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    HDD or OS problems?

    Discussion in 'Windows OS and Software' started by gldo3, Apr 1, 2009.

  1. gldo3

    gldo3 Notebook Enthusiast

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    I have a Sager 2090 laptop running XP. About a week ago, I started noticing a flickering screen on initial boot up. It seemed to clear up after a few minutes, so I didn't think anything of it. Last night, the same thing happened during initial bootup, but after the Windows splash screen I got a BSOD? (with some info on it) which flashed on / off quickly, then computer started rebooting again. It stayed in a loop at that point. I was unable to see the info on the BSOD.
    I booted computer from XP disk, saved data to external HD, ran chkdsk, which showed one or more errors on volume. Ran FIXBOOT and FIXMBR. This morning I turned computer on again with same flickering, but after a few minutes, things go back to normal (it appears that it only occurs during initial startup and settles down when things are warmed up).
    All applications seem to be running fine with the exception of MS Outlook, which shows a message to send an error report to MS on startup and will only open in safe-mode.
    A relative has advised me to run chkdsk C:\p or \R to fix the errors on the volume. Good advice? Any other suggestions?

    thanks.
     
    gldo3, Apr 1, 2009
    #1
  2. DetlevCM

    DetlevCM Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    If I were to guess I'd say hardware problem.

    If you have the time - do a clean instal - if i is a software problem this would fix it.

    If it is the HDD - then you need a new HDD, better safe than sorry on this. A HDD which i already damaged can only fail sooner...

    It would be nice if you dig up some error logs to find the source of your problems.
     
    DetlevCM, Apr 1, 2009
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  3. Shyster1

    Shyster1 Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    I'd agree with DetlevCM - your underlying problem is most likely a hardware problem related to the lcd, possibly the inverter or the main cable that goes to the lcd from the motherboard. The BSOD you experienced was probably related to problems loading the video drivers at boot, perhaps on account of the underlying physical problem with the lcd.

    As Detlev said, I would go through your event logs to see if you can find anything that seems related. You might also stick the "/bootlog" switch in your boot.ini (without the quotation marks) so that the system generates a log file recording which drivers were loaded and which were not - the file should be called ntbtlog.txt.
     
    Shyster1, Apr 1, 2009
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  4. nobscot6

    nobscot6 Wise One

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    It could also be something as simple as a driver.......

    did you update any drivers lately, esp. video? Try deleting the driver and reboot. It will auto install the best driver it finds on your pc......
     
    nobscot6, Apr 1, 2009
    #4