Laptop keeps shutting down for no reason.Had a couple of Blue screen of deaths.Started when I received an email from an 'ex-member' of PFF couple of days ago, with a link.but might be coincidence.Yes. I did click on it, and everything went weird...but has got worse since I installed my Linksys USB adapter.Discovered that system restore won't restore, even though there are a lot of dates available...What can I do?? Get this off before it closes down again...aaaagh!! Nick
------------------ fierofetish.PFF'S self-confessed Snowbird!! Growing old is harder than growing up. Responsibility: the solution for our World's Dilemmas.. Yahoo messenger:nickcannspain MSN Messenger-nicholascann@hotmail.com
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07:41 AM
PFF
System Bot
tutnkmn Member
Posts: 3426 From: York, England, U.K. Living in Ohio Registered: May 2006
XP Home...still here Nick Add: Norton didn't pick anything up, and when I try to run Spyware Doctor, it shuts down before it completes..Maybe I have a trojan horse or something??
[This message has been edited by fierofetish (edited 08-19-2006).]
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07:45 AM
tutnkmn Member
Posts: 3426 From: York, England, U.K. Living in Ohio Registered: May 2006
Do you have diagnostic software installed? Such as Norton System Works?
Could be a virus, but I am leaning toward a system error associated with the hardware install.
Eliminate that possibilty before proceeding with the virus approach. Problem is, if you picked up a virus newer than the updates in your virus engine the engine would not find the virus anyway.
Do you remember the name of the attached file in the e-mail?
You can restore XP from the OEM disc if you have one (those da*n OEMs don't give discs like they once did ). The process is a little risky though. A good set of instructions are located here:
Can I copy/paste it here safely? Nick Didn't get a disc with the laptop, secondhand. Has an identification sticker on the bottom..with the code on it Seems to be staying up now..What is up with system restore? Just comes back saying no action could be taken, and was left unrestored
[This message has been edited by fierofetish (edited 08-19-2006).]
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08:05 AM
tutnkmn Member
Posts: 3426 From: York, England, U.K. Living in Ohio Registered: May 2006
Can I copy/paste it here safely? Nick Didn't get a disc with the laptop, secondhand. Has an identification sticker on the bottom..with the code on it Seems to be staying up now..What is up with system restore? Just comes back saying no action could be taken, and was left unrestored
System restore can be effected by soooooo many things. I have seen it work great, but a virus or other code error can send restore into a tailspin.
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08:12 AM
tutnkmn Member
Posts: 3426 From: York, England, U.K. Living in Ohio Registered: May 2006
Go to your start menu, right click on "My Computer" This will bring up a context menu. Left click on Manage. This will bring up the computer management window. Then click on the + by Event Viewer And Click on system. This will show you the logs for your system. Scroll down the list and look for the error (Red Flag) that correspondes with the last time you blue screened.
Could you copy and past the contents of that error here. It may give us a clue as to what is wrong.
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08:20 AM
tutnkmn Member
Posts: 3426 From: York, England, U.K. Living in Ohio Registered: May 2006
Go to your start menu, right click on "My Computer" This will bring up a context menu. Left click on Manage. This will bring up the computer management window. Then click on the + by Event Viewer And Click on system. This will show you the logs for your system. Scroll down the list and look for the error (Red Flag) that correspondes with the last time you blue screened.
Could you copy and past the contents of that error here. It may give us a clue as to what is wrong.
Do this too. First step is problem isolation. I'll look at the virus angle and get back soon...........
No problems running the video on the Windows machine. AVG caught nothing bad, virus or spyware. File seems OK.
Doing a complete scan of that machine to make sure there were no illicit file downloads.
[This message has been edited by tutnkmn (edited 08-19-2006).]
Hello Randy, and thanks to you too. Can't seem to copy to paste..I have copied the whole log to' my documents'....can I email it to you? There are a lot of 'warnings', and quite a few errors...mainly tcpip and DCOM.. Nick
quote
Originally posted by 8Ball:
Nick,
Go to your start menu, right click on "My Computer" This will bring up a context menu. Left click on Manage. This will bring up the computer management window. Then click on the + by Event Viewer And Click on system. This will show you the logs for your system. Scroll down the list and look for the error (Red Flag) that correspondes with the last time you blue screened.
Could you copy and past the contents of that error here. It may give us a clue as to what is wrong.
------------------ fierofetish.PFF'S self-confessed Snowbird!! Growing old is harder than growing up. Responsibility: the solution for our World's Dilemmas.. Yahoo messenger:nickcannspain MSN Messenger-nicholascann@hotmail.com
Hello Randy, and thanks to you too. Can't seem to copy to paste..I have copied the whole log to' my documents'....can I email it to you? There are a lot of 'warnings', and quite a few errors...mainly tcpip and DCOM.. Nick
DHCP and acpi errors are quite common in XP
Our XP machine is repleat with these as it does not work and play well with our Linux based network
Windows networking......bwahhhahahahaha!
[This message has been edited by tutnkmn (edited 08-19-2006).]
Yea those two errors are common, it the the ones at the time of your blue screens I am interested in though. Can you also for referance give me an idea of when the last blue screen was?
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08:58 AM
tutnkmn Member
Posts: 3426 From: York, England, U.K. Living in Ohio Registered: May 2006
Thanks Tutnkmn!! I didn't think the true person would send me a virus..just thought that maybe it was a fake one!! I have an idea that the problems were caused by a loose connector on my USB Adapter..which I have now binned, and replaced with a Linksys..which I have to say is eons better than the DLink model I was using. I think the problems stemmed from the DLink problem.Seems to be OK now, but I am not confident it won't return Thanks Nick
Hmmm..what a way to celebrate 5000 posts..probably an indication of their quality!! Randy, I am pretty sure the errors coincide with my faulty connector to the USB Adapter..seem to remember the dog knocked the arial off the table then Happened quite a few times, and seemed to upset the DLink programme I just restarted in safe mode a while ago, but did nothing..and now it is working ok..but how can I get the System Restore to work again? God, you must be as sick of computer idiots, as I am of ignorant tourists!! You have a plus from me from many moons ago..wish I could give you another to go with it ..just checked, and it was neutral!! You have a green vote now !!
Nick
[This message has been edited by fierofetish (edited 08-19-2006).]
I never tire of helping folks with their computers. It is the only thing I know how to do, and do well As for how to get system restore to work again... Well that could be a little tricky. It all depends on what is breaking it. The frist thing I would do is turn system restore OFF.
Reboot it a couple times... Personally I would leave it off for a week jsut to be safe. (I know Microsoft says that time makes no differance, but it REALLY does) Then turn it back on, and let it build new restore points.
Randy
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09:46 AM
buddycraigg Member
Posts: 13597 From: kansas city, mo Registered: Jul 2002
I went to a website that is linked from someone's profile on her and I had to use IE to view the site. It made me download optimizer.exe which was listed as a trojan on AVG.
I don't have time to wade thru this. This is what I do when I get such complaints, which is often.
Check the system fan(s). If they aren't spinning up or are full of crap the laptop will shut down from heat. Dell and some other laptop diags have tests for the fans. The diags are all machine specific so Dell won't run on HP etc.
Cleaning the fan(s) on some machines may require tearing the thing apart. Note the (s) twice now. Some laptop machines have more than one fan. You can't assume the fan is clear. Some fans/coolers can look ok but be totally stuffed with crap.
After that... Find a machine with a CD burner.
Get UBCD and burn it. You don't need the full version.
Boot from the CD and Run Memtest 86+ and IBM/hitachi disk test. (The IBM one runs on all drives.)
------------------ Dr. Ian Malcolm: Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should. (Jurasic Park)
Thanks Ogre, Randy and tutnkmn..in fact all who replied!! I unplugged the machine (it had been running for 7 days nonstop ).Went to work, and came back a while ago.Turned it on, and it became hot again very quickly.Took the back off, and the fans were full of dust, although it didn't look like it from outside (as pointed out before above Thanks!!) Gently blew all the dust away, and now I can't hear the fan, but I can feel a strong airflow.No problems now for 2 hours, and it is still relatively cool. I LOVE this place!! Thanks, thanks and thanks again. Nick Oh, and to add..I cannot sing praise loud enough about the Linksys USB adapter..works fulltime, no dropouts, and is EXTREMELY fast compared to the old D Link adapter.
[This message has been edited by fierofetish (edited 08-19-2006).]
And here is the culprit..sorry about the pic..my camera don't like taking close-ups, even in macro!! Nick
------------------ fierofetish.PFF'S self-confessed Snowbird!! Growing old is harder than growing up. Responsibility: the solution for our World's Dilemmas.. Yahoo messenger:nickcannspain MSN Messenger-nicholascann@hotmail.com
). The process is a little risky though. A good set of instructions are located here:
Happened quite a few times, and seemed to upset the DLink programme 
