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My laptop seems to be crashing at random times


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#1
SA_Max71

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Hi. My laptop is a dell latitude c400. About 3 weeks ago, the light that indicates when the battery is low would flash twice, stay off for about 2 seconds, and then flash twice again. Before then it used to flash just once, or stay on when the battery was nearly dead. I hear a clicking noise coming from it, and then it stops working. It can't be caused by spyware, since I only installed windows xp and norton system works 2003 on it. It isn't over heating when it crashes; it is quite cool when it crashes. I have not added or removed any hardware devices to it since in the last three weeks. I formatted it today and reinstalled windows xp. Before I formatted it, it worked just fine. When it crashes and windows is running, it displayes the blue screen of death. If try to turn it off and then turn it back on right away, the BOIS tries to search for the harddrive but it can't find it. (Maybe this is caused by formatting the drive and giving it a bad partition?) I don't know if it helps, but I formatted it as a NTFS drive.
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#2
austin_o

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Hi and welcome to Geeks to Go. Does it do this when you use the ac adaptor/power cord or just when you use the battery?
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#3
dsenette

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also...whats the exact message on the BSOD
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#4
SA_Max71

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Sorry... after 3 days of waiting for a responce to this topic I quit checking this topic.

Austin: It seems to not matter. It seems to crash reguardless of when the power cord is plugged in. It has crashed on me when the power cord was plugged in, and it has crashed on me when the plug wasn't plugged into the computer. EDIT: it runs off of a AC adapter.

dsenette: what do you mean by BSOD?

Edited by SA_Max71, 28 October 2005 - 05:01 PM.

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#5
SA_Max71

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let me guess, this topic stumped you guys, just like all of my other ones.
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#6
dsenette

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BSOD = Blue Screen Of Death
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#7
SA_Max71

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Nope, I have yet to see the blue screen of death. I usually would hear an unusual sound come from it, and then one to 10 seconds later it would crash.
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#8
Murray S.

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When it crashes and windows is running, it displayes the blue screen of death.


Please clarify.. First you say you get a BSOD, now in your last post you say you don't!! Which one is it??

Murray
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#9
Murray S.

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Sorry... after 3 days of waiting for a responce to this topic I quit checking this topic.


You posted on the 16th and received 2 replies on the 17th!! Not quite 3 days !!

Murray
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#10
Murray S.

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Based on what you say is happening, have you replaced the CMOS battery yet?? Your user manual should show you where it is and how to get at it to replace it!!

Murray
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#11
ZEUS_GB

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The clicking noise could be the hard drive! Have you run chkdsk on it?

To be able to see the BSOD you must disable automatically restart on system failure.
Right click my computer > click properties > click advanced > click settings under startup and recovery > untick automatically restart and click ok twice.
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#12
SA_Max71

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Murray S.: Sorry, it just felt like 3 days. I also apologize for the confusion. Yes, I was getting the blue screen of death. Since then I have reformatted it (again). Now windows XP isn't accepting the CD key I was using before, so I cannot even load windows. Do you know the part of installing windows for the first time where it asks you for a valid CD key? I am stuck behind that screen. And, since there aren't any other programs besides windows and the necessary files windows needs to install itself, there isn't anything else on my hard drive. Thus, it cannot be spy ware that is making it crash. It cannot be virus, since I have not plugged it into the Internet before, during, and to the point where it’s stuck installing.

Based on what you say is happening, have you replaced the CMOS battery yet?? Your user manual should show you where it is and how to get at it to replace it!!

Murray

Unfortunately, I am the second owner of this computer. Up until a month and a half ago it was working just fine. It started to stop working correctly when I formatted it. (I inserted the windows XP disk, booted off of it, deleted the partion, and then reformatted it as a NFTS partion.) Because I am the second owner of this computer, I did not get the user manual. I do not have a way to contact the person who sold me my laptop. I think I know what the CMOS battery is, since I have played around with the hardware of older desktop computers. Would this explain why the battery light is continuously flashing, even when its been plugged into the AC adaptor for more than 72 hours?

*Sigh*. If the CMOS battery needs to be changed, it would seem my laptop is worthless then.

The clicking noise could be the hard drive! Have you run chkdsk on it?

To be able to see the BSOD you must disable automatically restart on system failure.
Right click my computer > click properties > click advanced > click settings under startup and recovery > untick automatically restart and click ok twice.

Well, since I am can not completely install windows XP at the moment, and I can only boot off of my hard drive or external CD ROM, I can not use CHKDSK. I don't think it would matter anyways (right?), since windows and the files it needs to install it are the only things on the hard drive at the moment.




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I would also like to thank everyone for getting back to me as quickly as possible. I do not mean this in a sarcastic way.
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#13
Murray S.

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Go to your laptop's manufacturers website and search your system.. They usually have a users manual available there.. It will tell you about the CMOS battery..

Also, is your XP cd an original or one you or someone else made for you (install and setup very different)..

Murray
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#14
SA_Max71

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Go to your laptop's manufacturers website and search your system.. They usually have a users manual available there.. It will tell you about the CMOS battery..

Murray


OK, I will try that later. Thanks.

Also, is your XP cd an original or one you or someone else made for you (install and setup very different)..

Murray

I am the only person that has it. There aren't any other copies of my CD Out there. I have very good reason that I am putting the CD key in correctly, but for some reason, it won't accept it.
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#15
Murray S.

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Use the "Phone for Activation" option !!

Murray
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