hershy314 Posted October 8, 2014 Report Share Posted October 8, 2014 My neighbor asked me if I could take a look at their computer cause it wasn't working. I said sure, so they brought it over so I could look at it. From what they told me their oldest daughter was doing something on it when the problem happened. She claims she was just talking to her bf. It powers on and everything but the screen is blank. They said that they got a message saying the fan had stopped working, so maybe it over heated. I really don't know. The computer is a Dell XPS laptop. I don't know much other than that. Anyone got any ideas? http://athphotography.deviantart.com/ http://www.youtube.com/user/hershy314 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hotdog Posted October 8, 2014 Report Share Posted October 8, 2014 How old? Possibly solder joints on the video card failed. Video cards are replaceable but expensive. I did this too mine and it worked great (NEW) 2004 F-150 Build Log -->http://www.stevemeadedesigns.com/board/topic/192208-hotdogs-f-150-build-log/ 2003 Mercury Mountaineer Build Log --> http://www.stevemeadedesigns.com/board/topic/114380-hotdogs-2003-mountaineer-build-log-20-removed/page__gopid__1602379#entry1602379 2008 Equinox Build Log --> http://www.stevemead...g/#entry1475764 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hershy314 Posted October 8, 2014 Author Report Share Posted October 8, 2014 Didn't have to do that, it seems to be working now. Well still has some problems but at least now I can see stuff on the screen. http://athphotography.deviantart.com/ http://www.youtube.com/user/hershy314 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hershy314 Posted October 8, 2014 Author Report Share Posted October 8, 2014 but now getting the blue screen of death......that's always lovely. http://athphotography.deviantart.com/ http://www.youtube.com/user/hershy314 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shmew22 Posted October 8, 2014 Report Share Posted October 8, 2014 Next time it goes black, angle it towards a light and see if you can see a faint image on the screen. If you can, backlight is out. Can also connect an external monitor to see if you get output. With it blue screening though, i doubt that is what it is. Do you get the Dell logo when you first power it on and then it goes black? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hershy314 Posted October 8, 2014 Author Report Share Posted October 8, 2014 At first it wouldn't show anything. It would just power on and then not do anything. I left it on and had it on it's side. It shut down on it's own, I turned it back on and it seemed to come on. Ran a recovery after seeing the blue screen it keeps saying "windows is loading files" then rebooting. Been doing this a while now, lost count how many times it's done this. Really I think the hard drive is bout to bite the dust. Really not the news the I want to give them. Hopefully I'm wrong. http://athphotography.deviantart.com/ http://www.youtube.com/user/hershy314 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shmew22 Posted October 8, 2014 Report Share Posted October 8, 2014 What os? Are you hearing any strange noises from the area where the hard drive is located? Clicks, scratching etc? You can download Hirens Boot CD and use it to run some tests to see what is up. Has a memory test, hard drive tests, also a video memory test. Run those and see what you find out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hershy314 Posted October 8, 2014 Author Report Share Posted October 8, 2014 Not hearing any weird sounds or beeps. I'll try the Hirens Boot CD and see what that does. http://athphotography.deviantart.com/ http://www.youtube.com/user/hershy314 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hershy314 Posted October 8, 2014 Author Report Share Posted October 8, 2014 What os? Are you hearing any strange noises from the area where the hard drive is located? Clicks, scratching etc? You can download Hirens Boot CD and use it to run some tests to see what is up. Has a memory test, hard drive tests, also a video memory test. Run those and see what you find out. It runs windows 7 home edition. I tried that Hirens Boot CD but I was starting to hear a scratching sound, but tried the CD anyways. The CD seemed to be in another language. I think I'm going to leave it up to them to see what they want to do. http://athphotography.deviantart.com/ http://www.youtube.com/user/hershy314 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maxim Posted October 9, 2014 Report Share Posted October 9, 2014 Don't run diagnostics on a drive that is possibly dying without pulling the data off of it first. If the drive is actually dying then you're only doing more damage by booting it, letting it bluescreen, and repeating. Running disk diagnostics will only kill it faster. If the drive dies and there's any important data on it then it may be gone for good. Given how your neigbors described the issue to you I doubt they have backups of anything important so the last thing you want to do is hand them back a laptop that still doesn't work AND all of their family photos are gone forever. I would find out from them if they have anything important on it and what it might be. Even if the laptop is gone at least they may be able to get their files off of it. There are a few ways to get files off of the drive. If you have an external flash drive or hard drive and a CD you can burn a Linux boot disk, boot into Linux from the CD drive, and open the files on the hard drive as if it were an external hard drive. From there you can copy the folders and files you want to your flash drive for safe keeping. A second option is to pull the hard drive from the laptop and plug it into another computer with a SATA to USB adapter. There are several types of adapters from hard drive docks/cradles to simple one-cable deals. Once the drive was removed from the laptop and plugged into the second machine it would appear as an external drive and from there you could navigate the folders and copy files to the working machine or to a flash drive. Here's an example of a hard drive dock:http://www.bestbuy.com/site/thermaltake-sata-hard-drive-docking-station-with-esata-and-usb-connection/8990443.p;jsessionid=6FFC903DB7133F8D0260B17FAF84052D.bbolsp-app02-155?id=1218007083869&skuId=8990443&st=categoryid$pcmcat186100050007&cp=1&lp=11 Here's an example of a SATA to USB cable (very handy for laptop drives but won't work for desktop drives): http://www.bestbuy.com/site/apricorn-data-transfer-cable/3459621.p?id=1218404120715&skuId=3459621 Given the issues you describe and the likely causes of the issues (viruses, corruped Windows installation, etc.) your best bet is probably to back up their data, wipe the drive, and reinstall Windows. For the time it would take to troubleshoot and get the computer back into any sort of usable condition you're much better off just backing up things they want/need and starting it from scratch. wtf is lolcats? I'd def get a fat hooker if i had to resort to that kinda thing. I feel like they'd be grateful and work harder. Also its more bang for my buck, more real estate for my dollar if you catch my drift. its like the Costco of streetwalkers. I was hoping for 150 . I was hoping she would let me put it in her butt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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