My pc crashes on boot up

[VC_Resurrected]

Just wondered if anyone had any advice on the situation i got before i pay for some expensive fix-up. If i ever do. For apparently no reason the other day my laptop crashed (i was writing a Word document).

On rebooting it, it ran for a while then crashed again. Now when i try and start her up she crashes just as my background loads up on the windows desktop.

The fan buzzes really loud, like its doing loads of work, then it shuts down. It has worked in safe mode up till now, but i cant stand running everything in 640x400 res. its like going back in time.

Any advice would be appreciated. Sad as it may be, I miss the battlefield!!

For reference im running a AMD 64 3200+, 1gb RAM, 128mb 9700 mobility Radeon, windows XP home.

[|CBW|Simon]

Re: My pc crashes on boot up

Try booting up in safe mode. If you can, it's a software problem probably. If you can't, it's hardware.

Once you have it at least to that point, you will know whether or not you should bother taking it into the shop.

Simon

[Heatseeker_no.1]

Re: My pc crashes on boot up

Sounds like overheating...

[GeoffRowley]

Re: My pc crashes on boot up

PSU problems/heating issue?

[mrbinum]

Re: My pc crashes on boot up

PM me

[Venomous]

Re: My pc crashes on boot up

Let it rest a day and then come back to it or do full virus scan if it comes up empty try a system restore. if that doesnt work reformatt is your best bet. You probly picked up a nasty bug

[VC_Resurrected]

Re: My pc crashes on boot up

Let it rest a day and then come back to it or do full virus scan if it comes up empty try a system restore. if that doesnt work reformatt is your best bet. You probly picked up a nasty bug

I just tried that all that, virus-scanned it (nothing came up), sytem restored it (still crashed), and reformatted it, and now it loads up ok, but still crashes when I give it the slightest task to do.

The strange thing is it says 'logging off' just before it crashes. I think it may be an over-heating issue, but i am a little scared to open her up and see if theres anything I can do.

I read one crazy suggestion on tech forum: put it in the freezer overnight! I mean if all else fails i'll give it a go, but this sounds a little extreme right?

PM me

You been PM'd!

[kenof2142]

Re: My pc crashes on boot up

Sounds like your heatsink went out on your cpu. I would clean everything up and see if that helps, if not it might be time to purchase a new cpu heatsink.

['oUtL@w']

Re: My pc crashes on boot up

LOL in the freezer!!! Sounds like a hardware or overheating problem then, looks like you are gonna have to take it in the shop for repairs.

[RomeBoarder]

Re: My pc crashes on boot up

Let it rest a day and then come back to it or do full virus scan if it comes up empty try a system restore. if that doesnt work reformatt is your best bet. You probly picked up a nasty bug

how can you do a virus scan if it wont boot up?

[VC_Resurrected]

Re: My pc crashes on boot up

how can you do a virus scan if it wont boot up?

I virus scanned it on safe mode

[megawhompertoo]

Re: My pc crashes on boot up

Lemme take some guesses--

This computer is about a year old

and

This computer runs just about every day in a home environment

and

This computer has never had a thorough cleaning

and

This computer lives in a house with animals (maybe?) other than humans?

Diagnosis: There is dog hair (or just a plain layer of carpet fibers/lint/dust) in your PC. Can you see if there is any dust on the vents?

Also, go into the bios on boot up and make sure there isn't anything wonky with your ACPI.

Last thing--you might be able to take the keybaord off rather easily (mine is two little latches and a gentle tug) and this gets you access to most of the guts of the machine. You may have to take off a heat shield, but we're talking six little screws here.

Another possibility is that the thermostat isn't "thermostating" your temps correctly.

Oh, and *never, never, never* put a pc you have any plan for using later in the freezer.

[VC_Resurrected]

Re: My pc crashes on boot up

I got it working!!! Thanks to everyone who helped out with my problem, it was much appreciated.

I ended up opening my laptop up because after reformatting it, it was still crashing. Of course we didnt have any of the right size screwdrivers around, so i had to use the one on my penknife.

And I had no idea how many different sized screws there are in a laptop.

megawhompertoo I have to take my hats off to you: The first thing I see on opening up the CPU fan was a few dog hairs. And of course a load of dust. So i vacuumed her out, put her back together, and bam, she's running like a dream!

To give her the real test I ran battlefield on her, and all checked out ok. Once again, thanks guys, see you on the 'field!

[megawhompertoo]

Re: My pc crashes on boot up

Good deal. Congrats on getting 'er up and running again.