming programs, overheating or a broken fan could be the problem. If you can, try cleaning the fan with a can of compressed air to clear out all the dust and debris. Does the laptop or fan make any unusual noise when its turned on at all?

 

Could also be software or virus realated. Id reccommend:

 

AVG Antivirus

Spybot Search and Destroy

Ad-Aware

Spyware Blaster

 

you can download them from www.filehippo.com

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Thanks for the advice, much appreciated.

 

Since i wrote the post the situation has changed somewhat. On the advice of FujitsuSiemens i have re-installed windows which to an extent has eased the problem however it still isnt fixed. Now i have spent hours on the phone to the help people there and having updated my flash bios and various other things i think they are just about to accept it needs to be looked at by an expert.

 

I have however noticed a couple things which make me wonder if the problem could be related to my graphics card. 1) the problem occurs mainly when watching dvd's or playing football manager, 2) on the base score for my laptop Vista is now telling me my graphics only score 1 and it used to be around 3 and 3) when doing a full system check downloaded off Fujitsu website it froze whilst checking the graphics. There are six aspects this check looks at and all was going fine until it looked at the graphics section.

 

Fujitsu ruled out overheating as if that was happening the system would shut down as a form of self preservation rather than just freezing but perhaps them not wanting to accept their product is faulty.

 

So would it be possible a broken/faulty graphics card could be the root of my problem? Hopefully when i speak to them on monday again they will just get me to send it off, cant afford to eat this week due to the phone bill!!

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  • 5 months later...

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