Is my laptop junk or what?

Adam_30457 · 07-19-2007, 06:48 PM

A few months ago, I bought an Everex stepnote laptop and I think it is a piece of junk. Anyway, It ran good for about 3 months and all of a sudden it stopped working, every time I booted it up it would act like it would load and i would just get weird letters across the top of the screen and it will just reboot. It keeps doing it until you hold the power button down ad manually turn it off. I try to use recovery dvd that came with it and it gets to the near end and fails every time at the same spot. The problem is that I don't know if it is my hard drive or any other hardware problem. Is there a program that you could put on a floppy disk or a cd that might help me. I boought the computer as a deal and the manufacturer screwed up my warranty, so i said the heck with it. I have a nice little rig I made myself with two different computers and I am ok. I just want to know if this laptop is fixing or should I just scrap it? It wasn't used but for three month brand new and kapoot!

**Terrister** · 07-19-2007, 08:11 PM

Try http://www.memtest86.com/ to test the memory.
Try the manufactors hard drive utility from here http://tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=287 to test your hard drive.

Adam_30457 · 07-19-2007, 09:04 PM

Am I supposed to extract them onto a cd or floppy

Adam_30457 · 07-19-2007, 10:09 PM

Just wanted to let you know that I was able to reinstall the os on my computer and it seemed ok. I was still curious as to whether the hard drive was bad or not, so I ran checkdisk from the c:properties and restarted the computer and it said that Windows replaced bad clusters in file XXXX and that was about 14 files. What does replaced mean? Does it mean that the spots on the hard drive are marked and never accessed again? I want to know if this hard drive is safe to use until I can get the money to buy a new one?

**Terrister** · 07-20-2007, 06:20 AM

You are correct. Those spots on the hard drive are bad and have been marked so they will not be used again. If there was data there, it was moved to a good part of the hard drive.

As long as it does not keep getting bad spots, you should be ok.

Both of the programs I pointed you to create boot disk or cds. Might be a good idea to run the manufacturers hard drive utility to make sure the hard drive is not failing.

Adam_30457 · 07-20-2007, 07:41 PM

Ok I just ran the tool and the program said that it did not detect a hard drive on my computer.

It might need to mention that it is a SATA, not an ATA hard drive. Is there anything else that might work.

minster9 · 07-21-2007, 11:59 PM

most hard drive failures occur within the 1st 3 months & 3-4 years. hope you still have all paperwork & valid warranty. can't remember where I read a interesting article on hard drive failures(pdf),but the authors found that actual hours of use had little to do w/failure rate. they conducted a very scientific survey of hard drive tests. oops,read your post again,screwed on warranty. Put a western digital HD in it. Wanna sell it?

Adam_30457 · 07-22-2007, 12:26 AM

I'm not really looking to sell my lappy, You see, this lappy is special to me because it is the first computer I have ever bought with MY own money and I didn't use it but three months and to be honest, I will do anything to make this lappy last as long as I can. Hope there aren't any bad feelings.

minster9 · 07-22-2007, 02:47 PM

no hard feelings,mr. macintosh. I had an old laptop,but sold it cheap about a year ago. Old IBM toughbook given to me years before by a friend(used). After putting in the highest capacity ram chips,which were expensive,I still had a dog. 133mh cpu,2 gig hard drive,& I think 128mb ram. A new hard drive shouldn't be very expensive,less than a 100 bucks. Don't copy your old hard drive to it. Install OS from cd. I like windows 2000,doesn't require as much space.

Adam_30457 · 07-22-2007, 04:41 PM

This is a brand new computer and it came with Windows Vista Basic. I didn't like it and when it died I just replaced the OS with Windows XP. It really isn't that bad of a computer, I just hated that I got screwed over on the warranty but hey, what can you do. I'm just glad that I got it working now. I hope that it will work for years to come.

minster9 · 07-22-2007, 10:06 PM

glad to hear that. I'd like to get another laptop,but I'm kinda sitting on my savings for awhile.

Adam_30457 · 07-22-2007, 10:18 PM

I hear that, I don't really have the money to replace my computer right now.

minster9 · 07-22-2007, 11:34 PM

I have to be careful how I word this. I ain't spendin' no big money until after the next election. I don't trust the guvment nor the bankers. I think that the more people that get online,the better. BTW,our leader has signed an executive mandate allowing seizure of assets of war protesters.(rense.com). Laptops are so obsolete so quickly. Portable internet is expensive. Treat that lappy like a newborn,and buy a cooling pad for it. It certainly wouldn't hurt it, a decent one might set you back 30 bucks.

Adam_30457 · 07-22-2007, 11:39 PM

I'll keep that in mind, I think I saw a cooling pad at Wal-Mart for about 20 bucks. Thanks for the info. I'll remember that.

Adam_30457 · 07-22-2007, 11:41 PM

Oh, BTW, My lappy is like my newborn to me. I have even given it a name.

minster9 · 07-23-2007, 12:10 AM

Dude,you must have some weird work hours,too! 2 AM is when I'm done for the "day". I start @ 3:30 PM & quit @ 2 AM 10 hours later,4 days a week. I'm still up now because I go back to work tomorrow afternoon. Yeah,lappys are nice. I hope yours is upgradeable;my old toughbook wasn't. It was made in the same factory as all the rest. I'm also a home machinist,the harborwreck stuff is made in same plant as is Delta,B&D,Sears,etc. The lower grade stuff gives something to finish,clean out the casting sand,run an American 10-32 tap through the holes,etc. Not so w/electronic stuff. It's so damned tiny! I just got done assembling 4 luxeon rebels into a work lamp yesterday.Major PIA. Ain't no reworking on my solder work,it's all submerged in epoxy now. So,your hard drive was OK?

Adam_30457 · 07-23-2007, 12:16 AM

I guess so, I think the hard drive had a bump and that might have done it. As far as I can see the hard drive has some bad spots, but nothing progressive.

P.S. I don't have a job at this moment, I was recently laid off and I am also an insomniac. This is me just relaxing.

minster9 · 07-23-2007, 12:47 AM

going to crib pretty quick. tired. enjoy a peaceful summer night,mr. macintosh.

Adam_30457 · 07-23-2007, 12:53 AM

Same to you, mate

07-19-2007, 06:48 PM	#1 (permalink)
Adam_30457 Registered User Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Soperton,GA Posts: 346 OS: Windows XP Pro My System	Is my laptop junk or what? A few months ago, I bought an Everex stepnote laptop and I think it is a piece of junk. Anyway, It ran good for about 3 months and all of a sudden it stopped working, every time I booted it up it would act like it would load and i would just get weird letters across the top of the screen and it will just reboot. It keeps doing it until you hold the power button down ad manually turn it off. I try to use recovery dvd that came with it and it gets to the near end and fails every time at the same spot. The problem is that I don't know if it is my hard drive or any other hardware problem. Is there a program that you could put on a floppy disk or a cd that might help me. I boought the computer as a deal and the manufacturer screwed up my warranty, so i said the heck with it. I have a nice little rig I made myself with two different computers and I am ok. I just want to know if this laptop is fixing or should I just scrap it? It wasn't used but for three month brand new and kapoot! __________________ You take the blue pill, the story ends. You wake up in your bed and you believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in wonderland. And, I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes. Last edited by Adam_30457; 07-19-2007 at 06:51 PM. Reason: left some words out

07-19-2007, 08:11 PM	#2 (permalink)
Terrister Moderator Hardware Forum Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: West Georgia, USA Posts: 7,098 OS: Xp	Re: Is my laptop junk or what? Try http://www.memtest86.com/ to test the memory. Try the manufactors hard drive utility from here http://tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=287 to test your hard drive. __________________

07-19-2007, 09:04 PM	#3 (permalink)
Adam_30457 Registered User Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Soperton,GA Posts: 346 OS: Windows XP Pro My System	Re: Is my laptop junk or what? Am I supposed to extract them onto a cd or floppy __________________ You take the blue pill, the story ends. You wake up in your bed and you believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in wonderland. And, I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.

07-19-2007, 10:09 PM	#4 (permalink)
Adam_30457 Registered User Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Soperton,GA Posts: 346 OS: Windows XP Pro My System	Re: Is my laptop junk or what? Just wanted to let you know that I was able to reinstall the os on my computer and it seemed ok. I was still curious as to whether the hard drive was bad or not, so I ran checkdisk from the c:properties and restarted the computer and it said that Windows replaced bad clusters in file XXXX and that was about 14 files. What does replaced mean? Does it mean that the spots on the hard drive are marked and never accessed again? I want to know if this hard drive is safe to use until I can get the money to buy a new one? __________________ You take the blue pill, the story ends. You wake up in your bed and you believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in wonderland. And, I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.

07-20-2007, 06:20 AM	#5 (permalink)
Terrister Moderator Hardware Forum Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: West Georgia, USA Posts: 7,098 OS: Xp	Re: Is my laptop junk or what? You are correct. Those spots on the hard drive are bad and have been marked so they will not be used again. If there was data there, it was moved to a good part of the hard drive. As long as it does not keep getting bad spots, you should be ok. Both of the programs I pointed you to create boot disk or cds. Might be a good idea to run the manufacturers hard drive utility to make sure the hard drive is not failing. __________________

07-20-2007, 07:41 PM	#6 (permalink)
Adam_30457 Registered User Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Soperton,GA Posts: 346 OS: Windows XP Pro My System	Re: Is my laptop junk or what? Ok I just ran the tool and the program said that it did not detect a hard drive on my computer. It might need to mention that it is a SATA, not an ATA hard drive. Is there anything else that might work. __________________ You take the blue pill, the story ends. You wake up in your bed and you believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in wonderland. And, I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.

07-21-2007, 11:59 PM	#7 (permalink)
minster9 Registered User Join Date: Jun 2006 Posts: 176 OS: windows 2000	Re: Is my laptop junk or what? most hard drive failures occur within the 1st 3 months & 3-4 years. hope you still have all paperwork & valid warranty. can't remember where I read a interesting article on hard drive failures(pdf),but the authors found that actual hours of use had little to do w/failure rate. they conducted a very scientific survey of hard drive tests. oops,read your post again,screwed on warranty. Put a western digital HD in it. Wanna sell it?

07-22-2007, 12:26 AM	#8 (permalink)
Adam_30457 Registered User Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Soperton,GA Posts: 346 OS: Windows XP Pro My System	Re: Is my laptop junk or what? I'm not really looking to sell my lappy, You see, this lappy is special to me because it is the first computer I have ever bought with MY own money and I didn't use it but three months and to be honest, I will do anything to make this lappy last as long as I can. Hope there aren't any bad feelings. __________________ You take the blue pill, the story ends. You wake up in your bed and you believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in wonderland. And, I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.

07-22-2007, 02:47 PM	#9 (permalink)
minster9 Registered User Join Date: Jun 2006 Posts: 176 OS: windows 2000	Re: Is my laptop junk or what? no hard feelings,mr. macintosh. I had an old laptop,but sold it cheap about a year ago. Old IBM toughbook given to me years before by a friend(used). After putting in the highest capacity ram chips,which were expensive,I still had a dog. 133mh cpu,2 gig hard drive,& I think 128mb ram. A new hard drive shouldn't be very expensive,less than a 100 bucks. Don't copy your old hard drive to it. Install OS from cd. I like windows 2000,doesn't require as much space.

07-22-2007, 04:41 PM	#10 (permalink)
Adam_30457 Registered User Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Soperton,GA Posts: 346 OS: Windows XP Pro My System	Re: Is my laptop junk or what? This is a brand new computer and it came with Windows Vista Basic. I didn't like it and when it died I just replaced the OS with Windows XP. It really isn't that bad of a computer, I just hated that I got screwed over on the warranty but hey, what can you do. I'm just glad that I got it working now. I hope that it will work for years to come. __________________ You take the blue pill, the story ends. You wake up in your bed and you believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in wonderland. And, I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.

07-22-2007, 10:06 PM	#11 (permalink)
minster9 Registered User Join Date: Jun 2006 Posts: 176 OS: windows 2000	Re: Is my laptop junk or what? glad to hear that. I'd like to get another laptop,but I'm kinda sitting on my savings for awhile.

07-22-2007, 10:18 PM	#12 (permalink)
Adam_30457 Registered User Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Soperton,GA Posts: 346 OS: Windows XP Pro My System	Re: Is my laptop junk or what? I hear that, I don't really have the money to replace my computer right now. __________________ You take the blue pill, the story ends. You wake up in your bed and you believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in wonderland. And, I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.

07-22-2007, 11:34 PM	#13 (permalink)
minster9 Registered User Join Date: Jun 2006 Posts: 176 OS: windows 2000	Re: Is my laptop junk or what? I have to be careful how I word this. I ain't spendin' no big money until after the next election. I don't trust the guvment nor the bankers. I think that the more people that get online,the better. BTW,our leader has signed an executive mandate allowing seizure of assets of war protesters.(rense.com). Laptops are so obsolete so quickly. Portable internet is expensive. Treat that lappy like a newborn,and buy a cooling pad for it. It certainly wouldn't hurt it, a decent one might set you back 30 bucks. Last edited by minster9; 07-22-2007 at 11:37 PM. Reason: they're cheap

07-22-2007, 11:39 PM	#14 (permalink)
Adam_30457 Registered User Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Soperton,GA Posts: 346 OS: Windows XP Pro My System	Re: Is my laptop junk or what? I'll keep that in mind, I think I saw a cooling pad at Wal-Mart for about 20 bucks. Thanks for the info. I'll remember that. __________________ You take the blue pill, the story ends. You wake up in your bed and you believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in wonderland. And, I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.

07-22-2007, 11:41 PM	#15 (permalink)
Adam_30457 Registered User Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Soperton,GA Posts: 346 OS: Windows XP Pro My System	Re: Is my laptop junk or what? Oh, BTW, My lappy is like my newborn to me. I have even given it a name. __________________ You take the blue pill, the story ends. You wake up in your bed and you believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in wonderland. And, I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.

07-23-2007, 12:10 AM	#16 (permalink)
minster9 Registered User Join Date: Jun 2006 Posts: 176 OS: windows 2000	Re: Is my laptop junk or what? Dude,you must have some weird work hours,too! 2 AM is when I'm done for the "day". I start @ 3:30 PM & quit @ 2 AM 10 hours later,4 days a week. I'm still up now because I go back to work tomorrow afternoon. Yeah,lappys are nice. I hope yours is upgradeable;my old toughbook wasn't. It was made in the same factory as all the rest. I'm also a home machinist,the harborwreck stuff is made in same plant as is Delta,B&D,Sears,etc. The lower grade stuff gives something to finish,clean out the casting sand,run an American 10-32 tap through the holes,etc. Not so w/electronic stuff. It's so damned tiny! I just got done assembling 4 luxeon rebels into a work lamp yesterday.Major PIA. Ain't no reworking on my solder work,it's all submerged in epoxy now. So,your hard drive was OK?

07-23-2007, 12:16 AM	#17 (permalink)
Adam_30457 Registered User Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Soperton,GA Posts: 346 OS: Windows XP Pro My System	Re: Is my laptop junk or what? I guess so, I think the hard drive had a bump and that might have done it. As far as I can see the hard drive has some bad spots, but nothing progressive. P.S. I don't have a job at this moment, I was recently laid off and I am also an insomniac. This is me just relaxing. __________________ You take the blue pill, the story ends. You wake up in your bed and you believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in wonderland. And, I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.

07-23-2007, 12:47 AM	#18 (permalink)
minster9 Registered User Join Date: Jun 2006 Posts: 176 OS: windows 2000	Re: Is my laptop junk or what? going to crib pretty quick. tired. enjoy a peaceful summer night,mr. macintosh.

07-23-2007, 12:53 AM	#19 (permalink)
Adam_30457 Registered User Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Soperton,GA Posts: 346 OS: Windows XP Pro My System	Re: Is my laptop junk or what? Same to you, mate __________________ You take the blue pill, the story ends. You wake up in your bed and you believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in wonderland. And, I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.