Computer Help Please?

[Pyrus_Fangmon]

So hours earlier today I was doing my normal laptop things. Writing, music, checking the forum, etc. When suddenly my music cut out and all my windows closed. I was on my desktop and then all my icons and task bar dissipated. Then I got the lovely blue screen of death. in quick reaction, I pressed the kill switch (power button) and let my laptop turn off. after a few seconds I turned it back on. Everything was fine. within two minutes of reloading up my windows and writings, the same thing happened. The third time I turned it on, it did the windows loading screen (when you first turn it on it has the black background and windows symbol) and then the screen went black with the little '_' blinking at the top left. Now from past experience of this happening to me (one other time) all I had to do was take out my hard drive and put it back and everything was good. I repeated this cycle three times, and though the loading screen and desktop popped up normally, about a minute or two later it crashed again (this was recent) The only way I am able to use my laptop currently is through Safe Mode.

Has anyone else had this problem and know how to fix it? I'm currently transferring my things over to a new laptop, but I still want this one to be used as either a side laptop, or just for writing since it has a better keyboard. And if by chance the age of the laptop matters, mine will be a proud 7 years old this month. And is a Dell Windows 7. It's in really good condition, only been dropped once (but on carpet).

If anyone has any advice on this issue, please inform this dummy over here with anything! I am in desperate need to know of what is wrong. And if I am leaving any details of information out, please let me know as well.

Thank you for your time.

[bloom]

And if by chance the age of the laptop matters, mine will be a proud 7 years old this month.

Yeah, this is your problem. The hard drive is probably failing. Laptops typically only last like ~5 years, so you've had a very good run with yours, but this probably isn't something that's fixable, or if it is fixable, it's almost certainly not cost-effective to fix it.

[Blah!?]

I can't say for sure exactly what's causing this, but it sounds like the hard drive might be corrupted. I've had similar issues to this in the past, though not exactly the same, and both times it turned out my hard drive had bad sectors. In my case both of these were solid state drives, but that shouldn't matter too much since any kind of memory can become corrupted. Also if the computer's 7 years old, odds are it's a regular hard drive disk.

Copying your files to a new computer should be safe, but the hard drive itself is probably a lost cause. One thing you can do to test this is take it out and pop in another hard drive with an operating system installed on it. Since you were able to take it out in the first place I'm assuming you know how to do this, but if not, it isn't too complicated.

Another possibility is that some of the RAM has gone bad. Again, if you know how to take out the hard drive then I assume you either already know how to access the RAM or you can figure it out fairly easily. Basically if your laptop has multiple RAM chips, try taking one out (while it's off) and starting it up. If it doesn't crash then you know the chip you took out is bad. If it does still crash, then shut it down again, put the removed chip back in and take out the one you left in before and try it again. In the past most computers I've seen with RAM issues don't start up at all, but it's a possibility that's worth trying. If one of your RAM chips is bad, the computer can still run with just one, but it'll be slower.

[Scandinavius]

If it's working fine in safe-mode you could just salvage your files and reinstall Windows from CD/USB or use the reset to factory settings function if your laptop has one (when booting there should be a text somewhere about <F4> Recovery or something like that). If the installer crashes (or you can't get all your files saved) you can try the next thing. If this part works you can stop here.

What I would do is run Linux Mint from a usb-drive (and see if it crashes, if it does, it's probably not the harddrive that's broken), mount the harddrive as read-only (preferably) and copy all important files to an external drive. Then I would reboot to the Linux Mint USB and, while it's counting down, press down-arrow key and select Memtest. Let Memtest run for about six hours and see it it gives any errors (obvious red things)

Linux Mint USB:

Find a USB-drive that you do not care about the contents of (the files on it will be deleted)

Download from http://www.linuxmint.com/edition.php?id=191

Get Universal USB installer here:

http://www.pendrivelinux.com/universal-usb-installer-easy-as-1-2-3/

Follow instructions and be very sure to select the correct drive (because of the file deleting)

Safely remove USB and put it in powered down laptop.

Start laptop

Press the key that lets you select boot device (there is usually a text somewhere about that). It can take a few tries (reboots) if you don't know the right key.

There will be a countdown, if you wait or press enter Linux Mint will start. In this menu you can also run Memtest.

Once Linux Mint has started it should be pretty simple, there should be an icon on the desktop for your laptop harddrive and for an external harddrive if you connect one. Then it's just copying files like in Windows.

[Leafeon78]

The computer can also give blue screen of death after a program being installed it should when it happens give you a error code or a memory error as I had this problem.

[Pyrus_Fangmon]

GOOD NEWS!!!!!! MY BROTHER FIXED MY LAPTOP!

I love him to absolute pieces right now!

Ok so it turns out that it wasn't completely the hard drive itself. Apparently there was a bad program (input) from a previous update that had managed to 'hack' into my drive. The actual issue caused was a 'false' virus. My laptop identified it as hostile, and though I could still log in and boot it up, the blue screen and crash was my laptop saying 'I have found a potential harmful 'bug' in the main usage system, and will prevent any activity until the 'bug' is 'deleted'. Which would explain why Safe Mode worked fine.

I don't know how he did it. But when I woke up (reeeallly late for some reason) He had it up and was running a scan. He even cleared the Cach data off my Drive

But I will agree, it was the Hard Drive, and it was the Laptop. And I do in fact need a new one. Which is why I am transfering all my stuff over to a new laptop now.

Thank you guys so much for the help and ideas of what it could have been. I will be sure to keep all of this in mind if I encounter this issue again, and or if someone else has had it. You guys are great! Thank you so much!

[Leafeon78]

Your welcome