Hello
This machine is pretty old, and my bottom-line problem is that I need to recover my address book from it. The address book is Parsons ver. 3, which is another set of problems.
What I think I need is either
1) fix this machine
2) put this HDD into a working machine
....or hitch it up to my desktop and copy info
....or copy the HDD into a partition on the desktop running 98 (??)
....or some other dodge
3) just get the Satellite running well enough and long enough to print out the address book.
To begin.....WONKINESS defined:
At best, it will boot on up okay. Then if I try to start Adbook from the desktop icon it will go to Adbook Help instead of the program. I can get the program open from the Start button menu.
-- may be the shortcut on the desktop points to a wrong file. you can edit that in Properties.
Then, at best, the program behaves normally for a few minutes.
Otherwise, the program can be pretty bizarre...say I click on an address in the list, it selects all the addresses up to that point in the list. Then it may jump back to the top of the list. Then the dialling window opens itself. For instance.
At worst, there are all kinds of buzzing and clicking sounds, it boots up or not, goes into checking the drive or not, opens in Safe Mode or not. Copies of Windows Help start opening themselves until the machine runs out of memory. Various other things open themselves.
-- do a scan for virus or malware. do you use an antivirus? try the online scans to get an idea of a possible infection.
In addition, the very first symptom of anything was the keyboard partially failing --- some keys work, some don't. (I replaced the keyboard once before, so not the first time this has happened).
OK, that is the general situation.
I just use this laptop for my address book and my equally dated organizer program. If I can recover that info I can abandon this machine. Still, it has been useful for those things. Additionally, it is REALLY hard to move or upgrade my address book info to another program. Haven't managed it yet. There are whole forum threads out there devoted to the Parsons Address Book problem, with very little solution. I'm to where I'll copy by hand to Outlook or whatever, but I have to have a print-out or be able to hold the program onscreen long enough to do the copying. (I have a backup disk, but figuring out how to open it is a conundrum for those forums...)
This may be several issues, but maybe to begin with, can anyone tell what is going wrong with the laptop? Wondering if it is something basic like a fading CMOS battery? Or could the keyboard be giving random signals?
-- definitely i would do with the tips here Is your PC running slow...? i am pretty sure, it will help. if you have an antivirus, update it and scan your system. as i said, try the online scans to help you identify what you have.
for the hardware side, reseat your RAM or use known working module just to be sure as well as for testing.
Thanks and looking forward to the conversation.
Flatcat47