Compaq laptop

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Lil' Dave

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My daughter's significant other owns a 2006 Compaq laptop with an AMD 64
Turion. He has a lot of business files on it. Its running XP with SP2. It
has a problem that I suspect is hardware, but may be the OS reacting somehow
as well. It may be significant as well to say that it has Norton Internet
Security and AV loaded version 2006. No Norton updates were ever done. May
be significant as well to say that this laptop has always been slow as
molasses running local apps, and accessing the internet. That's the least
of their worries now. Presently, the laptop may turn off entirely without
warning anywhere from a few minutes use to many hours of use. No pattern.
Audibly, the fan turns on shortly after entering the XP desktop loading
routine if started from cold boot left off for a few hours or more. I can't
demonstrably tell when the laptop is finished booting the desktop and
startup files. The HDD access LED seems intermittently lit even an hour
later. The hiberfil.sys is 3GB and swapfile is 1.6GB.

They tried in desperation to copy their personal files to CD, but the laptop
always turns off in the middle of it. Even when copying a few files at a
time. She was unable to locate any recovery CDs for the Compaq. She did
find what appears to be externally as a generic OEM XP installation CD.
There is a product ID sticker on the bottom of the laptop.

Always true, after opening control panel, when double clicking the system
icon, the laptop turns off. So, have been unable to check XP's assessment
of hardware.

Was able to load DriveImage version 7.0 on the laptop. Connected a USB
FAT32 external hard drive. I imaged the C: partition successfully. It took
5.5 hours (laptop stopped in the middle of verification of image). I see
the normal directories at the root, the windows folder has nothing in it per
the image file, and the image passed verification per my PC. So, I guess
windows is in another partition. So, I have to go back and image that as
well. I did burn all their personal files from the image, along with the
folder structure to DVD (680MB). TrendMicro AV could find no virus or
spyware on it.

Should they attempt to locate the original recovery CDs from Compaq?
Or, limp along on the generic OEM installation from scratch?
Is there a place to get drivers for this laptop?
How do I determine if heat is the root problem on this laptop?
--
Dave
 
Re: Compaq laptop

With an AMD Turion, it's doubtful that's the source of overheating. You
didn't mention the HD vendor but I'd wager that drive is overheating. I've
seen many notebook drives run at or near their upper limit of 131-135
degrees-F. Because notebook drives are mounted in a bracket there is
usually no way to vent or exhaust the heat. SpeedFan can show both the
drive temp and the SMART data of the drive. One problem with almost
all notebooks is the fan control is set at thresholds to avoid noise at the
risk of overheating. Sometimes a notebook Chiller pad will help or at
the least elevate the back of the notebook so some air flows underneath
the computer.

"Lil' Dave" <spamyourself@virus.net> wrote in message
news:e%232EsO6JJHA.1012@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
> My daughter's significant other owns a 2006 Compaq laptop with an AMD 64
> Turion. He has a lot of business files on it. Its running XP with SP2.
> It has a problem that I suspect is hardware, but may be the OS reacting
> somehow as well. It may be significant as well to say that it has Norton
> Internet Security and AV loaded version 2006. No Norton updates were ever
> done. May be significant as well to say that this laptop has always been
> slow as molasses running local apps, and accessing the internet. That's
> the least of their worries now. Presently, the laptop may turn off
> entirely without warning anywhere from a few minutes use to many hours of
> use. No pattern. Audibly, the fan turns on shortly after entering the XP
> desktop loading routine if started from cold boot left off for a few hours
> or more. I can't demonstrably tell when the laptop is finished booting
> the desktop and startup files. The HDD access LED seems intermittently
> lit even an hour later. The hiberfil.sys is 3GB and swapfile is 1.6GB.
>
> They tried in desperation to copy their personal files to CD, but the
> laptop always turns off in the middle of it. Even when copying a few
> files at a time. She was unable to locate any recovery CDs for the
> Compaq. She did find what appears to be externally as a generic OEM XP
> installation CD. There is a product ID sticker on the bottom of the
> laptop.
>
> Always true, after opening control panel, when double clicking the system
> icon, the laptop turns off. So, have been unable to check XP's assessment
> of hardware.
>
> Was able to load DriveImage version 7.0 on the laptop. Connected a USB
> FAT32 external hard drive. I imaged the C: partition successfully. It
> took 5.5 hours (laptop stopped in the middle of verification of image). I
> see the normal directories at the root, the windows folder has nothing in
> it per the image file, and the image passed verification per my PC. So, I
> guess windows is in another partition. So, I have to go back and image
> that as well. I did burn all their personal files from the image, along
> with the folder structure to DVD (680MB). TrendMicro AV could find no
> virus or spyware on it.
>
> Should they attempt to locate the original recovery CDs from Compaq?
> Or, limp along on the generic OEM installation from scratch?
> Is there a place to get drivers for this laptop?
> How do I determine if heat is the root problem on this laptop?
> --
> Dave
>
 
Re: Compaq laptop

Lil' Dave wrote:
> My daughter's significant other owns a 2006 Compaq laptop with an AMD 64
> Turion. He has a lot of business files on it. Its running XP with SP2. It
> has a problem that I suspect is hardware, but may be the OS reacting somehow
> as well. It may be significant as well to say that it has Norton Internet
> Security and AV loaded version 2006. No Norton updates were ever done. May
> be significant as well to say that this laptop has always been slow as
> molasses running local apps, and accessing the internet. That's the least
> of their worries now. Presently, the laptop may turn off entirely without
> warning anywhere from a few minutes use to many hours of use. No pattern.
> Audibly, the fan turns on shortly after entering the XP desktop loading
> routine if started from cold boot left off for a few hours or more. I can't
> demonstrably tell when the laptop is finished booting the desktop and
> startup files. The HDD access LED seems intermittently lit even an hour
> later. The hiberfil.sys is 3GB and swapfile is 1.6GB.
>
> They tried in desperation to copy their personal files to CD, but the laptop
> always turns off in the middle of it. Even when copying a few files at a
> time. She was unable to locate any recovery CDs for the Compaq. She did
> find what appears to be externally as a generic OEM XP installation CD.
> There is a product ID sticker on the bottom of the laptop.
>
> Always true, after opening control panel, when double clicking the system
> icon, the laptop turns off. So, have been unable to check XP's assessment
> of hardware.
>
> Was able to load DriveImage version 7.0 on the laptop. Connected a USB
> FAT32 external hard drive. I imaged the C: partition successfully. It took
> 5.5 hours (laptop stopped in the middle of verification of image). I see
> the normal directories at the root, the windows folder has nothing in it per
> the image file, and the image passed verification per my PC. So, I guess
> windows is in another partition. So, I have to go back and image that as
> well. I did burn all their personal files from the image, along with the
> folder structure to DVD (680MB). TrendMicro AV could find no virus or
> spyware on it.
>
> Should they attempt to locate the original recovery CDs from Compaq?
> Or, limp along on the generic OEM installation from scratch?
> Is there a place to get drivers for this laptop?
> How do I determine if heat is the root problem on this laptop?
Depending on the value of the data, you might try buying an external USB
case for 2.5" drives and remove the drive and put it into this external
housing. You could then put the drive on a desktop machine running a
stable OS, and make backups there. This at least would save
everything. From here you could adventure into restore confident.
 
Re: Compaq laptop

Believe its a Seagate as the bios starts out with ST followed by numbers on
primary ide.

--
Dave

"R. McCarty" <PcEngWork-NoSpam_@mindspring.com> wrote in message
news:eYWbTW6JJHA.4280@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
> With an AMD Turion, it's doubtful that's the source of overheating. You
> didn't mention the HD vendor but I'd wager that drive is overheating. I've
> seen many notebook drives run at or near their upper limit of 131-135
> degrees-F. Because notebook drives are mounted in a bracket there is
> usually no way to vent or exhaust the heat. SpeedFan can show both the
> drive temp and the SMART data of the drive. One problem with almost
> all notebooks is the fan control is set at thresholds to avoid noise at
> the
> risk of overheating. Sometimes a notebook Chiller pad will help or at
> the least elevate the back of the notebook so some air flows underneath
> the computer.
>
> "Lil' Dave" <spamyourself@virus.net> wrote in message
> news:e%232EsO6JJHA.1012@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>> My daughter's significant other owns a 2006 Compaq laptop with an AMD 64
>> Turion. He has a lot of business files on it. Its running XP with SP2.
>> It has a problem that I suspect is hardware, but may be the OS reacting
>> somehow as well. It may be significant as well to say that it has Norton
>> Internet Security and AV loaded version 2006. No Norton updates were
>> ever done. May be significant as well to say that this laptop has always
>> been slow as molasses running local apps, and accessing the internet.
>> That's the least of their worries now. Presently, the laptop may turn
>> off entirely without warning anywhere from a few minutes use to many
>> hours of use. No pattern. Audibly, the fan turns on shortly after
>> entering the XP desktop loading routine if started from cold boot left
>> off for a few hours or more. I can't demonstrably tell when the laptop
>> is finished booting the desktop and startup files. The HDD access LED
>> seems intermittently lit even an hour later. The hiberfil.sys is 3GB and
>> swapfile is 1.6GB.
>>
>> They tried in desperation to copy their personal files to CD, but the
>> laptop always turns off in the middle of it. Even when copying a few
>> files at a time. She was unable to locate any recovery CDs for the
>> Compaq. She did find what appears to be externally as a generic OEM XP
>> installation CD. There is a product ID sticker on the bottom of the
>> laptop.
>>
>> Always true, after opening control panel, when double clicking the system
>> icon, the laptop turns off. So, have been unable to check XP's
>> assessment of hardware.
>>
>> Was able to load DriveImage version 7.0 on the laptop. Connected a USB
>> FAT32 external hard drive. I imaged the C: partition successfully. It
>> took 5.5 hours (laptop stopped in the middle of verification of image).
>> I see the normal directories at the root, the windows folder has nothing
>> in it per the image file, and the image passed verification per my PC.
>> So, I guess windows is in another partition. So, I have to go back and
>> image that as well. I did burn all their personal files from the image,
>> along with the folder structure to DVD (680MB). TrendMicro AV could find
>> no virus or spyware on it.
>>
>> Should they attempt to locate the original recovery CDs from Compaq?
>> Or, limp along on the generic OEM installation from scratch?
>> Is there a place to get drivers for this laptop?
>> How do I determine if heat is the root problem on this laptop?
>> --
>> Dave
>>
>
>
 
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