Some questions i need help with!

[matthab]

Hi

I have 2 questions i need to ask you lot and i was wondering if you could help me:

1) In a couple of days im off to new york and im going to take my UK laptop with me to do college work, i know the power voltages are different in the US and im just wondering will my laptop be fine to work off the lower voltage?

2) Now i can only take my laptop unless i get this problem sorted. Last night it got VERY slow took ages to boot into windows and shut down. So i thought "oh well i havnt formatted it in a while" so i backed it all up and got on with it.

I put the disc in and booted the windows xp installer up. First attempt it said "a file was currupt please restart" so i did, it got to checking for OS and it just restarted 5 more attempts later i formatted it but then it restarted AGAIN. So 7th time i finally got into the install manager which went happily for about 20mins then restarted and started over again. It was now midnight and im getting more ****ed off at the thing.

I was delighted when it had finished (i thought) it took about 20mins to load up to the desktop and when it did it BSOD and then restarted .

I think the toshiba hard drive in it has gone again 2nd time in ayear.
what do u think has happened?

Bearing in mind the laptop is 4 years old now and is out of warrenty but the HD was replaced in the warrenties 3rd and final year am i intitled to have the HD replaced for free if it is that, as i understand the HD should have a 1 yr warrenty on it.

If the HD has gone poop and isnt covered im thinking of getting this one: http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/79434

thanks alot
Matt

 

[jolancer]

) the only thing conserning the Input voltage for a laptop, is the External power adapter you use. (i dont use a laptop so i dont know the specifics on those, but....

..is there a ~110v/~230v switch on the PowerAdapter? or look on the specs on the Adapter itself, and see if it specifiys the Input Voltage(it may regulate input voltage automaticaly)... If not you can prolly buy a Different powercord/adapter for you laptop to accept ~110v instead.
--------------------------------------------

) ima little unclear about your second problem... Did the winXP CD have a problem just making it to the Installation Interface? or did it only have a problem once trying to /Detect/format/or Install to the HDD?.

 

[matthab]

ok i will check the Power adapter tonight.

in awnser to ur second question i had a problem getting to the xp install interface but finally got there. I then had a problem installing and getting into windows as it will either BSOD or just restart with no error.

The problems i had in the install interface was:

1) When loading files at the start it said a file was currupt
2) when searching for OS's it will restart
3) When formating in quick NTFS at 20% it would restart.

I used 2 home discs and the problems still showed but i did it enough times and it finally got to the windows install.

 

[jolancer]

you HDD may or may not have problems....

but since you had issues getting the CD to boot... i suspect other parts of the laptop may be at fault. (with or without your HDD at fault as well).

...its a old laptop, so it may have a lot of dust build up or whatnot, and perhaps Overheating. (you dont use it on a carpet or anything like that do you?(or even a bed or anything soft that would block its airflow)

Ram probs can also commonly cause BSODs... run memtest86 to test the ram... DL it from http://www.memtest.org/#downiso
(Extract the "Pre-compiled package for floppy" to a floppy, then boot from it, and it will auto run).

EDIT: you can also DL any aplications/utilitys for free from the/any Harddrive manufacturer, to test your HDD.

 

[matthab]

well its old yes so ill TRY and clean it tonight.

i dont use it on the carpet or a bed as it gets too hot to use on ur lap or something. so i use it on my desk where the heat can ventilate.

I cant test the memory because it doesnt get into windows and when its finished its 20mins of thinking about it itll BSOD and thats on a fresh install of windows.

Ill experiment with a external USB drive tonight then all will be shown if its the HD or not.

See its this long load up time which makes me think its HD as its shown it before when the HD went, but the BSOD and random restarts which make me wonder.

 

[bmxfreakrider]

dude...u get the file off of the internet with the pc ur using now, get memtest86+(google it) and put it on a floppy(or a cdr, if the laptop dont got a floppy)and boot from the disk and run it. most install problems are either caused by bad ram, bad hdd, or a bad cpu. so we'll narrow it to the hdd/ram. after the ram test is done, give us results, and weel see if its the ram, or run a different test for the hdd

 

[killians45]

Do a flat install and debug the HDD first.