Weird computer problem

[BXGemini20]

My laptop has been acting wierd the last two weeks. First it crashed on me. Now I was lucky that I was able to reinstall all the basic things that came with it. Now sometimes it would crash and I would reinstall everything again. I think I need a new hard drive or disk. I am not sure about this. Everything else is working fine except when I was reinstalling I would get errors something. I would to reinstall 2-3 times to get it working again. I also get blue screen that list errors as well.
Am I right? DO I need a new hard drive or do a new a whole new laptop. I have a Dell Inspirion 5150 if that helps.

 

[cloudy]

My laptop has been acting wierd the last two weeks. First it crashed on me. Now I was lucky that I was able to reinstall all the basic things that came with it. Now sometimes it would crash and I would reinstall everything again. I think I need a new hard drive or disk. I am not sure about this. Everything else is working fine except when I was reinstalling I would get errors something. I would to reinstall 2-3 times to get it working again. I also get blue screen that list errors as well.
Am I right? DO I need a new hard drive or do a new a whole new laptop. I have a Dell Inspirion 5150 if that helps.

It sounds like your hard drive is going out on you.

How do I know this, you ask?

I just went through the exact same thing about two weeks ago. I had to reformat my hard drive every single day just to be able to use the computer at all. New hard drive put it right.

 

[BXGemini20]

It sounds like your hard drive is going out on you.

How do I know this, you ask?

I just went through the exact same thing about two weeks ago. I had to reformat my hard drive every single day just to be able to use the computer at all. New hard drive put it right.

So Iwas right? Interesting. I'll tkae off it when I go on my winter break.

 

[Xenolan]

Check its temperature as well. The same symptoms can occur if it's getting too hot. If that's the case, it may need a new fan or new power supply.

 

[Scepter]

Heat could be the problem, dust and lint inside the laptop could be causing it, plugged ducts and heat sinks covered in lint can cause serious overheating. Cleaning is relativly easy:

http://www.short-media.com/review.php?r=258

You might want to try this before you order a new hard drive.

 

[silverwhisper]

are you sure you don't have a virus of some kind? a new virus cropped up around 2 weeks ago i think it was. your PC might have been an "early adopter".

how long have you had this machine and what kind of use do you put it through? what version of windows (i assume it's windows since you specify that you get BSODs). it could be the HD's age, and this would help narrow things down. :>

ed

 

[BXGemini20]

are you sure you don't have a virus of some kind? a new virus cropped up around 2 weeks ago i think it was. your PC might have been an "early adopter".

how long have you had this machine and what kind of use do you put it through? what version of windows (i assume it's windows since you specify that you get BSODs). it could be the HD's age, and this would help narrow things down. :>

ed

I had my laptop for about 15 months now. I had WIndows XP with the latest updates when it first crashed. When I reused my reinsatll CD it was WIndows XP with Service Pack 1a. It would alwyas crash before I can get to Windoes Update.

 

[silverwhisper]

you didn't address the question about viruses. this sounds like a behavior a virus would force. did you previously have anti-virus software of some kind that was updated frequently?

ed

 

[cd1_christine]

Bad memory also a possibility.

Google for a program called memtest86. You can download it for free, make a boot floppy with it, and run a complete test of all your memory.

There's also a bootable CD version, if you happen to have a laptop with no floppy drive. Haven't looked up the specs of your machine to know either way.

It's a little complex to write to a floppy, so make sure you follow the directions precisely. Also, you'd be better off downloading and making the disk on a machine other than the one that's screwing up on you. Borrow a neighbour's or something like that....

 

[Shagly]

My laptop has been acting wierd the last two weeks. First it crashed on me. Now I was lucky that I was able to reinstall all the basic things that came with it. Now sometimes it would crash and I would reinstall everything again. I think I need a new hard drive or disk. I am not sure about this. Everything else is working fine except when I was reinstalling I would get errors something. I would to reinstall 2-3 times to get it working again. I also get blue screen that list errors as well.
Am I right? DO I need a new hard drive or do a new a whole new laptop. I have a Dell Inspirion 5150 if that helps.

When you get the blue screen write down the error code and you can go to www.microsoft.com/technet and search for what the error code is trying to say in human language.

It sounds like some memory is going bad in the computer, a hard drive normally dies a fast death.

 

[BXGemini20]

Thanks for the advice there, Shagly. I hpe that is a big help.