a problem with my laptop

[Frank Wallis]

I just started to have a problem with my IBM laptop.

Following are the configuration of my laptop:

1) WinXP with SP2
2) RAM 512MB
3) CPU around 1 Ghz,

Yesterday ,I started to have a new problem with my laptop,when I powered on my laptop, IBM welcome screen appears as usual and at the bottom left side of the screen, it gives 2 options:

1) Press F1 for BIOS Setup.
2) Press F2 for bootable devices.

The WinXP use to load without any problem after this IBM welcome screen but since yesterday , the laptop hangs at this IBM welcome screen and after couple of minutes when I press F1 it shows a messege on the right bottom side of the screen saying "Entering
BIOS Setup" but it doesnot go into BIOS and this messege remains their.

Please note that couple of days back, My laptop was responding slow,and browsing was slow too and it almost reached to a freeze, the CPU usage reached 100% and when I checked the memory usage in Task Manager, it showed that 1 of the Internet Explorer application was using huge amount of memory.

When I placed my hand under the laptop base,it was really hot, and I think their is a problem with the CPU temperature.

Can anyone pls let me know exactly what could be the problem?

Looking forward to prompt response.

[Frank Wallis]

can anyone pls help me with this?

[Suspishio]

Is this related to your hotmail problem or did you solve this one and run into another?

As you know, laptops are the least fixable item, particularly when a number of factors are thrown into the pot (hot bottom, 100% CPU usage, application swamping memory, degraded performance a couple of days earlier, booting issues).

Anyway, to see whether or not to move forward with this thread, we'd need to know its relationship to the hotmail issue.

[HelpingHands-IT]

Your error implies the BIOS cannot see the hard drive. Either the drive has died or requires you to grab a philis screw driver, remove mains, remove battery, with the machine upside down locate the panel which stores your hard drive, open the panel, carefully remove the drive, replace the drive and refit the cover, reconnect the battery and power. Turn on your machine, if your lucky then your a victim of "creep" and your machine will continue to work normally. IF NOT and you have not been into the BIOS and been playing with the Bootable Devices you will be needing a replacement hard drive and your installations disks.

I hope this helps

Jeff

[PcTestCard.com]

Try reset the laptop by following steps:

remove battery and AC adapter, remove all other removable devices like PC card, USB connections...etc.

holding down the power button over 15 seconds, this will discharge and reset the laptop, then connect only AC adapter and power on the laptop.

Also try look at the CPU fan, mkae sure the fan is not clouded by the dust.

Besides these, there maybe other faulty part(s) on your laptop mainboard you need to find out.

Hope this helps!
Bill

[Frank Wallis]

The problem of hotmail.com started some days before this BIOS
issue.

I am not able to enter BIOS ,either it is slow or it hangs when
I try to enter into BIOS. Should I directly look into BIOS Chip
on the MB?

What do u mean by AC adaptor, r u talking about a big battery
which can be easily taken out from the base of a laptop?

[PcTestCard.com]

What do u mean by AC adaptor, r u talking about a big battery
which can be easily taken out from the base of a laptop?

Battery is the big battery
which can be easily taken out from the base of a laptop, AC adapter is the power cable that connects the laptop to the power socket in house and charging the battery.

Cheers!
Bill

[HelpingHands-IT]

Hotmail is a web based service which is attainable after the machine has started - as such it would be incredibly unlikely that homail would affect your BIOS!

[Frank Wallis]

I am surprized about it ,why is it that the CPU is reaching 100%
after I access hotmail.com?
Ok, I am sorry , I got what u mean.
I have to check my laptop properly. Can you please tell me why
do I have to take out the big battery from the laptop ?

Please note that my laptop battery is weak and I have to keep
my laptop on the AC adaptor.

[HelpingHands-IT]

Frank - your missing the point!

You have two issues - the first being that your machine will not boot. This is where you need to check the "seating" of the hard drive using my previous suggestion.

The second point is relative to the internet browser and not specifically to hotmail. With regards to this situation, I would be inclined to ensure that the machine is fully patched and if neccessary try an alternative internet browser (Mozilla Firefox, Opera and Safari are all possible options).

I hope this helps - however the second solution cannot be put into place if you cannot solve the first issue.

Jeff

[Frank Wallis]

Frank - your missing the point!

You have two issues - the first being that your machine will not boot. This is where you need to check the "seating" of the hard drive using my previous suggestion.

The second point is relative to the internet browser and not specifically to hotmail. With regards to this situation, I would be inclined to ensure that the machine is fully patched and if neccessary try an alternative internet browser (Mozilla Firefox, Opera and Safari are all possible options).

I hope this helps - however the second solution cannot be put into place if you cannot solve the first issue.

Jeff

Reply to ur 1st concern, I don't think their is anything wrong with the HDD since in the laptop, I don't think a HDD has enough room to
be displaced from its point but still I'll try.

Jeff, if my web browser(IE) is the problem then how come only
the hotmail.com site is causing the problem? why not the rest of
the sites cause the problem?

I hope my doubt is clear to u.

Thanks

[HelpingHands-IT]

Frank,

All devices with metal components are prone to "creep" and I have seen it as a factor on numerous occassions. Whilst I appreciate the "god" like status passed on by the recipient of help, I do let them know that the problem required only removing the drive and replacing it and your problem regarding your Lenovo machine is identical to one I repaired last week with another Lenovo machine. There are many myths and areas of "smoke and Mirrors" within our industry, however those of us with the experience need to empower our clients / customers / users with all the basic repair skills which in turn will release us to carryout more technical challenges.

I am not saying that this is the definative solution to your problem - I am saying that it would be daft to overlook such a simple solution to a problem based in physics (metal grows and shrinks depending on the ambient temperature).

The issue regarding your Hotmail issue - is the hotmail site used as your homepage? Have you ensured that the machine is clear of infections? http://www.malwarebytes.org will provide a fantastic free piece of software which may assist you in uncovering possible miscreants.

Is your IE 100% upto date, what addons are you running and have you tried disabling them, have you tried resetting your IE, have you tried running IE in safe mode, are you in a situation to try other internet browsers?

All possible thoughts relating to your situation - if I have others then I will post them next time

[caperjack]

the heat could be cpu ,but also could be the hardrive !

just finished ready an e-mail about tech support funny ? and answers

[kewlman]

the heat could be cpu ,but also could be the hardrive !

just finished ready an e-mail about tech support funny ? and answers

absolutely. both the cpu and hard drives run hot.. the CPU fan and heatsink can be cleaned out however.. It's not all that hard to do either. I've seen gobs of who knows what blocking the path of air from the fan to the heatsinks ALOT. Take the hard drive out (change bios to boot from cd first then HD), boot from a CD, does it even boot from a CD?

Definetly run IE with no addons and see what happens.. (Control Panel>Internet Options>Programs [tab]>Manage Addons).