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bought a faulty laptop

joejoem · 2005-12-28 14:26:58

Hey I bought a second hand laptop which wont work. When you boot it up, if it turns on you get into windows, then try to open something and it crashes. It doesnt freeze, it just turns off almost completely. THe power light is still on but everything else is fine. The monitor seems to be fine. I wiped the hard drive and…

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28-12-2005 3:26pm

#1

joejoem

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Hey I bought a second hand laptop which wont work. When you boot it up, if it turns on you get into windows, then try to open something and it crashes. It doesnt freeze, it just turns off almost completely. THe power light is still on but everything else is fine. The monitor seems to be fine. I wiped the hard drive and reinstalled windows but it is still happening. I am hoping its not a crack in the mother board.

The guy seems to have his phone permenantly off, I think I may have been done. Do you know where I could bring my computer to get someone to look over it and try to find the route of the problem. Money is a big issue here, I have already lost 500 on it, and if its not worth fixing I dont want to loose any more money.

Thanks

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#2 28-12-2005 3:30pm
Endurance Man

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Hahahha, arent you the guy that bought this from a Nigerian Guy?? Unlucky man :v: . You could take it somewhere to be repaired but my bet is its gonna cost more than a new one .

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#3 28-12-2005 3:46pm
Nukem

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Have you tried starting in safe mode?

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#4 28-12-2005 3:51pm
Karoma

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He's wiped/reinstall the OS..so it's unlikely to be an issue with loading the usual shtuff - unless the OP forgot to remove additional... like... ADDED RAM (ahem), or any peripherals.

...so...was it a bad idea?

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#5 28-12-2005 3:59pm
joejoem

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Yeah I have tried starting it in safe mode, it starts up ok, but I dont know what to do from there. If it gives you the option to start in safe mode it should start normally too. I have it on right now, it will be fine till I try to run something.

Karoma, yes it was a bad idea

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#6 28-12-2005 4:03pm
Karoma

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Try running chkdsk or defrag in safe mode..

Remove all hardware that has been added to the laptop - this means mice,added RAM,ANYTHING. Reboot and try...

Does the unit get very warm?

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#7 28-12-2005 4:18pm
joejoem

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No, doesnt get warm. I havent added anything to the laptop. I removed the ram and put it back in, still faulty. I jsut got this error message after it shutdown. Error signature -

BCCCode 1000008e BCP1: C0000005 BCP2: 8054B4E9 BCP3:F721969C
BCP4: 000000000 OSVer: 5_1_2600 SP:2_0 Product :256_1

I then clicked for technical info

C:\DOCUME~1\\ladmin\locals~1\temp\WERb3c4.dir00\mini22805-02.dmp
C:\Docume~1\ladmin\LOCALS#1\Temp\WERb3c4.dir00\sysdata.xml

Does this make any sense?

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#8 28-12-2005 4:19pm
lomb

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run memtest, this runs b4 it boots into windows, u need to burn it to a cd and boot off the cd.
in future never buy a second hand laptop, good new acer ones are only 400 sterling/600 euros with a 1 yr warranty.

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#9 28-12-2005 5:12pm
X-SL

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why didn't you boot it up when buying it off him?

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#10 28-12-2005 5:23pm
joejoem

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X-SL wrote:

why didn't you boot it up when buying it off him?

I did, it seemed fine, Iput a dvd in and it started to play so took it out. Just messed with it a tiny bit. As soon as I got it home though, it went messy

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#11 28-12-2005 5:24pm
LundiMardi

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so you know where the guy lives then?

Solution seems simple to me.

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#12 28-12-2005 5:31pm
Terra

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It might be possible to figure out what component is causing it. If you can't find the guy that sold it too you

What brand of laptop is it ?

What components are in it ?

When you reinstalled the operating system did you add in any software before it started turning off again...

Also is the system on the mains when you try this as it could be a dodgy battery....

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#13 29-12-2005 3:43pm
joejoem

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It might be possible to figure out what component is causing it. If you can't find the guy that sold it too you

What brand of laptop is it ?
Compaq Neo 1020v

What components are in it ?
40g hd, 256 ram, dvd/cdrw, pentium 4

When you reinstalled the operating system did you add in any software before it started turning off again...

No, nothing, just wiped and started again

Also is the system on the mains when you try this as it could be a dodgy battery....
No the battery is fine as far as I can see, had it plugged into the mains but it still shuts down.

I wrote down the guys address but misplaced the piece of paper, I couldnt find his house so I met him on the road, he has turned his phone off, I am now endevouring to track him with the gardai through his phone number and windows serial number and then take him to the small claims court.

My stupidity and naive(ness) is to blame for this. Silly Joe

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#14 02-01-2006 1:34pm
TempestSabre

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lomb wrote:

run memtest, this runs b4 it boots into windows, u need to burn it to a cd and boot off the cd.
in future never buy a second hand laptop, good new acer ones are only 400 sterling/600 euros with a 1 yr warranty.

Good advice. Unless the laptop is from a trusted source, like a good friend, or still has an outstanding warranty I wouldn't buy it. My own Sony has a 3 yr warranty so theres still a year left on it, for example. These days with electronic equipment being so uneconomical to repair, unless under warranty, I'd be wary about what you buy.

That said I wouldn't give up on the laptop. If it played a DVD for you, it might not be faulty but something has worked loose. Cable, memory, HD etc. If you can't suss it get someone else to try. Or http://www.computersunlimited.ie/ etc. Maybe theres a boards member near you who could have a look for you. Worth 30mins of your time no? My laptop was acting up till I bought a canister of compressed air (maplins) and blew it through all the vents clearing dust out of it. Now its back to normal.

Try the memtest though. That will give you some pointers.

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