[Channeal]

Best Answer

Hello Phill,

 

Thanks for taking the time to study my Speccy report.

 

The power settings have now been changed as suggested: -

 

Power Profile

Active power scheme: 

Balanced

Hibernation: 

Disabled

Turn Off Monitor after: (On AC Power): 

Never

Turn Off Monitor after: (On Battery Power): 

Never

Turn Off Hard Disk after: (On AC Power): 

Never

Turn Off Hard Disk after: (On Battery Power): 

Never

Suspend after: (On AC Power): 

Never

Suspend after: (On Battery Power): 

Never

Screen saver: 

Disabled

 

 

Will go on chugging along as normal and see how things go.

 

Chris.

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Hello Chris,

 

Will go on chugging along as normal and see how things go.

 

 

That`s about all that you can do tbh,

 

Can I just make sure that you have your drivers saved somewhere safe, just in case you need to replace the HDD at short notice.

[phillpower2]

Hello Chris,

 

Will go on chugging along as normal and see how things go.

 

 

That`s about all that you can do tbh,

 

Can I just make sure that you have your drivers saved somewhere safe, just in case you need to replace the HDD at short notice.

[Channeal]

Hello Phill,

That's a good question about the drivers. I do have a copy of everything I found in the drivers folder (not sure what most if it is), so hopefully all the drivers I would need are there. I seem to recall though that when I installed Windows 10, I never had to install any drivers. Is that possible? I guess maybe Windows just installed its own drivers.

Chris.

[phillpower2]

Hello Chris,

 

 I seem to recall though that when I installed Windows 10, I never had to install any drivers. Is that possible

 

 

With a Sony yes as Windows 10 is very good when it comes to drivers, other brands though can be problematic, no need to mention any names here though 

[Channeal]

Hello Phill,

It was obviously tempting fate to talk about the hard drive failing as the laptop has developed problems today. I am not sure it is the hard drive though, I think it might be down to something more drastic!

The screen froze, so I couldn't move the mouse or anything. I had to turn it off by holding the power button for a few seconds. Then when I attempted to turn the laptop on again, the green power light came on and stayed on and the orange light (for hard drive activity) flashed on briefly. There was some noise to suggest that the machine was powering up. The screen however remained completely black without even a flicker.

I am wondering if it could perhaps be the monitor. I do not however know how to test it.

I put the Puppy Linux CD in, but although it made the usual noises the screen did nothing.

Any advice would be very much appreciated.

Chris.

 

EDIT on the 14th Nov.

Since writing the above, I have realised that as well as the screen staying black from the start with no cursor, there is no response from the keyboard if I try pressing the Caps Lock or Num Lock keys. Not looking good, methinks!

Edited by Channeal, 14 November 2018 - 07:55 AM.

[phillpower2]

Hello Chris,

 

Would suggest trying a power cycle by removing the main battery, AC adaptor, the CMOS battery and the RAM, press the power on button for 20 seconds, replace the CMOS battery and the AC adaptor only, power up to see if the behaviour changes at all.

[Channeal]

Hello Phill,

That's a shame, not sure I am feeling up to the task of opening it up and doing this!

I have got a bad week coming up next week, with hospital appointments for both my husband (who has got myeloma) and also for myself. Am going to leave the laptop until after all that is done with. Will get back to you at a later date.

Thanks very much for your help.

Chris

[phillpower2]

Hello Chris,

 

No rush on our behalf and best wishes to you and yours 

[Channeal]

Thanks Phill,

It just occurred to me that I don't know which CMOS battery I should buy. Is there a way of knowing which one I need, so I can have one ready before the laptop is opened up? Do laptops use a standard battery, or could it be one of several?

Chris

[phillpower2]

Hello Chris,

 

Was only meaning remove/replace the CMOS battery and not purchase a new battery altogether, the reason for removing the battery is so that all charge is removed from the BIOS chip, circuit/memory etc, this would clear any possible bad settings.

 

You are welcome btw 

[Channeal]

Ah, okay Phill.

Silly me! Thanks for clarifying.

That brings up another idea in my head though. The laptop is old, can't remember now when my daughter bought it but possibly around 2008. I doubt very much that she ever replaced the battery, nor indeed have I. Could the battery possibly be the cause of the problems? Or doesn't it sound like it to you?

Chris.

[phillpower2]

No problem 

 

I have an 11+ year old Sony Vaio and have never had to replace the CMOS battery, you would know if the CMOS battery was bad as you would get a checksum error when you boot up + the time & date would be wrong in the BIOS/clock. 

[Channeal]

Oh okay, thanks. Just thought I'd ask, just in case........

Chris.

[phillpower2]

You are welcome 

[Channeal]

Hello Phill,

 

Just a quick visit to say that I still haven't had a chance to look at the laptop. Very annoying as I miss being able to use it, but there has been just too much going on (mostly bad stuff, unfortunately).

 

Will let you know once I finally get around to looking at it.

 

Chris