laptop issues...help? :/

[Ryan.McGrady]

Hi group,

Not sure where to turn.

I have a Compaq 2540US Laptop that I've had for a couple years. As
long as I've had it (I am not the first user, my sister was), the fans
have been very loud. This may or may not have anything to do with it.
I've also noticed that if I feel the back left part, it runs a little
hot. Whenever I notice this, I move the laptop so that that part hangs
off the edge (figure it'd give it more room to breathe). A few days
ago, I noticed an occasional metallic tingling sound coming from the
back area. It's hard to describe--almost like an electric zinging...as
it became more frequent and longer in duration over the span of a
couple days my computer began its decline. It wasn't a kind of hard
drive noise I'm used to, so don't really know what to think. I was
playing a game when the blue screen of death came up with an error of
KERNEL_DATA_INPAGE_ERROR, which then rebooted my computer. Upon
reboot, it froze, harddrive working, on a black screen after displaying
the initial Windows startup screen. I rebooted again, it entered safe
mode, and I rebooted again deciding I would just defrag in normal mode
if I could. It restarted normally and was normal for the rest of the
day, despite that noise. Again playing the game (Quake 3, which I've
played many times before), it blue-screened me. I went through the
same process, ran chkdsk and defrag and left it on last night while
doing the latter. THe loud metallic noises woke me early this morning.
I shut it off, and when I came home from work it said that there was a
file in /system/something KERNL somethingorether. I went into the mode
of "I've fixed basic problems on a desktop before, so should be able to
fix a laptop" and took the whole thing apart, painstakingly. Before I
put it back together, I'm hoping to get some advice on maybe a quick
fix? It's not under warranty and I don't have the dough to have
someone check it out professionally right now. My next step, after
cleaning out the inside (for whatever that's worth), is to try to run
the recovery discs. I really don't want to since nothing is backed up
(and don't think it'll really do much anyway, since the noises indicate
something hardware related)...but that's my next course of action. Oh,
and the hard drive in the past month or so has needed defragmenting a
couple times. Any information or advice you could give me would be
appreciated. Thanks a lot!

 

[paulmd]

Hi group,

Not sure where to turn.

THe loud metallic noises woke me early this morning.
I shut it off, and when I came home from work it said that there was a
file in /system/something KERNL somethingorether. I went into the mode
of "I've fixed basic problems on a desktop before, so should be able to
fix a laptop" and took the whole thing apart, painstakingly. Before I
put it back together, I'm hoping to get some advice on maybe a quick
fix?

Partial fan failure (the noise you're hearing) could easily cause
overheat, and the crashing you're seeing.

The trick is to identify the failing fan and replace it.

A handful of fans can be reconditined, chances aren't high on that,
though. And a replacement is a better fix, anyhow.

 

[kony]

Hi group,

Not sure where to turn.

I have a Compaq 2540US Laptop that I've had for a couple years. As
long as I've had it (I am not the first user, my sister was), the fans
have been very loud. This may or may not have anything to do with it.
I've also noticed that if I feel the back left part, it runs a little
hot. Whenever I notice this, I move the laptop so that that part hangs
off the edge (figure it'd give it more room to breathe). A few days
ago, I noticed an occasional metallic tingling sound coming from the
back area. It's hard to describe--almost like an electric zinging...as
it became more frequent and longer in duration over the span of a
couple days my computer began its decline. It wasn't a kind of hard
drive noise I'm used to, so don't really know what to think. I was
playing a game when the blue screen of death came up with an error of
KERNEL_DATA_INPAGE_ERROR, which then rebooted my computer. Upon
reboot, it froze, harddrive working, on a black screen after displaying
the initial Windows startup screen. I rebooted again, it entered safe
mode, and I rebooted again deciding I would just defrag in normal mode
if I could. It restarted normally and was normal for the rest of the
day, despite that noise. Again playing the game (Quake 3, which I've
played many times before), it blue-screened me.

Unfortunately (and contrary to what some would suggest),
it's not a good idea to game on laptops long-term, they just
aren't meant to constantly be rid of that much heat. So at
some point you may have to concede the laptop is worn out if
you continue to game on it.

I went through the
same process, ran chkdsk and defrag and left it on last night while
doing the latter. THe loud metallic noises woke me early this morning.

It is not at all good to leave a system on when making these
noises, what if the fan had completely failed, system
overheated, batteries burst into flames and burnt down the
town? Granted that's a bit unlikely, and the battery
circuit should cut out before they get too hot (and we KNOW
they all do that reliably, laptops NEVER catch on fire!)
but when it's not in a good running state, it should not be
left unattended.

I shut it off, and when I came home from work it said that there was a
file in /system/something KERNL somethingorether.

At this point, you should not have been running it. An
instable system will corrupt files, so you're left
reinstalling windows before you can be sure that, even if
the original problem is fixed, that windows isn't then a
secondary problem. Further, you then have to count on the
original problem being fixed to be sure system is actually
stable enough to even reinstall windows else you then have 2
problems still.

I went into the mode
of "I've fixed basic problems on a desktop before, so should be able to
fix a laptop" and took the whole thing apart, painstakingly.

Ok, and while it was apart?

Did you take off the heatsink? Personally, I always do
that, and lap it- it's surprising how crude they can be on
the base sometimes... but anyway, what about the fan, did
you try anything to determine if it was the noise source?
Was there any dust buildup?

If the fan has a sleeve bearing, try lubing it. It might be
too far gone (bearing worn too much) to be revived long-term
at this point, nor it might not be. Use thick oil, not
thin.

If it's ball-bearing, there's not a lot you can do towards
long term use, best to get a replacement fan and not use the
system except when crucial, and at lowest speed setting
possible, nothing demanding like gaming.

If you let the system perpetually overheat, it may
permanently stress it onto the point where nothing will
help, it'll possibly be trashed as it's cost-prohibitive to
replace the mainboard. It might be at that point already,
but if it has only overheated as much as you mentioned,
hopefully not (though overnight could be a long time
overheating?).

Before I
put it back together, I'm hoping to get some advice on maybe a quick
fix? It's not under warranty and I don't have the dough to have
someone check it out professionally right now. My next step, after
cleaning out the inside (for whatever that's worth), is to try to run
the recovery discs.

There's not much point, if it's not stable.
That is, unless you suspected it was a windows corruption
problem in the first place, and only coincidence that there
was noise seemingly from a fan failing... or of course, you
have two different problems mostly unrelated though the fan
could also make it overheat and corrupt it more, or the past
corruption is now the windows problem even when fan is
running acceptibly now. Essentially it is always good to
stop using the system when there is a problem, as windows
can be a PITA to troubleshoot if it's not working right.

So you could try a reinstall/recovery-disc/etc, but we dont
know what means you have to get the data if system still
won't work, and if the reinstall doesn't complete, you're as
bad off or worse... and I think the noise is probably
needing to be combatted first, leaving the software side of
it till after the hardware is working right.

I really don't want to since nothing is backed up
(and don't think it'll really do much anyway, since the noises indicate
something hardware related)...but that's my next course of action. Oh,
and the hard drive in the past month or so has needed defragmenting a
couple times. Any information or advice you could give me would be
appreciated. Thanks a lot!

If you have a 2.5" external enclosure or laptop-desktop IDE
adapter, you can pull the hard drive and copy off the files
on a desktop system, then run chkdsk on it.