InterviewSolution
Saved Bookmarks
InterviewSolution
| 1. |
Solve : Help! Computer Won't Boot!? |
|
Answer» I have a Toshiba Satellite a205 s4707. It came with Windows Vista Home Premium, and has been running okay for about 3 years. The computer keeps crashing after, and these random colored patterns, sometimes in horizontal stripes, weird patterns appear, ranging in a lot of different colors. (I also got a couple of BSODs) What I was doing with the computer doesn't REALLY seem to matter. Emulators, Word documents, videos, music, the colored stripes would appear, and I would have to reboot Windows. After a while, the system completley won't boot, and I had to get a Vista recovery disk and repair Windows. It worked fine for a couple of hours, but then, it wouldn't boot again, and I had to use the recovery disk a few more times. (The PC was also very slow, HARD Drive only had about 30GB out of 120GB) The colored stripes would still come out, so I downloaded Ubuntu 12.04 LTS and installed it. The first 2 attempts failed, halfway through the install, the colored stripes would come out. Third time lucky, I completley installed Ubuntu and was able to make a User, download some pictures, check for updates, watch a video on Youtube, and play a browser game. I closed the lid to make it go into sleep mode, but then the computer won't boot. After a few tries, and messing around in the Recovery Mode, I was able to get Ubuntu to the login page. After using it for a few minutes at most each time, the colored stripes would appear again. This morning I tried again, and Ubuntu won't boot at all and it keeps crashing (colored stripes) and the Recovery Mode is also effected. The only thing I did that was close to working was to do a memory check and I was able to get Ubuntu up for a minute before the colored stripes. From reading other ARTICLES and forums, I believe that the Graphics Card is probably broken. ( I NEVER cleaned out the fan or anything, so dust might also be a problem.) Can you please tell me the problem? And if so how to fix it? Thank you for a very detailed post. You have done the things that you need to do. You have used tow completely different OS, Vista and Ubuntu, and still had random problems. Can you run the laptop without the battery in place? (A few laptops don't allow this, but I think Toshiba is OK.) A bad battery, in a few cases, gives the symptoms you mention. Have you tried removing all USB devices? Can you get into the BIOS and check to see if time and date are correct. Bad time and date would mean the CMOS settings have been lost. Bad CMOS power cell. You may have a bad video chip. But there is no easy way to prove that. Can you get into the BIOS? If you can get into the BIOS and the display is stable, it might mean there is something else other than the video chip at fault. Shpt in the dark. Have you ever done a firmware update on this laptop?There is no need to multiple post vitamink.3 duplicate posts deletedSorry guys about the mulit posts, I was kinda scared that no one would see my posts. I can run the PC without the battery(with the power cord in), and I don't have any USB devices. I'm not that good with computers (only 13 lol) and I checked the date. Funny thing is that today is the 15TH, and it shows its the 16th. I dont really know about firmware updates, but getting different advice from people. Some say its faulty RAM Others say it could be the dust (never cleaned it, been about 4 years now ) Also say that it could be the video card I really dont know what to make of it. Took it to GeekSquad, and before even checking it out, they offered the $70 checkup thing. The poor guy at Staples didnt even know what Linux was. Thanks for replies and please help!One detail missing. Can you run it in the Linux 'Live" mode. That is when you do NOT install it to the herd drive. Just run it in RAM. Ubuntu does it and so do many other distros. This way you can see if the problem goes away when you do NOT use the hard drive. Simple way to see if it is the hard drive or something else. |
|