Odd ball

Ok Win XP (I know it's old and about to run out of "microsoft maintenance" range.. )

I'm looking at a friends Dell Vostro 2510..

Trying to run anything on it, program and keyboard locks up after the screen goes to sleep, mouse does waken the laptop up but that's all it does, mouse moves but no clicks, no keyboard and what ever I was running still appears to be running but it's not...
Checking logs nothing obvious...

So I'm thinking "thermal" or HDD issues.... check with Dell website - I actually found a page that was helpful - go figure... I reboot it and boot into it's "diagnostics" mode...
Run a memory test, HDD test and the works - every one of is a "Pass" no fails / errors...

So what the heck is up with it.

I did run Malware Bytes on it - it did find and remove something on a quick scan - I tried running the longer scan it locks up..
Avast AV does the same on a long scan...
HDD checks out as ok via chkdsk /R etc etc... on a reboot...

Ideas Ladies n Gents,

Do I replace the HDD and clone Win XP on to it
or
Get XP to Install over itself
or
Fresh install of XP, redo the user folders, re-install everything then run the updates
or
Just replace the laptop period?

First make sure that the fan isn't stopping (or isn't even starting up). Those crappy little fans die regularly. You might be able to revive it with a few drips of Tri-Flow into any gaps around the motor. Fans are cheap to replace anyway. While you're there, blow out the 'heatsink' with compressed air, it'll be totally clogged, they always are.

Another thing, which sounds utterly stupid, is try another power supply. I spent ages try to get an Acer laptop to stop crashing, freezing and turning itself off randomly. It looked exactly like a HDD problem to me, but it wasn't. Although the PSU was apparently giving a solid 19.2VDC off load it was obviously randomly dropping out. I had a spare lying around and it fixed the weird problems instantly. Cheap enough to buy a new one.

Cheers,

Al.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ChertseyAl

First make sure that the fan isn't stopping (or isn't even starting up). Those crappy little fans die regularly. You might be able to revive it with a few drips of Tri-Flow into any gaps around the motor. Fans are cheap to replace anyway. While you're there, blow out the 'heatsink' with compressed air, it'll be totally clogged, they always are.

Another thing, which sounds utterly stupid, is try another power supply. I spent ages try to get an Acer laptop to stop crashing, freezing and turning itself off randomly. It looked exactly like a HDD problem to me, but it wasn't. Although the PSU was apparently giving a solid 19.2VDC off load it was obviously randomly dropping out. I had a spare lying around and it fixed the weird problems instantly. Cheap enough to buy a new one.

Cheers,

Al.

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The Fan appears to be working as I can hear it spin up and down, and it passed the hardware fan speed test..
I'll see if I can't get into it and clear it out...
PSU - hmm yeah might be that don't have a spare laying around to test it but can try it..