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  • #31
    Originally posted by Herodotus View Post
    Okay I got a question for all you computer tech guys. My Toshiba Satellite A215 laptop just decided to stop working. It can turn on, it just wouldn't boot up. I unplugged it, removed the battery, and plugged it back in without the battery and it booted up and worked for awhile. Then it stopped completely. i.e crashed. I think it is overheating but I am not sure.

    Any advice would be appreciated; oh yeah I wouldn't recommend Toshiba Satellites it is the second time I have had a major problem with it (the first time I had to get the hard drive re-imaged because I accidently dropped it and it froze up) and it is less then a year old. It runs Vista, not sure if that matters or not.
    When you say "stops working" do you still see the screen? Or does it go completely black?
    "Only Nixon can go to China." -- Old Vulcan proverb.

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    • #32
      Originally posted by gunnut View Post
      When you say "stops working" do you still see the screen? Or does it go completely black?
      I see the physical screen, but there is nothing on it. It is black. The power is on and then nothing happens; no boot-up menu, no Toshiba logo nothing. I called Toshiba's hotline and the guy wasn't very helpful. He told me it was probably the hard drive.

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      • #33
        Originally posted by Herodotus View Post
        I see the physical screen, but there is nothing on it. It is black. The power is on and then nothing happens; no boot-up menu, no Toshiba logo nothing. I called Toshiba's hotline and the guy wasn't very helpful. He told me it was probably the hard drive.
        It's not the hard drive. If the hard drive fails, you will see BSOD as the operating system can't access data.

        Ironduke has it right. Your laptop is probably overheating. When a computer overheats, it either shuts down due to a logic that protects the CPU by turning off power (older and not very sophisticated) or it shuts down because the board/CPU stops working properly.

        After it shuts down, can you get it working again, even a short while, by waiting a few min? If so, then it's definitely a heat issue. A very cheap solution would be to get a laptop cooler. It's a slim pad that usually has 2 or 3 fans built in and powered by USB from your laptop. The gap it provides and the increased airflow from the fan can cool down the laptop considerably.

        You can look for one here:

        http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...e=2768%3A17102
        "Only Nixon can go to China." -- Old Vulcan proverb.

        Comment


        • #34
          Originally posted by gunnut View Post
          It's not the hard drive. If the hard drive fails, you will see BSOD as the operating system can't access data.

          Ironduke has it right. Your laptop is probably overheating. When a computer overheats, it either shuts down due to a logic that protects the CPU by turning off power (older and not very sophisticated) or it shuts down because the board/CPU stops working properly.

          After it shuts down, can you get it working again, even a short while, by waiting a few min? If so, then it's definitely a heat issue. A very cheap solution would be to get a laptop cooler. It's a slim pad that usually has 2 or 3 fans built in and powered by USB from your laptop. The gap it provides and the increased airflow from the fan can cool down the laptop considerably.

          You can look for one here:

          http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...e=2768%3A17102
          Thanks gunnut for the help. I think that answers the problem. You da man. :)

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          • #35
            Pictures of the completed machine:
            Attached Files
            "Every man has his weakness. Mine was always just cigarettes."

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            • #36
              Holy crap those are big fans on the front.

              You know you can turn that thing into a nice space heater by running prime95...
              "Only Nixon can go to China." -- Old Vulcan proverb.

              Comment


              • #37
                Originally posted by gunnut View Post
                Holy crap those are big fans on the front.

                You know you can turn that thing into a nice space heater by running prime95...
                The fan on top is almost half the length of the case.

                I'd already run Prime95 on it... when the temp hit 90C I killed it.
                "Every man has his weakness. Mine was always just cigarettes."

                Comment


                • #38
                  Originally posted by Ironduke View Post
                  The fan on top is almost half the length of the case.

                  I'd already run Prime95 on it... when the temp hit 90C I killed it.
                  Ouch!!! What hit 90C? I don't think any part of my computer hit more than 70C running...anything.
                  "Only Nixon can go to China." -- Old Vulcan proverb.

                  Comment


                  • #39
                    Originally posted by Herodotus View Post
                    Okay I got a question for all you computer tech guys. My Toshiba Satellite A215 laptop just decided to stop working. It can turn on, it just wouldn't boot up. I unplugged it, removed the battery, and plugged it back in without the battery and it booted up and worked for awhile. Then it stopped completely. i.e crashed. I think it is overheating but I am not sure.

                    It runs Vista, not sure if that matters or not.
                    Hero, I've got a P205 Satellite and had all kinds of problems early on. Mine did the same as yours twice and I had to restore to factory and then get all the most important updates for vista. Mine gets very hot as well so I always make sure its clean and unobstructed. I even bought one of those little couch tables that they sell on TV for when I'm watching TV and typing, so as to keep the air moving. I haven't anything but startup problems lately but I think it was one of the updates causing it. Just a matter of tracking it down and getting rid of it. Hope that helps.

                    Comment


                    • #40
                      Originally posted by 7thsfsniper View Post
                      Hero, I've got a P205 Satellite and had all kinds of problems early on. Mine did the same as yours twice and I had to restore to factory and then get all the most important updates for vista. Mine gets very hot as well so I always make sure its clean and unobstructed. I even bought one of those little couch tables that they sell on TV for when I'm watching TV and typing, so as to keep the air moving. I haven't anything but startup problems lately but I think it was one of the updates causing it. Just a matter of tracking it down and getting rid of it. Hope that helps.
                      Thanks for the help. It seems to be working now. Whenever I logged off I just put it in Hibernate or Sleep mode, never fully shutting it down. I don't know if that added to the overheating problem or not, so I shut it down for a day took off the back fixtures and blew out as much dust as I could. Powered it back on with just the battery, shut it down again, turned it on again then added the AC power.

                      So far so good, though I will have to get a stand or table for it. I thought it being a "laptop" that it would be okay just on a lap...silly me. :))

                      Comment


                      • #41
                        Sorry,

                        I just read your other posts. Mine did that once and I unplugged it and took the battery out for a while and it started then. Now when it sticks like that I turn it off with the power button and when it asks to do windows repair of start normally, I just start normally and it has always fired up on the second. I did the repair the first few times but got no help from it so I skip it now.

                        Comment


                        • #42
                          Originally posted by Ironduke View Post
                          Pictures of the completed machine:
                          I wantses it i wantses it the blue light is sooo shiny,...:)):))
                          For Gallifrey! For Victory! For the end of time itself!!

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                          • #43
                            While I've built a couple of PC's in the past I recently decided to have a custom PC built from ibuypower. Although it was half again as much as what I would have spent if I purchased the components and assembled it myself it was still far less expensive than other custom machines I've looked at. All in all I'm very happy with the performance.

                            Case ( Tuniq 3 Gaming Tower Case Black )http://www.futurelooks.com/tuniq-3-m...r-case-review/
                            Power Supply ( 800 Watt Quad SLI Ready )
                            Processor (Intel Core 2 Quad Processor Q9550 (4x 2.83GHz/12MB L2 Cache/1333FSB)
                            Processor Cooling (Thermaltake MaxOrb CPU Cooling Fan System Kit )
                            Motherboard ( [SLI] Asus P5N-D Nvidia nForce 750i SLI Chipset )
                            Memory ( 4 GB [2 GB X2] DDR2-800 PC6400 Memory Module Corsair )
                            Video Card ( NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280 1GB w/DVI + TV Out Video )
                            Hard Drive ( Dual 500 GB HARD DRIVES [Serial-ATA-II, 3Gb, 7200 RPM, 16M Cache] )
                            CD-RW/DVD-RW Drive (LG 20X Dual Format/Double Layer DVD±R/± )
                            Flash Media Reader/Writer ( 12-In-1 Internal Flash Media Card Reader/Writer Black )
                            Operating System ( Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64-Bit )
                            Buy the ticket, take the ride.

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                            • #44
                              Originally posted by gunnut View Post
                              Ouch!!! What hit 90C? I don't think any part of my computer hit more than 70C running...anything.
                              It may have been a misread on the CPU. I've just run Core Temp for the past five or so minutes and it's been fluctuating in the mid to high 60s under 100% load running Prime95.
                              "Every man has his weakness. Mine was always just cigarettes."

                              Comment


                              • #45
                                Originally posted by Ironduke View Post
                                It may have been a misread on the CPU. I've just run Core Temp for the past five or so minutes and it's been fluctuating in the mid to high 60s under 100% load running Prime95.
                                That sounds about right. New Intel processors shouldn't exceed 70C under full load. That Geforce 9800 might exceed 70C though. I think my 7900 does that under full load.
                                "Only Nixon can go to China." -- Old Vulcan proverb.

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