Laptop Problems!

[Subb]

I think my laptop may be on it's last legs

I was streaming/buffering house and heroes (in seperate tabs on Mozilla) and my Laptop's screen started to, what I can only describe as, flicker and pixellate (sp?) before crashing.

Now, when I boot it up - it refuses to boot into safe mode and there are three and a half minature screens, literally 6cm in width and go about 3/4 across the screen. The resolution is ridiculous and the colour is wank. I'm currently defragmenting the HDD and I will run an anti-virus after, since to me it does sound like virus.

Any ideas??

Thanks!

[Subb]

Update: Virus scan and Defrag have done nothing.

[NoCry]

no ideas from me old chap.

[Bellthazor]

I agree with you Subb...sounds more like a virus. You may need to reload everything...if you have a spare HDD you can swap and test it.

[Subb]

Right, now there's another problem. I ran DxDiag in normal XP and it cannot pickup my GFX card. To make things worse, when I ran a search for Nvidia... nothing came up. So, now my video card and everything that came with it has disappeared. DOH!

I think I'm going to give my olde laptop to the local computer store for a one over. I was hoping that my laptop wouldn't die before the Mx11 came out

[likwidtek]

Format and reinstall before you do anything.  It's possible it's a software issue

[Subb]

I've sent it back 'cause the video card's fried and I'm still (just) under the warrenty. thanks all

[Subb]

My m11x R2 is BSODing like a bitch today and I've done nothing to warrant it. It's been OC'd slightly for the last month or so and now it begins to act up. It does get quite hot, though so I'm going to invest in a cooler.

BSOD code: 0x0000007F (0x0000000000000008, 0x0000000080050033, 0x00000000000006F8, 0xfffff80002c48ec0) I've searched on google for this code and it's not coming up with anything :/

Can anyone offer me some advice? I've un OC'd the CPU down to default settings and turned off the turbo mode.

Thanks.

[Tbone]

Yeah man, when I had a gaming laptop, that sucker got hot all the time. Things I did:

Get a pad to go under it. The ones with the fan seem to be the best, but to be honest with you I've never had one where the fan has lasted over a week (no clue why).

Download fangui (I think it is called). It gives you control of your fans, so you can keep them running at max at all times. This helps my laptop now, as only one of my fans is working, so I power it on full to try and compensate.

If you have it on your bed or anywhere besides a desk, just make sure the vents aren't getting covered up by your leg, blanket, or whatever.

Other than that, just pray to the gfx card gods as often as you can. That's one reason I got a desktop - when it comes to gaming, video editing, etc., a laptop is just going to be a lot more prone to self-destruct.

[ArchNemesis]

Ouch dude, sorry to hear about that.

Is there anything in particular that you are doing before it BSOD's?

[NoCry]

Subb. The fact is that errors like this are not acceptable. You spent a grand and simply should not accept it. Warranty claim it if I were you.

[Subb]

Lithium: Nope :/

NoCry: I am.

I rang Alienware Tech support last night and the guy asked me to email him my Memory Dumps. He said that there's either corrupted memory (which is easy - I'll replace myself when they send me the parts) or a Mobo issue (which requires a tech to come around.)

So I did the diagnostic they told me to do on startup, and after THREE FUCKING HOURS of staring at the computer it said everything was fine. Therefore it's a RAM problem.

Now, the guy over the phone told me to remove one at a time and see if it BSODs. I'm going to ring up again after lectures to ask if this voids the warrenty or not.

Will keep y'all updated.

[Da6onet]

Now, the guy over the phone told me to remove one at a time and see if it BSODs. I'm going to ring up again after lectures to ask if this voids the warrenty or not.

Shouldn't void the warranty, usually there is a sticker on the laptop that indicates if it's removed/damaged (like poking through it to get to a screw) it will void the warranty. However, that is usually not on the memory cover.

[Lithium]

Lithium: Nope :/

I didn't have any suggestions for you, did you mean Tbone instead.

[Subb]

I meant Arch :/

DoH!

It was early, in my defence.