CatalystiCam

I could just rant about this, but that would not do much good.... Recently, as in maybe 3 months ago, I've been sharing my old School laptop with my sis since... Well... It was my computer back in the 2008-2009 year. Long story short it's been my "Good Computer", and I've just been using the old desktop for TV gaming.

Anyways, my sis' boyfriend suggested that she start using torrents to download her music, you can see where this is heading? Yup, I am almost certain this is the reason this computer is acting so friggin weird. She has no idea of the danger of torrents. She used the computer the night before it broke, and the second I went to use it the next day, it blue screened. I put two and two together and blamed the torrents? This is not the first time I've had a computer crash because of them, it would be the third. It's only other uses were forums, youtube, facebook, minecraft, and the sims 2. Those pretty much go for both of us, except minecraft and forums, that's just me.

TL: DR - The laptop blue screened about three minutes after I started using it, and when I went to boot it back u, it would just log in and all that, but it would hang up. It would open one start window it usually does that describes the computer as always, but then everything would do the (Not Responding) thing, and the screen would tint white with the mouse pointer doing the spinning blue loading logo... This happened about 10 times in a row, and would never end, the computer would not respond to crap once I logged in. It was a vegetable.

I gave up and used the PC recovery discs about a week ago before I left for the lake and re-downloaded AVG, PC-Checkup and a few other programs I would want, and need. All has been pretty bad for the computer ever since I recovered it to its factory settings, but it has still been hanging up randomly.

If I didn't no better I'd say the processor was literally attacked and now it doesn't function properly.

It's an HP Compaq 2008 model, with an Intel Core 2 Duo processor.

I hate to have to be in this situation yet again, but the fact is that I am... Help appreciated, thanks.

Slime Slayer

Lol your tldr is longer than your message.

At this point Cam I'd say your doing something wrong, I've never heard of someone destroying their pc's so much. Regarding your issue, I think it's pretty unlikely your sis dl'd a virus from a torrent that would make your pc blue screen. If it was a virus than that is one hell of a whopper.

Kong

You are having these problems right after restoring to factory defaults? Everything from before the restore is gone? That is a bad sign.

Check for dust, clogged fans and clogged heat sinks and clogged vents on computer and power supply.

When you get a blue screen there is an id number. Always right that number down and google it. That way you can find out the cause and solution for the bsod.

Tails

That's what caused me to quit using my laptop. Slow as a dino and would have those issues even after going to defaults.

CatalystiCam

It happens, these things always wind up being more paragraph like when I intended for a sentence. the stuff before the TLDR is unnecessary info. That was the reason

Yeah, that's what I've been thinking. Before the crash, when I performed a startup check, the hard disk would fail. I just tried one now, and it passed. So far so good this morning, everything is working... Yet, right after I posted this last night, the computer hung up, and I had to do the 5-second power button shutdown thing. Ctrl-Alt-Delete doesn't work when it does this. I'm wondering what it is if the hard disk is apparently fine.

They are all perfectly clear and unclogged as far as I can see. Still, the laptop can get quite warm when it's on for a while, but no more so than any laptop I believe.

I should mention that most of the crashes this time have been when the DVD drive has been used, it froze once when I tried to watch South park via DVD on it (although, the other 10 times I watched a DVD since were fine). It also froze 4 or 5 times for the sims 2 after I re-installed it for my sis and I. The disc drive does sound very loud at times since the crash. Re-installed the sims 2, and it's been fine since though as far as I know. My sis plays it more than me so I don't know.

Yeah, I thought nothing of it at the time I suppose. I thought it was just a fluke, and that it wouldn't happen again. It was your typical 'the computer has crashed unexpectedly. If this is the first time you have seen this screen ignore it, however if you have seen this screen more than once, contact whoever or something. Dump of physical memory'. Hopefully I don't have to see the blue screen again.

bearhawk72

Is it running XP?

Open a command prompt at type in chkdsk volume:/r

Volume is whatever the HDD is listed as(probably C: so the command would be chkdsk c:/r

It will scan the entire HDD and fix any errors it finds

May not fix it but it's worth a shot. It will not delete anything you have on the HDD

CatalystiCam

nah, this ones vista, but I'll try that. Thanks. Also, I guess I was just getting hopeful earlier too. It crashed about 10 minutes after the last time I posted...

---------- Post added at 12:43 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:40 PM ----------

This is what I got:

"Access Denied as you do not have sufficient privileges. you have to invoke this utility running in elevated mode"

This is the head account on the computer if that's what it is talking about.

Also, my grandpa suggested wiping it clean another time to see if it works this time.

bearhawk72

How to Run Chkdsk Utility on Vista | eHow.com

Vista instructions

CatalystiCam

ok, that worked, ran into a few snags like having to run Cmd as administrator and what not. It's scanning drive C now, but for some reason it would not work unless I didn't use the back slash "\"

Thanks, fingers crossed!

---------- Post added at 05:51 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:24 PM ----------

Sad to say that it did not work, the chkdsk c: scan worked as well as the chkdsk c:/f but whenever I went to do the chkdsk c:/r it would hang up at the exact same spot on step 4 of the procedure at the exact same number.

Kong

open command line and enter
chkntfs /c c:
then press enter
reboot
When you reboot it will check the disk for errors
Let it run for over night before deciding it is hung.

CatalystiCam

I left the other one for quite a few hours while I went and did boating activities, swimming, and all that. Never budged from that 5512 number or whatever. Just saying.

Thank you though, I'll start that scan before I go out for the night.

CatalystiCam

kong, as I recall, what you are trying to get me to do would not work. It would ask me to perform that scan for disc errors, and I'd say yes. The Cmd would then tell me it would check the disk when I rebooted, and asked me to reboot then. I said yes, and it never scanned. Same thing every time I tried.

I haven't posted here because I thought I was good. I had wiped the laptop once again, and it was working great. Unfortunately it was once again short lived as it started hanging up constantly after about a weeks time. Suddenly also, there was no deterioration at all, it just jumps from good to bad. Both times it has been fine for about a week, and then it would randomly get really sick again. Also good to note is that it hangs up after 15-30 minutes of use every time. I'm finding these consistent time frames really odd and figured that I'd mention them.

I don't know what to do, will a recovery do anything if I did it a third time, or would it only be fine for a week again? I tried a system restore (not recovery) today to about 6 days ago when it was working really great, and I figured it may just go back to acting good like it was on that day that had the restore point, but nope. If anything, it is worse now.

The computer started acting up on Friday again, and I just left it here while I went away for the weekend, and I imagine I'll do the same come 3 days if I don't have it fixed, and I'll be gone for 4 days next time. Just a heads up.

Barra

As a last resort Id do a fresh install of a new OS (probably XP). Vista hogs up your memory and is known for problems....I thought I was being "good" by putting Vista on my desktop when it came out, but it was so slow I reverted back to XP within the week. The problems your having dont really sound like a software/OS issue, but its worth a shot if you run out of ideas. Hope you can get it working

CatalystiCam

I've thought about it, but I'd a disc to install that, would I not?

Barra

Yeah you would, thats the tricky part.