PC keeps Freezing over and over!!

[MindessAndInJeopardy]

I recently aquired an old laptop from my bro. Some of its features are:
-300 mhz AMD-K6-2
-Intel 430TX

He had Windows ME installed on it despite me yelling numerous times not to. Anyway, every time i turned the laptop it would keep freezing at any random time. At first I thought "Idiot shoulda listened to me" since, after all, this thing is 5 years old and the components might not be compatible. Moving along, I was already planning on removing windows and making it a Linux laptop. After several unsuccessful tries (since the thing kept freezing) I was finally able to remove the windows and prepare the hard drive (formatting, re=partioning, etc) for linux. The funny thing was that even as I was trying to install Linux on it I kept freezing. Then I noticed that whenever my floppy drive or my Cd-rom drive kept accessing my hard drive it would either freeze immediately or after a minute. What could possible be wrong? Should I just toss the thing away? I would greatly appreciate any suggestions anyone would have. Thanx! (Mindess is supposed to be Mindless but i was too lazt to change the name LOL)

[BigBlue66]

Hi,

I am not too familiar with laptops. Ok, I am not at all familiar with laptops.

Usually, freezing up is the result of either too much heat or bad memory. It could also be from loose connections.

How much memory does it have? If it has more than 64mb, then that might be a problem right there, because the Intel 430 series chipset will only cache 64mb. However, that shouldn't freeze it up, just slow it down.

If you're not comfortable with opening up the laptop, I suggest taking it to an experienced technician. Laptops can be a bear to work on, or so I'm told. I guess it depends on how much time and money you want to put into it.

Sorry I wasn't of much help. Hang tight and some laptop savvy people should respond yet today.

Cheers,

Big Blue 66


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Woe is me.

[sea69]

try putting the original OS that the BIOS are for?







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[mjc]

Check the BIOS for an anti-virus option. It should be disabled before any installation/formatting is done. Also check things like boot order and floppy seek.

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mjc
Links list:Computer Links

Celts are the men that heaven made mad, For all their battles are merry and their songs are all sad.

[Rexa]

My antivirus thing is off. And I have 32MB of ram by the way so that can't possibly be the problem. The system origibally came with windows 95 though, however, I'll try opening it up and take a peek to see if it is loose wires or the fan. Thanx guys! (oh i changed my name from Mindless in Jeopardy btw, sorry for the confusion lol)

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[iisbob]

Actually Rexa the 32mb could be the problem, even windows 95/98 won't run very well under less than 64-and from all i've seen with ME, less than 128 mires you in the mud. I know that laptop memory is expensive compared to desktop sticks, but in the same respect it is still one of the quickest and eaiest fixes to a system.

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iisbob
"Soap and education are not as sudden as a massacre, but they are more deadly in the long run."

[Rexa]

Well, it's a good thing you pointed that out even though, it could still be a heating problem as mentioned in a previous post (and i still have to check for that). I will plan to upgrade the memory then. But the problem is that when i'm running from a boot disk with no operating system (so i'm still in some sort of dos mode) why would my system keep freezing like that when I;m not even running windows?

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[Rexa]

Actually, to add on to my previous post-reply. Sometimes, the damn thing, would not even finish booting properly before it freezes.

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[iisbob]

linux is pretty sensitive to bad clusters on a hard drive; try running scandisk on the drive before you install inux. you can copy scandisk from your windows/command folder to the start-up floppy.

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iisbob
"Soap and education are not as sudden as a massacre, but they are more deadly in the long run."

[mjc]

Does it do the same when it plugged in and running off of the AC adapter instead of the batteries?

Also when you do get the new memory try it by itself.

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mjc
Links list:Computer Links

Celts are the men that heaven made mad, For all their battles are merry and their songs are all sad.

Gun Control...hitting what you aim at!

[Rexa]

I can't run scandisk if it freezes all the time (i've tried several times unfortunately. And I run it most of the time off the A/C adapter.

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[mjc]

Have you tried running scandisk from DOS...with ME that means using a Win98 bootdisk with scandisk on it...you can use ME's version (it is a little faster)?

I was thinking that if it was just under batteries you may not be getting a full charge and/or have dirty contacts (clean the contacts on the batteries anyway).

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mjc
Links list:Computer Links

Celts are the men that heaven made mad, For all their battles are merry and their songs are all sad.

Gun Control...hitting what you aim at!

[sea69]

mjc, I find {{ME}}defragg speed to be at least TRIPLE that of win98!

on any {{Win98}} computer I have installed it on./



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[This message has been edited by sea69 (edited 07-28-2001).]

[Rexa]

Yes, I have! Everything that I have mentioned trying was under Dos from a boot disk. Since I have a formatted drive and no operating system on it now (Linux failed to install since I keep freezing when It tries to access the hard drive and start making changes). I still havent had the chance to open up my laptop yet (i misplaced my screwdriver for opening up those stupid little screws ). Tomorrow, I'll plan a trip to Sears and get: the necessary screwdriver. I'll let you all know what unpleasantries I find after opening it up

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[Rexa]

Oh actually, I have another question. My battery pack is a goner now, so I can only use the A/C adaptor (I use it all the time anyway). Could this have any impact on this? Even though I use the A/C adaptor, could the damaged battery pack still be doing something to affect it?

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[mjc]

Will it run without the batteries installed?

If the battery pack is damaged it can be bleeding off just enough power to cause problems.


Sea, I've used McAfee's versions of scandisk and defrag for sometime now and didn't see much of a speed increase over them...but they were much faster than Win98's own versions, anyway.
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mjc
Links list:Computer Links

Celts are the men that heaven made mad, For all their battles are merry and their songs are all sad.

Gun Control...hitting what you aim at!

[This message has been edited by mjc (edited 07-28-2001).]

[ziba-june]

I have a pentium 266 laptop with only 48meg of RAM running WinME. It runs fine except in a few occasions where I had let the battery go all the way down. It was not booting up even after I had plugged it into AC outlet. I had to let the battery get some juice before it boots up. It is very strange but true; now if I plug the laptop in but remove the battery, it won't bootup however if I boot it up with a good battery and plugged into Ac outlet and then take the battery out every thing is fine.

[Paleo Pete]

OK, first, laptops in general seem to be fairly proprietary, and might not like a different OS. I don't think that's the problem though...on this machine, with 32MB RAM I would stick with win95 or 98, and if you manage to get the freezing problem under control, Linux may work. A memory upgrade would help.

Freezing in DOS mode or before it completely boots makes me think it's a hardware problem, either heat, bad memory or a card not seated well. Could also be a video card going bad. If you can get the thing open, check to see if the CPU fan is working, check voltages coming from the power supply if possible, and reseat everything.

Socket creep may be a possibility here too. Expansion and contraction from heat caused by turning the machine on and off can cause chips to gradually work out of their sockets. Carefully press all socketed chips in firmly, but not hard enough to crack the motherboard.

Also remove the heatsink and check for thermal paste. If it's there it could be dried by now, clean it off the CPU and heatsink and apply new paste. A thin film is plenty. Too much is worse than none or not enough.

If you do go for a memory upgrade, try to get one chip that's the size you want, rather that trying to add more to the existing memory. That will take care of the problem if it happens to be bad memory. Once you get it running again, you can add the older chip and see how it runs.

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[Rexa]

Ziba I will definitely try your suggestion first. Paleo, if it is the power supply, what does that look like when I open it up? I know it sounds stupid but I never dealt with power supply on desktops or laptops.

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