My laptop (a pretty recent model of the Dell Inspiron series) tends to get a lot of dust in the fan, and sometimes the fan gets clogged up, so I take it apart, remove the dust from the fan, and put the laptop back together again. I recently unclogged my fan for the third time, and something went wrong when I put it back together, because every time I turn it on, I log into my account and it immediately tells me 'dumping physical memory to disc, start your computer in safe mode, etc'. When I start my computer in safe mode, it does the same thing. I figured fuckit, I'll just load a new copy of windows onto my drive and start from scratch. So I put a new copy of windows onto a CD and inserted the CD into the disc drive. But then when I try to boot windows from the disc (hitting f12 while the computer is loading), the computer just freezes, and I have to turn it off.

 

Wat do?

 

Is it a motherboard problem, or a hard drive problem? If it's one of these two, could I just buy a new one and replace it? I'd rather not buy a whole new computer... I'm not an expert or anything so could somebody please offer some advice? If you're fairly knowledgeable with computers, please add me on msn or contact me by email (both are in my contact info) because nobody ever checks this section of the forum and I doubt I'll get a lot of replies.

I'm not extremely tech savvy with this kind of thing but I'd imagine it being the motherboard since it seems once you cleaned out the computer that's when the problem began. Also since you reinstalled windows, it seems like it's also a problem with the motherboard.

 

In terms of solutions I don't really know. Perhaps take it apart as if you were cleaning it again, and put it back together and see what works. Otherwise I might bring it into a specialist.

Haha, I have a pretty recent Dell Inspiron too. They fucking suck, right?

I'll be extremely surprised if mine lasts the whole year.

Haha, I have a pretty recent Dell Inspiron too. They fucking suck, right?

I'll be extremely surprised if mine lasts the whole year.

 

Yea. My parents bought it and they think Dells are by far the best. I even had a cheaper Toshiba picked out (with all the same specs) but they said no no no you're getting a Dell :(

get a mac next time :lol:

 

 

I've had mine since the summer of '06, and haven't had a single problem with it.

get a mac next time :lol:

 

 

I've had mine since the summer of '06, and haven't had a single problem with it.

 

For the first time in my life, I'm actually considering that. I love Windows, and some day when I'm able to afford a very nice computer that won't break, I'll buy a nice Toshiba or something like that. However, now that I'm going off to college soon, I'm thinking I'll need something more reliable (reliability is one of the few things which I find Mac has over windows).

 

This is my second Dell computer in less than 3 years, by the way.

once you go mac, you never go back :lol:

Toshibas raq.

once you go mac, you never go back :lol:

 

Very true! I love my Macbook. :wacky:

 

Back on topic plz.

Let's see.. starting computer in safe mode.. hm.. could be any number of things! With this beast here (not a laptop) it was starting in safe mode for no apparent reason, except something was making the system unstable. So, after many safemode starts, the power supply finally went out on it. Could that be the problem? How are the batteries? Safemode is when there's a problem booting the operating system or the system has instabilities I think (thinking back), so it flips into safemode. Or it could just be a loose screw floating around inside the computer.

It could be something else too - but I would check the power supply first. Dells are bug prone as I am told, Apple is recommended by a local webmaster.

Wish I knew more!!

Safemode - can you boot it still from the regular system? Perhaps the troubleshooting mode might find the problem. Or else the hard drive is starting to go maybe..

Have you checked you put it back together correctly, it could be a loose connection?

Did you accidentally go near the memory modules causing static discharge?

Let's see.. starting computer in safe mode.. hm.. could be any number of things! With this beast here (not a laptop) it was starting in safe mode for no apparent reason, except something was making the system unstable. So, after many safemode starts, the power supply finally went out on it. Could that be the problem? How are the batteries? Safemode is when there's a problem booting the operating system or the system has instabilities I think (thinking back), so it flips into safemode. Or it could just be a loose screw floating around inside the computer.

It could be something else too - but I would check the power supply first. Dells are bug prone as I am told, Apple is recommended by a local webmaster.

Wish I knew more!!

Safemode - can you boot it still from the regular system? Perhaps the troubleshooting mode might find the problem. Or else the hard drive is starting to go maybe..

 

I can't boot it from safe mode, normal mode, or from a disc. As soon as I enter my password, it just gives me a blue screen with a bunch of errors, then restarts.

 

Have you checked you put it back together correctly, it could be a loose connection?

Did you accidentally go near the memory modules causing static discharge?

 

Well in order to get to the cooling fan, I have to take out the memory modules. I actually took the computer apart and put it back together again, just to make sure everything was ok, and I couldn't find any visible problems. :confused:

Silly question but were you wearing any sort of anti-static gloves/wrist bands when handling the memory modules?

No I wasn't :confused:

 

The Dell manual (which is what I originally used to take out the cooling fan) never mentioned anything like that.

I would say motherboard. It definitely would not be a hard drive problem because when you put that CD in and attempt to boot from the CD nothing involving the hard drive is involved.

Wat do?

No I wasn't :confused:

 

The Dell manual (which is what I originally used to take out the cooling fan) never mentioned anything like that.

 

My guess is that you've accidentally discharged a static shock onto the memory modules when you've been handling them, so in short you probably need new RAM modules if that is the case.

Alright I'm gonna try using another memory module (from the other Dell that went to shit). Will post results...

Just remember to wear anti-static gloves or a wrist-band, or failing that wear nothing on top.