XP intermittant boot on portable

  • Thread starter Thread starter Squeezy99
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Squeezy99

Hi,
I am trying to helps a friend get her portable running reliably. She has XP
home on a portable and runs without the battery installed (it dies a few
years ago). I cleaned up the machine the other day and it seemed to run OK.
From time to time she starts up the machine and after the manufactures
welcome screen (in BIOS?) it just stops booting at a black screen. I
suppose it is not even starting the boot process so it could be hardware or
software, but it only happens occasionaly. After turning off and re
starting she gets the usual balck screen saying it did was not shut down
correctly and offering safe mode etc. But upon re starting she gets no
problems or corruption. ( I am living in France so it is a french PC with
XP in French - great fun)
Ideas please.
Cheers,
Dave.
 
Squeezy99 said:
I am trying to helps a friend get her portable running reliably. She has
XP home on a portable and runs without the battery
installed (it dies a few years ago). I cleaned up the machine the
other day and it seemed to run OK. From time to time she starts up
the machine and after the manufactures welcome screen (in BIOS?) it
just stops booting at a black screen. I suppose it is not even
starting the boot process so it could be hardware or software, but
it only happens occasionaly. After turning off and re starting she
gets the usual balck screen saying it did was not shut down
correctly and offering safe mode etc. But upon re starting she
gets no problems or corruption. ( I am living in France so it is a
french PC with XP in French - great fun) Ideas please.
Click to expand...

You already said it - hardware.

To be honest if your friend plans on keeping this laptop for much longer -
they should purchase a replacement battery for it. Some of the issues
laptops have can go away with a new battery - and given your friend runs
without any at all - who knows what all it might help with.

Otherwise - it could be anything else too. Video device dying, memory going
bad, hard drive fading, etc. I'd go with *power* first and get that battery
replacement. Most are under $100 U.S. although some get between that and
$200 U.S. - conversion I will leave to you. :-)
 
Shenan Stanley said:
You already said it - hardware.

To be honest if your friend plans on keeping this laptop for much
longer - they should purchase a replacement battery for it. Some of the
issues laptops have can go away with a new battery - and given your friend
runs without any at all - who knows what all it might help with.

Otherwise - it could be anything else too. Video device dying, memory
going bad, hard drive fading, etc. I'd go with *power* first and get that
battery replacement. Most are under $100 U.S. although some get between
that and $200 U.S. - conversion I will leave to you. :-)
Click to expand...
Many thanks,
I will give it the once over and re seat memory etc then take it from
there.
Regards,
Dave
 
Squeezy99 said:
Hi,
I am trying to help a friend get her portable running reliably. She has XP
Home on a portable and runs without the battery installed (it died a few
years ago). I cleaned up the machine the other day and it seemed to run OK.
From time to time, she starts up the machine and after the manufacturer
welcome screen (in BIOS?) it just stops booting at a black screen. I
suppose it is not even starting the boot process so it could be hardware or
software, but it only happens occasionally. After turning off and re-
starting, she gets the usual black screen saying it was not shut down
correctly and offering safe mode, etc. But upon re-starting, she gets no
problems or corruption. (I am living in France so it is a French PC with
XP in French - great fun)
Ideas please?
Cheers,
Dave.
Click to expand...

A couple of years ago, I read of a similar problem where the hard drive
hadn't completely got up to speed, so there were similar errors. That
could explain why it then works upon reboot. Look in the BIOS for an
option to delay hard drive detection. If found, try a two-second delay.
 
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