e1505 already flipping out on me

So I have had my e1505 for all of 1 week and already it is going nuts on me. I go to start it up this morning and it takes forever just to get going and when it does finally start, nothing seems to work right (programs lock up and won't respond, then won't close). I do manage to take notes in Word for class, and when class is done I close the notebook , stick it in it's sleeve and put it in my bookbag. Jump ahead a little over an hour and I am back in my room pulling it out to see if I can restart it and get past the problems of the morning but I find as I am pulling it out that it is blazing hot and the fan is running full blast because it apparently never went into hibernation mode and so stuff was running and generating heat (all trapped in my bag) for the last hour.

Now the machine is locked up and I can't even turn it off (though it has cooled down since I got it out of the bag on the cooling mat).

So I have two questions: 1. Have I potentially just fried anything inside my machine? 2. Is it going to harm anything if I just unplug it and pull the battery out to get the **** thing to shut off?

Thanks for any help.

C

 

my guess is that it isn't permanently harmed. You should try holding down the power button(up to 10 seconds) and see if that will turn it off before you pull the battery. And pulling the battery doesn't really do anything bad, just imagine pulling the plug on electrical devices.

For future reference, definitely check if the machine is completely off. Hiberation still generate heat, the question is just how much. I personally don't believe it's a good idea to keep it on for longer than 5-10minutes inside a close area(such as a bag).

Neb

 

I would just unplug it and pull out the battery. You shouldn't have any problems. I honestly don't know why everything is taking forever to load unless you haven't reformatted. Dell installs a ton of junkware that is set to load on boot up, so you might need to uninstall it or just reinstall XP if you have a chance.

 

Things I have done to my machine install-/uninstall-wise in the last week (roughly in the order they were done in):

uninstall retarded desktop icons (should a brand new machine have 20 of these? I think not)
install Microsoft Office XP
install NeoSound FX
install Powertab Editor
uninstall junkware
install Creative media source/drivers for mp3 player
install CivIII
uninstall more junk (looking at the guide in another thread here)
install Windows Defender
somewhere along the way I started having a problem with Sonic update manager wanting to update on startup but having nothing to update from. Pisses me off.
Last things I did before having this problem is install AIM and the latest version of McAfee provided by my school.

This morning was the first time I started up after having done that and since then I have been unable to get any office apps to work well and the machine likes to lock up temporarily on me. I am not connected to the internet unless I am at class and I have put up the firewall and got the protective software up and running anyway. Virus scan shows all clean, so I am really baffled as to what could be the problem.

C

Note: I just ran super-pi again (typically get 33s for 1m digits) and between loop 19 and declaring 1m digits done it goes from 31s (normal for this point) to 39s to declare done. Very strange, though not as strange as the jump from 13s on last iteration to 46s delaring done when I next calculated 512k digits.

 

I've been afraid that this was going to happen. With so many threads going on about reformatting and re-installing- this was bound to happen. I go by the principal of, "if it ain't broke don't fix it" as they say here in Texas. You have now broke it by trying to "fix it"! If I do anything to my new e1505 that is on its way, my IT person will do it. I don't trust myself and neither should any of you, unless this is your profession. Sorry I can't help you, I'm not a professional.

 

i submit that a computer crippled by bloatware is broken and the way to fix it is a reformat/fresh install

 

I would either complete reinstall XP - just because if you add/remove you are still leaving a ton of registry keys and folders which can corrupt your system.

Second option, would be to do a windows repair, but I can't gurantee that it will fix the problems. It sounds most likely an XP problem, so that is why I'm suggesting to reformat.

 

Hello, see a coincidence here? I'd be willing to bet that at least one or both of these are the source of your problem. I couldn't even install a Maxtor OneTouch external hard drive and its software until I uninstalled McAfee - very bad software IMHO. Try uninstalling each of these one at a time and see what happens. What have you got to lose?

 

Lo and behold, McAfee-less, my machine seems to be running fine now. WFT?

Thanks for the help.

C

PS: I'm still thinking about reformating, just for the heck of it before I get too comfortable with the machine and have too much on it to go back. We'll see how that little venture goes...

 

My two cents: I've had terrible experiences with Norton and McAfee slowing the computer to a crawl! First thing i did when I turned on my E1505 was unistall McAfee! I downloaded NOD32 trial and will probably buy online for $39 for one year. i liked AVG free version, but I just don't see how a free antivirus can really be that good.

I haven't had a single slowdown problem after i uninstalled bloatware. There is a GREAT thread on this site by Mark McK about what to leave and what to uninstall, line by line, on your add/remove programs list. I agree more with "gosman" that unless you are fairly skilled at computer management, i wouldn't recommend attempting a reformat. Seems like sometimes they go good and more often than not, there are little bugs that only a computer savvy professional would know how to fix. so that is my two cents worth and then some! Good luck.

 

I total agree with Gosman and Bechum. Reformat and reinstall should leave it to people who know how. Many been talking about Dell junkwares. How many? When my machine arrive, the first thing I do is uninstall everything I don't use or want before I install my stuffs. My E1505 should arrive today and no anti-virus program ordered. My Inspiron 8200 is four years old now and still working great (replacing it because wont' play Call of Duty 2 due to old graphic card) and never, never have to do reformat.

 

When I got my E1505, I decided not to go the reformat route, but to uninstall all the bloatware via add/remove programs. I have had no problems and my system is running fine (not slow). BUT, as SG said in an above post, doing it this way still leaves a lot of registry entries to the deleted programs. These can tend to slow down your computer. So, IMHO, you should definitely run a registry cleaner after you uninstall all your programs.

 

Thanks guys for your support of my unpopular opinion on this forum. Maybe I should start a separate thread: Why you should not reformat a Dell! That will draw the weekend techies!

 

Its not that uninstalling bloatware is unpopular. It is just a personal preference. For those of us that spend 24/7 on our laptops and have experience with reformatting and reinstalling, formatting our laptops is easy for us. I know a lot of users don't feel the same, so that's why i created the sticky.

The reason the formatting is recommended so much is that it is hard to trouble shoot a system when it has junkware on it or hasn't been reformatted so that it is completely clean. If it has registry keys and all of the junk from uninstalled programs on it, it could be anyone of those keys or files causing problems in addition to software/drivers that are installed. If you have a clean system, you can troubleshoot your problems much easier. Even if you run registry cleaners, you don't remove all of the registry keys. Severaly keys have to be uninstalled manually, and even if the program is not installed on your laptop anymore, those keys left behind cause problems.

This doesn't really have anything to do with dell. It is an XP problem. You will see this recommendation for any computer including desktops.

 

LOLOLOLOL!!!

 

i have no idea what you guys are talking about.

you're all trying to say that the PAGES of instructions for "removing bloatware" is LESS COMPLICATED than booting to an XP disc and clicking "yes" or "no" once or twice during the install?

is this bizarro universe?

 

For the thread starter... try flashing the BIOS. My PC just started acting slow, and I could hear the HD (which I hadn't heard much at all). I flashed the BIOS... got to go.

 

"If I do anything to my new e1505 that is on its way, my IT person will do it. I don't trust myself and neither should any of you, unless this is your profession. Sorry I can't help you, I'm not a professional."

I'm faaaar from a pro but whizzed through the reformat process thanks to SG's thread. My machine performs like a finely tuned instrument. And to say it's easier to remove bloat-ware manually is just not true. It took me 1 1/2 hours to do the reformat and all but 5 min of that was waiting for things to load. Installing the new drivers was a piece of cake.

 

^ Yeah, you definitely have to follow the thread exactly and install the drivers properly, or BAD things will happen...really, really, really bad.