My oldest laptop starting really acting up a few months ago. First, it was randomly spitting out a lot of interference that affected the tv doubling as a second monitor. Entire groups of channels would be unwatchable.
In the past month, video and audio playback starting being distorted. Youtube videos would slow down and sound slurry, then playing files off the HD were affected as well.
Now, when clicking through folders, sometimes windows XP randomly goes back to the previous directory by itself. It's haunted!
I've checked for viruses, defragged the HD, kept software up to date, and nothing helps. Is it time to put it out of it's misery and recycle it? (I've backed everything up and moved on to a newer machine.) My gut tells me it would be an expensive repair, not to mention the cost of replacement battery if I wanted to retire it to light wi-fi use.
Where were you in '77?
^It certainly wouldn't hurt to get a quote, but unless it's your only computer on certain software - for instance, if it's your only Windows when you've made the switch to Mac or vice-versa - it might be best to recycle it. My 7 year old (wow!) Dell just sits in my parents' room back home, gathering dust. The fan is so loud it overpowers the speakers! I think it's the result of one last drop a few years back.
A Goon in a Gaggle of 'em
When was the last time you reformatted (wiped the HD, reinstalled Windows) the thing?
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My current laptop is nine years old.
Download an Ubuntu start up disk and give it a spin.
I've known people save a fortune by extending the life of their laptops that way.
Windows isn't the well of all evil but it's not very forgiving when it comes to older machines and Apple is not much better these days either.
Give it a try.
What have you got to lose?
Repairing an old laptop is not worth it. Unless it's just a matter of adding RAM or adding a new HDD/SSD, you're better off investing in something new.
You can get a very capable laptop for $500 or so these days. Watch out for Black Friday deals, too.
“Grow up. These are my Disney's movies, not yours.”
My HP is 7 years old now, but it's seen fairly light use. (I've never needed to do a re-install of Win XP).
The weird thing is, I made my start-up/login sound a short sample of Episode 3's opening battle music (from the CD), and I haven't changed it since I got it.
Star Wars Episode XXX: Erica Strikes Back
If you want Nice, go to France
I received a netbook as a gift earlier this year, so my portable computing needs are met. Windows 7 starter kind of blows, you can't even change the wallpaper!
I'd consider reinstalling Windows if it had actually come with a installation disk. Not giving you physical copies of software seems to be the trend these days.
I actually thought my Dad's old tower PC would have imploded first. Not that I use it all that much these days.
Thanks for all the suggestions, everyone.
Where were you in '77?
I found my laptop overheating badly until I made the Linux switch (I even had to fit cooler tray thing to stop my legs from getting ironed).
Now it's back to normal.
It's worth a try.
I put Lubuntu on a really old machine a friend of mine still has (it's got a CD-ROM reader drive which dates it some) and it's fast, not fancy but fast.
Yeah, if you're not going to be putting it through heavy usage or anything and just want it around, I would say to reinstall Windows* (weird that you didn't get an XP disc, though) and see if that fixes it, but don't put any money into fixing it because what it would take to fix it would likely be more than what it would take to just buy a new machine.
*I am not a Linux man so I have no knowledge about it and can't speak to that.
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If you want to try reinstalling Windows, most laptops of that age will have a hidden partition which stores the same content as backup discs. Pressing a certain key combination during startup will start the recovery menu, but the keys depend on the laptop. Google "recovery menu" and your brand name or model number.
Reformat. Quick and easy. Sounds like it is very probable it is just a software issue. If that doesn't do the trick, then you know it is likely hardware.
It is unfortunate you don't have the disks, that makes things more a bit more complicated but it still isn't that complicated. Window XP's generic drivers are pretty good, but you probably want to go grab the latest XP drivers for at least your graphics card, mouse, sound card, and network adapter. XP disks aren't too hard to get your hands on.
In reality, a little bit of time and without spending a penny, you have a chance of getting it running as good as new. Of course, that is as good as new for a six year old laptop.
Not sure why everyone thinks it's weird or unfortunate that there are are no discs. It would be very rare to get an XP disc with a laptop six years ago. You are prompted to create your own backup or recovery discs and often given blanks for this specific purpose.
As I said above, this information is stored on a hidden partition and can recover your laptop to factory settings without discs. This type of recovery will format AND install Windows AND install all the hardware drivers that were present when the machine was brand new. Obviously some of these should be updated once the recovery is done.
All the six year-old laptops I've ever dealt with had XP discs, haha. Never had any partition stuff that I noticed until Vista came out.
But the partition thing is just as relevant as the discs, so if you can find it, certainly use that option!
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Some laptops from six years ago had recovery partitions, not all of them. Depends on the type he has. My crappy Dell from six years ago didn't have a recovery partition and came with discs, same for my ex-wife's Dell a few years later. My dad's Compaq from closer to ten years ago had a recovery partition, but it wasn't hidden, it was the D: drive and was right out there in the open along with a readme file warning not to delete or place anything on that partition. That was one of the few times I had seen anything like that prior to recent years where just about everything has a hidden recovery partition.
Also I've never heard of any laptops providing you with blank discs in order to make your own system restore set. That seems really weird, I imagine it was pretty rare, and it is not surprising that it no longer happens, that system would be far too dependent on semi-tech savvy users, and if they fail to make their own backup discs prior to something going wrong they'd be screwed.
Must be an international difference. I was selling and recovering XP laptops six years ago and the recovery partition/blank disc thing was the norm and still is with most of the major brands here.
It's a Sony Vaio.
Thanks for all the info, I will look into the partition thing. I think I found a fix for the audio video problem, but as it's been intermittent, don't know if it actually worked yet.
Will the reformat also wipe any personal info I might have missed? I've already run a eraser program my Dad trusted several times.
Where were you in '77?
Yes, if you do a recovery it will be completely wiped. Try Alt+F10 during boot and see if a recovery menu appears.
If you feel like the problem is over heating, find instructions to open your laptop and clean the dust out. My laptop is 6 year old and is only in use when it's sitting on my lap, so to keep it running I open it up from time to time and remove all the blue jean lint that it collects.
I would agree with those who say reinstall Windows. Delete the partition and start over.
It's illegal to not give you a windows disc. You paid for it, you should have the disc. Of course places like Best Buy who don't give you the disc will happily reinstall windows for you at a hefty labor price. If you need a disc, I would be happy to point you in the right direction for finding one online.
Using Ubuntu is a great idea as well. It's free, easy on resources, and is the easiest Linux based OS to use if you are used to Windows. Oh, and fuck Apple products, Mac is Whack.
If you want a Myspleen invite, just PM me and ask.
http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Once-upon-a-time-on-MySpleen/topic/12652/
Mine has spent it's life on a nice quiet table, so no Levi's lint. ;)
^This fix seems to be holding and the fan is suddenly more quiet. What triggered the problem in the first place, I have no idea.
The recovery option is there. If I roll it back to factory specs, won't I be stuck downloading every XP update and patch that's come down the pike? Had to spend a couple hours updating the old tower PC that had been sitting idle for several months. I don't even want to think how long six years of updates would take!
There's a "Windows Vista Compatible" sticker on the case. Maybe I could upgrade?
Where were you in '77?
I did a clean install on my XP desktop last year. The update process was pretty smooth. It took some hours, but other than rebooting a few times it was mostly autonomous. I was rather impressed.
“Grow up. These are my Disney's movies, not yours.”
On this subject, I have a similar problem with my old laptop (DELL Inspiron 5150) where the fan is nonexistent when it boots up and then once it loads up it goes insane. It happened after one last drop a few years ago. Would silverwook's fix be of any help to me? I'd like to avoid taking my laptop apart, as I have a history of being unable to put things back together (my first NES broke, I can't re-attach my Dreamcast's top without the disc being unable to spin, etc.) and I would like to keep it for both sentimental reasons and practical ones. Hey, native Windows is useful sometimes.
For reference, the model is known for having issues with overheating. I think I've had my parts replaced enough that whatever factory defects existed were probably fixed, though. If it's really a matter of replacing it, at least the part is cheap.
A Goon in a Gaggle of 'em
SilverWook said:
The recovery option is there. If I roll it back to factory specs, won't I be stuck downloading every XP update and patch that's come down the pike? Had to spend a couple hours updating the old tower PC that had been sitting idle for several months. I don't even want to think how long six years of updates would take!
It wouldn't take long (few hours at most). However if you manage to find (not buy) a windows disc it would be more up to date.
There's a "Windows Vista Compatible" sticker on the case. Maybe I could upgrade?
Dear God no! If you want to upgrade, upgrade to Windows 7. Vista was complete garbage a bit of a resource hog. If your PC can handle Vista it will handle Win7 just as well.
Again, I can point you in the right direction if you want a cheaper *cough, cough free* option than buying a disc. ;)
If you want a Myspleen invite, just PM me and ask.
http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Once-upon-a-time-on-MySpleen/topic/12652/
Oh no! I meant it was a hopeful sign I could run Windows 7. Microsoft only seems to have that upgrade check thingy for 8 now. Ran it on my Dad's old PC just for laughs. Not enough RAM. ;)
They are going to stop supporting XP in the near future?
On a related note, I am having trouble getting Fry's website to load on my new laptop. I tried it with the netbook and didn't have any trouble, so I don't think it's my ISP...
Where were you in '77?
Six year olds shouldn't have laptops ;-<
Bingowings said:
Six year olds shouldn't have laptops ;-<
Yeah, they all have iPhones anyway. Don't want to spoil them too much.
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