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Booting/Hard drive Problem?

post #1 of 8
2/9/05 at 12:33pm
Thread Starter 
I've got an 8886 that has been working really well since I got it until just recently it developed an odd quirk. When it has been shut down for more than a few hours, when it trys to boot up it will crash a number of times just as it gets to windows and have to reboot. It does this between 2-3 times usually (sometimes as many as 6-7) before it boots successfully and I can use it....It would sometimes give me an error about how the windows registry was corrupted and had to be replaced from a backup, othertimes it would give me the classic "windows has recovered from a serious error, would you like to tell Bill Gates everything about yourself" box.

I tried running a boot sector virus scanner (Norton), but it came up with nothing, then I tried a clean format and reinstall with no luck. Then I installed a brand new hard drive with a clean install and it still does it...

I saw some other people talking about bad I/O controllers or such for the hard drive...does this sound like what it is? If so, how much would I have to replace?

Thanks
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post #2 of 8
2/9/05 at 1:10pm
Thread Starter 
I have tried disabling fast boot as was mentioned in another post and that didn't find any errors, I'm currently running a more advanced memory checker (called Memtest-86). I hope it finds something.

The thing that really kills me is that it only seems to happen when the laptop has been shut down for a while (as if it only does it when it has had time to cool down). Once it boots correctly, I can shut it down and restart it without a problem...
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post #3 of 8
2/9/05 at 7:36pm
could it be your cmos battery?
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post #4 of 8
2/10/05 at 12:25pm
Thread Starter 
Well, I think I've got the culprit nailed down.

I removed the stick of memory that I added about two months ago and the problem stopped. I put it back in and it started again...

So it looks like I've got a rather odd problem with a stick of memory. I'm not sure why the problem didn't show up for over a month when I installed the new stick, oh well.

By the way, has anyone else heard of memory (or I guess any other hardware) not working when it was cool but working once it got warmed up? Because I guess it's entirely possible (obviously) and it does make some sense. I just hadn't thought about it before.
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post #5 of 8
2/10/05 at 4:12pm
Possibly bad contacts.
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post #6 of 8
2/10/05 at 5:39pm
Thread Starter 
Yeah, I'm praying that it's just a flaw in the stick of memory rather than in the connectors on my laptop....

Does anyone happen to know what PCTORQUE/Sager would do about bad connectors? I'm out of my warrenty period but since it would be pretty obviously a manufacturing flaw.

Oh well, no point in worrying about it too much till the memory company sends me a new stick of memory.
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post #7 of 8
3/14/05 at 12:11am

me too

I've been dealing with this problem on my 8890 for at least 4-5 months now. The nice thing about it is it's consistent. If I startup the computer and nothing happens, I just know it's cold and I let the processor spin (I think that's all that's happening, even the screen doesn't turn on) for a minute or so. Then I reboot. Works every time. It's definitely hardware related, but it hasn't bothered me enough to fix, since I can ALWAYS get it started after a minute. Granted, that's not something one should have to deal with after spending $2500 on a laptop. I keep hoping someone will really figure out what it is and post how to fix it. . .
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post #8 of 8
3/14/05 at 7:05pm
I've had the same problem with my 8887 but it usually goes away after a while.

Now it's got an entirely new problem where if I rattle the guy a little bit, it shuts off on its own - but that's an entirely different topic.
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