Dying Computer-Help, Please!

SanSan22 · 09-29-2008, 04:32 PM

I have a slightly over 2 year old Windows XP (Gateway) laptop that suddenly got a serious problem and I can't figure it out! I'll give as much details as I can.

A few days ago, I turned on my laptop-normal start up. When I went to the START menu and clicked on my Mozilla browser to open it, the start menu and the bar below got frozen.

I would try to right click and open something on my desktop (which wasn't frozen it seemed) but once i selected OPEN, it wouldn't open. It was just stuck.

My MSN, which always pops up after booting, wouldn't sign me in. The CAPS LOCK wouldn't show when I put it in use either.

I had to manually shut it off since CTRL ALT DEL didn't work and it did it again. Shut it off manually again and the third time, it was fine.

Just yesterday, it did it again but try as I might it would not go back to normal. I tried to recover the system but it kept asking for a Disk 2 that we were not given to finish the recovery.

But then after shutting it down manually again, it was working fine like before. I shut if off later on and turned it back on to see if it would work normally still, but to no luck.

I shut it off and on about 3 more times and it's fine now. What I've been doing the last 24 hours is putting my laptop to HIBERNATE at night, when I normally would shut it off.

This seems to work fine but I don't want to have this problem anymore. I ran spyware and virus scan and found nothing. I've downloaded SERVICE PACK 3 but I did NOT install it because I heard it had some bugs still in it but otherwise, I always updated my laptop (just not the service pack 3 as stated).

I was told it's the operating system that's freezing up but I just don't know what to do. I don't want a tech guy to fix it and charge me so much money when I can put that to a new laptop so I came here, hoping someone knows a solution :(

Any help, please? I need this laptop for my school work.

Thanks so much for reading all of this! I'm obviously not well equipped with knowledge on computers so forgive me for that!

SanSan22 · 10-01-2008, 11:27 AM

Bumping this for fear it will get forgotten~is there any advice anyone can offer me?

dai · 10-01-2008, 11:58 AM

moved you to laptops
run
chkdsk /r

09-29-2008, 04:32 PM	#1 (permalink)
SanSan22 Registered User Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 5 OS: windows xp	Dying Computer-Help, Please! I have a slightly over 2 year old Windows XP (Gateway) laptop that suddenly got a serious problem and I can't figure it out! I'll give as much details as I can. A few days ago, I turned on my laptop-normal start up. When I went to the START menu and clicked on my Mozilla browser to open it, the start menu and the bar below got frozen. I would try to right click and open something on my desktop (which wasn't frozen it seemed) but once i selected OPEN, it wouldn't open. It was just stuck. My MSN, which always pops up after booting, wouldn't sign me in. The CAPS LOCK wouldn't show when I put it in use either. I had to manually shut it off since CTRL ALT DEL didn't work and it did it again. Shut it off manually again and the third time, it was fine. Just yesterday, it did it again but try as I might it would not go back to normal. I tried to recover the system but it kept asking for a Disk 2 that we were not given to finish the recovery. But then after shutting it down manually again, it was working fine like before. I shut if off later on and turned it back on to see if it would work normally still, but to no luck. I shut it off and on about 3 more times and it's fine now. What I've been doing the last 24 hours is putting my laptop to HIBERNATE at night, when I normally would shut it off. This seems to work fine but I don't want to have this problem anymore. I ran spyware and virus scan and found nothing. I've downloaded SERVICE PACK 3 but I did NOT install it because I heard it had some bugs still in it but otherwise, I always updated my laptop (just not the service pack 3 as stated). I was told it's the operating system that's freezing up but I just don't know what to do. I don't want a tech guy to fix it and charge me so much money when I can put that to a new laptop so I came here, hoping someone knows a solution :( Any help, please? I need this laptop for my school work. Thanks so much for reading all of this! I'm obviously not well equipped with knowledge on computers so forgive me for that! Last edited by SanSan22 : 09-29-2008 at 04:38 PM.

10-01-2008, 11:27 AM	#2 (permalink)
SanSan22 Registered User Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 5 OS: windows xp	Re: Dying Computer-Help, Please! Bumping this for fear it will get forgotten~is there any advice anyone can offer me?

10-01-2008, 11:58 AM	#3 (permalink)
dai Manager, Hardware Forums Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: west australia Posts: 44,112 OS: vista 32x ultimate retail	Re: Dying Computer-Help, Please! moved you to laptops run chkdsk /r __________________