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glasgow_bhoy
post Sat, 19 Jan 2019 - 00:02
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Had some pretty good IT advice on this forum before so I thought I'd ask here first.

I've got a 13 year old laptop- previously had Vista, now has Windows 7.

When starting up, it always takes at least 2/3 attempts as it reboots during the Windows login process. Theres a click and then it restarts.

If I get past that point, the screen will either freeze completely, or it suddenly just goes all lines across it. I then have to take the battery and charger out to reboot it.

Once it gets going, its fine. But it can be a good 15 minutes from trying to get started initially to getting it up and running without crashing/dying/rebooting.

Any ideas on a cheap fix?

I'm trying to avoid a new laptop- partially because I had a newer laptop which wasn't a patch on this one, and partly because I have a work laptop and only use my own one occasionally now (maybe once a week or so). The cost of them puts me off as well... call me tight but I'd rather spend my money on holidays or changing my car.
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post Sat, 19 Jan 2019 - 00:02
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Redivi
post Sat, 19 Jan 2019 - 00:13
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Sounds like a faulty hard drive
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glasgow_bhoy
post Sat, 19 Jan 2019 - 00:15
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QUOTE (Redivi @ Sat, 19 Jan 2019 - 00:13) *
Sounds like a faulty hard drive

I've still got an old one from this same laptop from about 7/8 years ago so I'll try changing it over and seeing if it works!
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Broadsman
post Sat, 19 Jan 2019 - 09:59
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After the click are there any other sounds coming from the computer, except the standard whirring of fans?

I would have said hard drive until the "lines over the screen" bit.

Do you need it to be portable? If not, try without the battery. 13 years old, assuming it's the original batttery, is doing well.

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DancingDad
post Sat, 19 Jan 2019 - 10:28
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Could try making a boot disc/USB stick and booting from that.
When you have one, will need to go into BIOS and change boot order.
Or a clean reinstall of Win 7.
Run a scan and defrag hard drive to see if any poor sectors or it is simply cluttered and struggling to sort itself.
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I am Weasel
post Sat, 19 Jan 2019 - 10:50
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For all the time and ball-ache involved in diagnosing and (hopefully) fixing your laptop, it would be far easier to replace it.

Just before Christmas, I had a similar conundrum with a 10yr old laptop. I replaced it for <£200 with a Linx 12x64 windows 10 tablet that I am more than happy with
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cp8759
post Sat, 19 Jan 2019 - 12:28
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Try booting a live disc of some sort (any OS will do) and see if that works, that will tell you whether it's a hardware problem or a software problem. If it runs ok off a live disc,then you know all you should need to do is format the hard drive and start again. Personally I would recommend OpenSuse Linux but if you're going to stick to Windows, I would suggest you go back to Vista, Microsoft tend to make their OS more bloated with every version and older hardware often struggles.


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DancingDad
post Sat, 19 Jan 2019 - 12:37
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QUOTE (cp8759 @ Sat, 19 Jan 2019 - 12:28) *
......….but if you're going to stick to Windows, I would suggest you go back to Vista, Microsoft tend to make their OS more bloated with every version and older hardware often struggles.


No way, Vista is arguably the worst OS Microsoft produced, Win 7 is far smoother and less buggy.
Hasn't got all the latest hooks to social media or new fashions such as Win 10 has and is not supported anymore (nor is Vista) so no security updates but is still arguably the best OS from Microsoft.
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cp8759
post Sat, 19 Jan 2019 - 12:41
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QUOTE (DancingDad @ Sat, 19 Jan 2019 - 12:37) *
QUOTE (cp8759 @ Sat, 19 Jan 2019 - 12:28) *
......….but if you're going to stick to Windows, I would suggest you go back to Vista, Microsoft tend to make their OS more bloated with every version and older hardware often struggles.

...the best OS from Microsoft.

Lolz, best OS from Microsoft, that's a bit of an oxymoron tongue.gif


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Fredd
post Sat, 19 Jan 2019 - 13:25
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QUOTE (DancingDad @ Sat, 19 Jan 2019 - 12:37) *
No way, Vista is arguably the worst OS Microsoft produced, Win 7 is far smoother and less buggy.
Hasn't got all the latest hooks to social media or new fashions such as Win 10 has and is not supported anymore (nor is Vista) so no security updates but is still arguably the best OS from Microsoft.

Vista the worst? You've clearly forgotten Windows ME, for one.

And Windows 7 is still in Extended Support until January next year.


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DancingDad
post Sat, 19 Jan 2019 - 13:31
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QUOTE (cp8759 @ Sat, 19 Jan 2019 - 12:41) *
QUOTE (DancingDad @ Sat, 19 Jan 2019 - 12:37) *
QUOTE (cp8759 @ Sat, 19 Jan 2019 - 12:28) *
......….but if you're going to stick to Windows, I would suggest you go back to Vista, Microsoft tend to make their OS more bloated with every version and older hardware often struggles.

...the best OS from Microsoft.

Lolz, best OS from Microsoft, that's a bit of an oxymoron tongue.gif



Just being accurate biggrin.gif
Not getting into "the game said it required Windows 7 or better so I tried in on a Mac" arguments.

To be fair to MS, when they get an OS right it generally does all that most computer users need or indeed are comfortable with.
But when they get it wrong it can be a pain even for more experienced users. And they got it wrong with Vista.
I've yet to find any PC or laptop that did not perform better with Win7 then Vista.
Win8 was another abortion.
I am not convinced on Win10 yet but it does seem to be doing what most need.
Having said that, most these days only seem to need a PC that connects to tinternet and lets them find TwitFace et al.
Which any smart phone will do quite comfortably.

This post has been edited by DancingDad: Sat, 19 Jan 2019 - 13:36
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notmeatloaf
post Sat, 19 Jan 2019 - 17:15
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If you want to keep it, I would swap the hard disk for an SSD. Put a fresh install of Win7 on it and you will likely have a fixed, faster laptop for less than £20 and 20 minutes of your time
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cp8759
post Sat, 19 Jan 2019 - 18:26
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QUOTE (notmeatloaf @ Sat, 19 Jan 2019 - 17:15) *
If you want to keep it, I would swap the hard disk for an SSD. Put a fresh install of Win7 on it and you will likely have a fixed, faster laptop for less than £20 and 20 minutes of your time

We still don't know it's an HD issue, it's just a theory.


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iwt
post Sat, 19 Jan 2019 - 22:48
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Lines on the screen isn't normally bad-hdd territory.
Not to say swapping drives isn't worth trying if you have one handy.
May be worth changing to the "Standard VGA driver". If changing using device manager doesn't work, try https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/32...mpatible-driver . Just to see if it makes any difference.
Yes, it'll look crappy. If it doesn't make any difference, just follow the steps in the above article under "To restore the OEM drivers" or reinstall from your laptop manufacturers website to put things back.
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ex-216
post Sat, 19 Jan 2019 - 23:05
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Depends what you use your laptop for but try over writing the windows with Ubuntu or Linux Mint.

Boots up really quick and you can get open office for docs
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cp8759
post Sat, 19 Jan 2019 - 23:37
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QUOTE (ex-216 @ Sat, 19 Jan 2019 - 23:05) *
Depends what you use your laptop for but try over writing the windows with Ubuntu or Linux Mint.

Boots up really quick and you can get open office for docs

OpenSuse all the way


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notmeatloaf
post Sun, 20 Jan 2019 - 01:27
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QUOTE (cp8759 @ Sat, 19 Jan 2019 - 18:26) *
QUOTE (notmeatloaf @ Sat, 19 Jan 2019 - 17:15) *
If you want to keep it, I would swap the hard disk for an SSD. Put a fresh install of Win7 on it and you will likely have a fixed, faster laptop for less than £20 and 20 minutes of your time

We still don't know it's an HD issue, it's just a theory.

If it happens intermittently at the same point when booting I would put good money on a new HDD or OS reinstall fixing it. If you're going to try one or the other might as well swap in a SSD whilst you're there.

Surprised at the enthusiasm for Linux. I think it has it's place for projects which benefit from command line input - I use it for my MagicMirror and web server. But I would never want it as a main OS simply because huge sections are unintuitive and involve diving into the command line and opening files in nano for the most trivial of tasks.

I do have a slight fantasy that the Department for Health would be both competent at delivering large scale IT projects, and realise that instead of all areas of the NHS paying huge licencing fees for proprietary software which doesn't work with other Trusts. Instead they could design one Linux based system that worked across the entire NHS.

At the moment we use a shedload of software including Telnet based applications, all accessed via vWorkspace on Windows Server 2008. It has to be the most stupid, unreliable setup around.
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nigelbb
post Sun, 20 Jan 2019 - 07:47
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QUOTE (notmeatloaf @ Sun, 20 Jan 2019 - 02:27) *
I do have a slight fantasy that the Department for Health would be both competent at delivering large scale IT projects, and realise that instead of all areas of the NHS paying huge licencing fees for proprietary software which doesn't work with other Trusts. Instead they could design one Linux based system that worked across the entire NHS.
Unfortunately this would require us to have a National Health Service rather than a collection of a couple of hundred independent Trusts all busy reinventing the wheel.


--------------------
British Parking Association Ltd Code of Practice(Appendix C contains Schedule 4 of POFA 2012 ) & can be found here http://www.britishparking.co.uk/Code-of-Pr...ance-monitoring
DfT Guidance on Section 56 and Schedule 4 of POFA 2012 https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/syste...ing-charges.pdf
Damning OFT advice on levels of parking charges that was ignored by the BPA Ltd Reference Request Number: IAT/FOIA/135010 – 12 October 2012
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Korting
post Sun, 20 Jan 2019 - 10:11
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I too am wondering is you have a corrupt windows OS? Or maybe you have a motherboard fault, the graphics chips sometimes caused this, the chips are what we in the electronics industry are BGA devices that is Ball Gate Array.

The connections to the chip are underneath and the solder is melted by infra red heating. When the industry changed to unleaded solder some 15 years ago, the solder itself caused masses of problems. It was and may still be banned in the aircraft and defence industries.

As for computers, I still on three computers use Windows XP as its the only system that lets me run my DOS based database.
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nigelbb
post Sun, 20 Jan 2019 - 10:45
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QUOTE (notmeatloaf @ Sat, 19 Jan 2019 - 18:15) *
If you want to keep it, I would swap the hard disk for an SSD. Put a fresh install of Win7 on it and you will likely have a fixed, faster laptop for less than £20 and 20 minutes of your time

Is that a typo for £120? That is how much you will need to pay for even a small SSD & Windows 7.

This post has been edited by nigelbb: Sun, 20 Jan 2019 - 10:58


--------------------
British Parking Association Ltd Code of Practice(Appendix C contains Schedule 4 of POFA 2012 ) & can be found here http://www.britishparking.co.uk/Code-of-Pr...ance-monitoring
DfT Guidance on Section 56 and Schedule 4 of POFA 2012 https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/syste...ing-charges.pdf
Damning OFT advice on levels of parking charges that was ignored by the BPA Ltd Reference Request Number: IAT/FOIA/135010 – 12 October 2012
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