Want to avert another major fail!!

A

alan777

Member
Reloaded vista factory settings from HD as vista couldn't load [only to safe mode with a split screen!]

Checked HD and memory in diagnostics - all passed.

Got to this stage already last night with this laptop and it was gone haywire again this morning when I attempted to boot up?

So I need to know - What can I do now to avert this happening again?
Note:
I had installed updates from windows update last night and latest adobe version, norton
& chrome.

cheers
 

My Computer

System One

"Gone haywire" is a bit ambiguous. I take it the laptop doesn't boot up properly, and either hangs or aborts at some point. Have you had a trustworthy updated anti-virus program running on your computer? Did you visit any unusual / unexpected websites or view any e-mail attachments recently that caused some strange behavior?

When you checked the hard drive, what did you do? Did you run CHKDSK or a 3rd party diagnostic tool? Has it been defragmented? When a drive is old and beginning to suffer problems, bad sectors may appear and foul up system files, causing boot up to fail.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavillion dv5t
    CPU
    Intel Core Duo 2.53GHz
    Memory
    4Gb
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVidia GeForce 9600M GT 512Mb
    Screen Resolution
    1280x800 32bit
    Hard Drives
    Seagate Momentus XT 500Gb
    Hitachi Travelstar HTS543225L9A300 250Gb
    Mouse
    Microsoft 4000
Hi thanks for reply. Yes it would only boot in safe-mode with a split screen.

I eventually F10'd into recovery manager [its a HP laptop]so lost all my files but restored to factory defaults.

I had run chkdsk, defragged, virus scans with micro security essentials I ran the harddisk and memory diagnostics in DOS - all passed.

When I let windows update install 83 updates it was back to square one again on the restart [ie safe-mode only]

I've searched online and see that others have had simular with vista when certain drivers get updated.

Henceforth I have not allowed any updates to install this time and so far so good?

Is it correct that he split screen I was seeing may indicate a display driver issue?

Is it detrimental to not install updates?

rgds
 

My Computer

System One

HP laptop? How old is it? If it's a few years old then it is likely a hardware problem. Some older HP laptops (notably the dv6 and dv7) suffered this problem where the screen would split up, often into 6 sections. It's generally experienced when the GPU (graphics processor unit) heats up. The older HP's didn't have a very good heat dissipation design, coupled with a problematic nVidia GPU (series G84x, G86x).

Check on your HP laptop model and the GPU inside (system info for display/video). If yours doesn't match the ones known to be problematic, you might have luck with some other things to try. Have you ever updated the BIOS?

Generally, Vista updates are fine, but if your BIOS is long out of date (where several newer ones exist) then it's possible a Vista update might be compromising the operation of your video card with newly introduced driver updates (or system changes that the drivers depend upon).
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavillion dv5t
    CPU
    Intel Core Duo 2.53GHz
    Memory
    4Gb
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVidia GeForce 9600M GT 512Mb
    Screen Resolution
    1280x800 32bit
    Hard Drives
    Seagate Momentus XT 500Gb
    Hitachi Travelstar HTS543225L9A300 250Gb
    Mouse
    Microsoft 4000
yes its quite old its a presario c500.

BIOS version HP F.11 30/11/2006
SM BIOS 2.4

Display system info shows installed driver as igdumd32.dll. I'm not seeing anything relating to GRU though?

thanks
 

My Computer

System One

Wow, that's really old (no offense). ;) It's unlikely to be the GPU failure problem. I suggest going to the HP website, selecting your operating system (Vista x32 or x64) and download the default video drivers for this laptop.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavillion dv5t
    CPU
    Intel Core Duo 2.53GHz
    Memory
    4Gb
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVidia GeForce 9600M GT 512Mb
    Screen Resolution
    1280x800 32bit
    Hard Drives
    Seagate Momentus XT 500Gb
    Hitachi Travelstar HTS543225L9A300 250Gb
    Mouse
    Microsoft 4000
Lol yes my friend its quite a relic. I feel determined to keep this working now and I've learned so much in the process in the last week its staggering.
Your help is much appreciated and I'll get on those display drivers right away.

rgds
 

My Computer

System One

^ The Apple world works great for extreme novices and people who want to keep their computer software/hardware knowledge at a bare minimum. In Windows, you used to need a lot of technical knowledge to run things smoothly. Thankfully Windows has made enormous strides in usability improvements, but there are still times when assistance is needed (same is true for the Apple users--I've helped plenty of them struggling with Mac issues in my "spare" time).

Once you get a decent understanding of the basics, there's a lot you can do to make your use of a personal computer much easier and reliable, as well as extend the life of older hardware. Especially when your computer activities barely push the limits of the processor, which means that a much older computer can still work quite well for general use.

Anyway, you're welcome--glad to help. :)
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavillion dv5t
    CPU
    Intel Core Duo 2.53GHz
    Memory
    4Gb
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVidia GeForce 9600M GT 512Mb
    Screen Resolution
    1280x800 32bit
    Hard Drives
    Seagate Momentus XT 500Gb
    Hitachi Travelstar HTS543225L9A300 250Gb
    Mouse
    Microsoft 4000
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