Pretzel
01-28-2004, 09:41 PM
A couple months ago my Compaq laptop running Windows XP started to exhibit some strange behavior such as error messages popping up and browser crashing. After running every diagnostic I could find to no avail, I attempted to revert the hard drive to an earlier time. This resulted in it not even being able to boot. I then used the system restoration CD's to reinstall the system, but it would not fully restore, and I still kept getting error messages about missing DLL's, and other things. After contacting Compaq support, they had me reset the bios, then delete the partitions, and reinstall the OS again, all to no avail. They then suggested I take it to a Compaq service center. It begins to start up and then loops without ever starting XP. It will sometimes start in safe mode if it has been shut down for a period. I took it to two different places for service and after a thorough check they both said it was probably the memory. It seems pretty easy to just flip it over and unplug the memory module and replace if that is all they refer to, but I read that laptops have built in memory too. Do they mean the RAM, the plug in modules, or is there a different memory somewhere that they are refering to that I have to tear this thing down?