OK Another lappy problem...... :-(

[JohnP]

My laptop hasn't worked on battery for about 2 years so I figured I'd treat it to a new one after finding one for a reasonable price...

Well arrived today - plugged in & charged however, when I unplug mains one of two things happens:

1. Sometimes computer freezes after about 30secs... mouse wont move etc.. only option is to press & hold in power ON?OFF button to do reset...

2. Computer works for about 1 min & then reboots....

Anyone got any ideas.....?

Be a bit pee'd off spending £35 on new battery if I cant get it working.....

Works fine no problem if plugged into mains.


Thks a lot - John

[Mac]

has your pc got a battery monitor built in to the bios?
Might need resetting.

Or, what are the setting for switching to battery in the control panel?
Might be worth checking those as it might be set to shut down or similar.

Failing that dont use the battery  

You might want to see if it is a windows problem or indeed a pc problem.

turn on your pc and enter the bios.
leave the pc on, it should run for quite a few hours on just the bios screen.
before running out of battery power.

If it does then its more then lightly a windows problem.

Just my s worth

Mac

[JohnP]

cheers Mac- Like your idea for booting into bios on battery - will try that & see how long it lasts.. Thks mate.. John.

[JohnP]

OK bit of progress. Pulled out mains & computer froze (i.e. couldn't move mouse) even ctrl-alt-del didn'twork only option is to press & hold in power on button.... however, before I did this computer happily stayed in frozen state for 15mins before I reset so battery obviosuly working. When I rebooted with mains in it started charging again...

So I guess it must be windows causing it to crash or reboot when it goes onto battery.. I checked BIOS & that looks OK. I might try removing thinkpad battery & power management prog from windows....

Any other ideas appreciated - John

[Ian]

John, I think it's a power management issue in Windows. Have you tried booting it up on the battery? I'd also drop into the bios and see if there's anything odd about the power management settings as well.

Just for kicks, if all that looks OK, swap the two memory simms over in their slots. If something else stops working, then it *might* be a memory problem.

[MarkS]

Pulled out mains & computer froze

Excellent - sounds like your Peltier cooling is working a treat!

[JohnP]

Grrrrrrrr...... don't wind me up this is really starting to piss me off.......!!!!!!

funny though... 

[mickw]

John, try removing that extra memory

Didn't you say it was a different speed to the one you had installed ?

[Simon E]

John, I think it's a power management issue in Windows. Have you tried booting it up on the battery? I'd also drop into the bios and see if there's anything odd about the power management settings as well.

Just for kicks, if all that looks OK, swap the two memory simms over in their slots. If something else stops working, then it *might* be a memory problem.

Surely if there was a memory problem with the PC it would bleep at you on boot up.

si

[Simon E]

What would I do in this situation, I would probably reinstall XP, or whatever operating system that you have. Coping off all useful files first. Because one can waste a lot of time second guessing the problem, trying to work out if it is Bios, Hardware, dry joints etc etc.

If you reinstall the operating system then delete all the partitions, format new partition and reinstall XP... At least if this is done, you will get all the standard setup settings for XP to start with. If it fails then, it is totally pointing towards a hardware issue. Memory, harddisk, motherboard etc etc.

I have a the same sort of problem with one of my laptops, 2 years ago i spilt Hot choc over it. I had to wait 3 weeks for it to dry out. But it did work eventually. The unit then worked for 2 years fine until recently, ie i have started to get memory read errors, exception errors etc etc. So I reinstalled XP again and PC worked ok for a couple of days, but has started running slow again. So in conclusion, this is either a memory, harddisk, or motherboard problem. So will start swapping out each one individually to see what the problem is.

si

[JohnP]

OK - update as follows:

1. I removed newly installed memory & still have problem.... so obvious memory is not issue...
2. I think the problem may have happened a year or so ago. Basically, a year back I noticed my computer was getting progressively worse on battery (down to age) - I remember it lasting less than 30mins on battery then one day I went to use it & it started rebotting after a few mins. I put it down to battery being totally knackered. So for last year or so been using on mains only. I figured new battery would solve problem but it hasn't so must be another issue...
3. Simon - computer has WinXP Pro on it but this came pre-installed. I do not have backup/ original disc.
4. I have had this laptop since new & used it for work/ pleasure for 4 1/2 yrs so disc is absolutely full of tons of stuff - incl just about every astro prog I have used. Whilst I dont mind reformatting I'd rather not as it would take me weeks to put everything back...

I will start some back ups now (just in case)

I guess given age of computer I either need to live with it & use mains only or think about getting a replacement...

John

[Simon E]

I have all the XP cd's that you would need, just need to use your licence. Backup is always a good idea, that's why I have a server and a laptop for doubling up on storage.

The server i run has 7 hard disks in it, where i store various things, ie: the c:/boot partition only contains the operating system,  1xhard disk for films, one for music, one for pictures etc etc, so if the c: drive crashes i only lose the op system not all the data.

I also have 2 x 500g media drives containing all my DVD's, which plug straight into the computer or tv via HDMi I also have backups of all my mp3's on the ipod and seperate hard disk on the server etc.

The laptop is purely for dealing with astrophotography and scope control, so really is a dedicated laptop.

si

[JohnP]

Thks Si - I have sent you a pm... John

[Mac]

What would I do in this situation, I would probably reinstall XP, or whatever operating system that you have. Coping off all useful files first. Because one can waste a lot of time second guessing the problem

Nice idea Simon, but what happens when you do all of this and the problem is still there?

I'd rather spend a few hours tracking the problem down to prove one way or other where the problem is, rather then spend 8 or 9 hours reinstalling xp and asscoiated software,
Only to find it was a hardware problem, been there, done that and bought the T Shirt.

ps. ask Fay  i've spent quite a few hours trying to get her old camera to be installed as a camera and not a garden bench.
In the end we had to re-install windows, so far thats taken over 9 hours!!.

Mac

[mickw]

If a formatted XP HD was shoved in Johns lappy, would it work ?
I know it won't be happy because most of the drivers will be wrong, but would it run and could it update relevant drivers?

I have an HD installed in this -
http://forum.orpington-astronomy.org.uk/index.php?topic=5209.0
It only has XP installed, bugger all else of use.

If this is feasible, you could borrow it for tests.
I've no idea of the construction of the HD (pins etc) but it's 40g and I'm not fussed if you bugger up the OS, I'll just reinstall it.