# Laptop Froze Up, Help Please!!!



## ltbloom (Mar 31, 2005)

This morning, my laptop ( running on WindowsXP) went through the Windows setup OK, but froze in the middle of opening the Desktop. Nothing works, not even unplugging, it runs on the battery. 
Right now Iâm using my Desktop with a worm that shuts down on me all the time.
Any ideas what I can do about the laptop?
Thanks,
Gundi


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## Kung (Jan 19, 2004)

Try booting the laptop up in safe mode (turn it on and start mashing F8 until you get a bunch of startup options, one of them being Safe Mode).

If it works there, we know it's probably a driver or file issue. If not, it's a hardware issue OR a bad enough software issue that you might need to 

a) backup your stuff and
b) run a repair install (or a complete reinstall if that doesn't work).


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## donsgal (May 2, 2005)

ltbloom said:


> This morning, my laptop ( running on WindowsXP) went through the Windows setup OK, but froze in the middle of opening the Desktop. Nothing works, not even unplugging, it runs on the battery.
> Right now Iâm using my Desktop with a worm that shuts down on me all the time.
> Any ideas what I can do about the laptop?
> Thanks,
> Gundi


I wish I had a nickel for every time my computer tweaked out on me for no apparent reason.

First unplug the computer from the wall then take out the battery. Then try rebooting again. Chances are it was just a one-time glitch. If not, then I would try to restore it to an eariler configuration and see if that will help. (if necessary tapping the F8 button repeatedly (a couple of times a second), until the safe mode screen comes up. It will give you the option to restore the computer at that time. Heaven help you if you don't have any restore points to go back to. (Warning - the computer says it won't remove any recent work but that is a fib. You may lose programs that you have installed since the last restore point was made.)

Let us know what happened.

donsgal


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## blue gecko (Jun 14, 2006)

When mine does that usually unplugging and taking out the battery works for me. So I second donsgal's suggestion.


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## ltbloom (Mar 31, 2005)

Thanks, everybody, unplugging and trying agasin withoput the battery worked liche a charm!
I wonder what caused it, though, and if I need to do anything to prevent this from happening again, I was so frazzled and frustrated...
Gundi


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## donsgal (May 2, 2005)

ltbloom said:


> Thanks, everybody, unplugging and trying agasin withoput the battery worked liche a charm!
> I wonder what caused it, though, and if I need to do anything to prevent this from happening again, I was so frazzled and frustrated...
> Gundi


Nothing that I can think of.

Your desktop on the other hand....go to "start >run " and type in 

shutdown -a 

BUT *don't hit enter*. Then when the worm you have starts to shut down the system *then* you hit enter and it will prevent it from happening. Then IMMEDIATELY go to http://www.google.com/url?q=http://...t&cd=1&usg=AFrqEzdFG9Zp2D_jur1e_iAe11CHO2hT0w and have a virus scan to find out what is causing the problem. Once you find out the name of the worm/virus. Go to google and find out what you need to download to fix it!

the shutdown -a means "abort the shutdown command" that the worm is giving you! That buys you the time to find out so that you can get it fixed.

donsgal


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## ltbloom (Mar 31, 2005)

Donsgal,
The weird thing is that the desktop is working ok now, but it was shutting down randomly. I took it to Circuit City and they said it was a worm, of course not covered by my maintenance agreement, and they offered to fix it. I declined, in a huff, and had been using the laptop since then ( March ). 
I noticed that since they ran the scan on it, there's a PCcheckup folder on my desktop, of course it doesn't make any sense to me, but do worms go away by themselves maybe?
Or is it just watching and waiting?


_Your desktop on the other hand....go to "start >run " and type in

shutdown -a

BUT *don't hit enter*. Then when the worm you have starts to shut down the system *then* you hit enter and it will prevent it from happening. Then IMMEDIATELY go to http://www.google.com/url?q=http://...e_iAe11CHO2hT0w and have a virus scan to find out what is causing the problem. Once you find out the name of the worm/virus. Go to google and find out what you need to download to fix it!

the shutdown -a means "abort the shutdown command" that the worm is giving you! That buys you the time to find out so that you can get it fixed_

So can I do that and work normally on the computer or do I have to sit and wait for the worm to show it's ugly head? Sorry I'm so ignorant about these things, and thanks for all the help!
Gundi


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## Kung (Jan 19, 2004)

Good catch, y'all! I actually have never experienced that - our laptops tend to freeze before even booting up - removing power (either the battery or the A/C plug) does the truck, but never seen that once actually booted up.


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## backwoodsman7 (Mar 22, 2007)

ltbloom said:


> Thanks, everybody, unplugging and trying agasin withoput the battery worked liche a charm!


Most all computers will power down if you hold the power button for 4 seconds. So it's not necessary to unplug & remove the battery.

-Dan


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## 14yearpcmaker (Mar 11, 2007)

backwoodsman7 said:


> Most all computers will power down if you hold the power button for 4 seconds. So it's not necessary to unplug & remove the battery.
> 
> -Dan


Yes, but unplugging and taking out the battery on a laptop kind of forces the laptop to "reset its self". Other than just powering down the laptop...


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## backwoodsman7 (Mar 22, 2007)

14yearpcmaker said:


> Yes, but unplugging and taking out the battery on a laptop kind of forces the laptop to "reset its self". Other than just powering down the laptop...


Nothing personal, but I'll take that with a grain of salt until I see it in a laptop's user manual or some other authoritative source, or see it work myself. All I can say is, I haven't had to remove a laptop's battery for that reason since I learned about the 4 second power switch thing from my first laptop's manual, and that's almost a decade and (let's see...) 7 of my own laptops ago, and a few friends' laptops here & there. It sure doesn't hurt anything to unplug & remove the battery, but it's a lot easier to hold the switch for 4 seconds, and it accomplishes the same thing.

-Dan


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## Kung (Jan 19, 2004)

I dunno if you want to accept my word as an authoritative source, but I've done contract work on pretty much ALL types of computers for about the last 12 years or so, and run my own sole proprietorship.

It does, in fact, force it to 'reset itself', so to speak. When you remove all sources of power, any VRAM (volatile RAM) loses its contents; and therefore the computer is forced to sort of 'start all over again' and refer to the BIOS and the HD for its information, instead of what's cached in memory.

I see this same problem (not wanting to come on) in MANY, many Dells and Gateways, and unplugging the power cord from the back of the computer (or, in the case of laptops, unplugging the power cord AND removing the battery) does the truck.

The 4-second power switch trick does work most of the time - all that does is force the computer off. You can turn a computer off @ any point doing that. But if that doesn't work, use the trick that 14 year suggested.


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## backwoodsman7 (Mar 22, 2007)

Kung said:


> The 4-second power switch trick does work most of the time - all that does is force the computer off. You can turn a computer off @ any point doing that. But if that doesn't work, use the trick that 14 year suggested.


Well, the point of this forum is to help newbies, and since there's no harm in removing the battery, I have no reason to object to its recommendation. I was just pointing out there's an easier way. I'm not convinced it's ever necessary, but you and maybe a few others here have more laptop experience than I do, so for all I know there may be machines out there that can benefit from it.

-Dan

P.S. I owned and operated two computer stores for a total of 7 years, where the core business was building & selling PC clones. I either oversaw or personally performed all the tech work, both building new PCs and repairing old ones (but we seldom repaired the ones we built). After that I spent some years doing basically the same thing as an independent consultant, as well as some programming. Then I ran a business buying & selling computer memory and related products, back in the days when it was very expensive. Now I use computers constantly in a business in an unrelated field, and work on them only for myself and a few friends. My laptop experience is mostly just on my own personal machines, because I was out of the industry before they became very common.


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## Kung (Jan 19, 2004)

Agreed, it is easier, and I'd rather do that; however, it doesn't always work (it does 99% of the time, but it's usually the 1% that I'm working on that screw up ), thus the reason for the removal of power thing. 

I will say that it seems that it's all the NEW computers that have this problem, mainly the desktops. As far as laptops goes, I've only seen it on 2 or 3, but it's usually the oddball ones that stick in my mind.


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