Vista - Re: Studying abroad, devastating weird laptop problem

Hmm... http://treehouse.ofb.net/go/en/voltage/China if it gets hot maybe
there's a voltage problem, I dunno about sizes but this plug design
looks like US 115V.

I don;t necessarily agree 100% with the text on this site BTW.


Rick Rogers wrote:

Hi,


I think both Rick Rogers and Charlie Tame could be right.

However, I would suggest you to stop the troubleshooting process at this
point, and I found the following address from Gateway, USA by clicking
"China" on their main page:

http://cn.gateway.com/

You may want to have a local friend translate the page for you, and all you
want is a local support phone number.

PS: As pointed out by Charlie Tame, you may also want to ask your local
friends about voltage converter (which may not be required by newer models)
and plug adapters (as far as I can remember - very confusing).

Hope this helps and good luck.




"popular" <brenden.cline@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:38e0d86fd227861645d313c0351a4495@xxxxxx-gateway.com...

Definitely looks like you've been got at. I am assuming you are okay with
voltage as this would cause different problems. (All this applies when on
battery too, yes)?

A clean install seems your only option. Get it right first time and it
should only take a couple of hours. Hunting for malware etc could take days.

Two things...
1: I suggest disabling Autorun. Any viruses etc are often self loading and
Autorun does the job for them.
2: So you don't have to go hunting on your slow machine, I have copied the
instructions here.

Good luck

Ed

Perform a clean installation
There are two ways to perform a clean installation of Windows Vista. The
first method is to install Windows Vista by running the Setup program from
the current version of Windows on your computer. The second method is to
start the computer from the Windows Vista DVD. First, try method 1. If it
does not work, try method 2.

Warning In a clean installation, existing data on your computer is deleted.
This data includes personal data, settings, hardware driver information, and
software programs. After you install the operating system, you must also
reinstall all programs. Make sure that you back up personal data to disks or
other external storage devices before you perform a clean installation.
Method 1: Perform a clean installation of Windows Vista by running Setup
from the current version of Windows
To perform a clean installation of Windows Vista from the current version of
Windows on the computer, follow these steps:
1.. Start the computer and make sure that the current version of Windows
has started.
2.. Insert the Windows Vista DVD into the DVD drive and then close the
drive tray. Wait a moment for the Setup program to start automatically.
3.. If the Setup program does not start automatically, follow these steps:
1.. Click Start and then click Run.
2.. Type Drive:\setup.exe and then click OK.

Note Drive is the drive letter of the computer's DVD drive.
4.. When the Setup program starts and the Install now screen appears,
click Install now.
5.. When the Which type of installation do you want? screen appears, click
Custom (advanced). The follow the instructions to install Windows Vista.
If Windows Vista is now running on your computer, you have completed the
installation successfully.

If the installation does not finish or you receive an error message, and you
are comfortable trying to troubleshoot the problem, go to the
"Troubleshooting" section for more information about common issues and their
resolutions. If you are not comfortable trying to troubleshoot the issue, go
to the "Next Steps" section.
Method 2: Perform a clean installation of Windows Vista by starting the
computer from the Windows Vista DVD
Note The computer must be configured to start from the DVD drive. For
information about how to configure the computer to start from the DVD drive,
see the documentation that is included with the computer. Or, contact the
computer manufacturer.

To perform a clean installation of Windows Vista by starting the computer
from the Windows Vista DVD, follow these steps:
1.. Start the computer.
2.. Insert the Windows Vista DVD into the DVD drive and then close the
drive tray.
3.. Restart the computer.
4.. When you receive the "Press any key to boot from CD" message, press a
key.
5.. Follow the instructions to install Windows Vista.
If Windows Vista is now running on your computer, you have completed the
installation successfully.




"popular" <brenden.cline@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:38e0d86fd227861645d313c0351a4495@xxxxxx-gateway.com...

Translate.google.com may help you with the translation. It is mostly
word-for-word translation, which means that many words will be out of place.

-Paul Randall

"xfile" <coucou@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:%23chDhvY%23JHA.4376@xxxxxx

Thanks and I totally forgot about it


"Paul Randall" <paulr901@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:#F2LXbc#JHA.2120@xxxxxx

Well I've seen some odd things happen with spurious things coming down
power supply lines, in fact a few weeks back I had a good quality APC
UPS hosed by something and it took out the computer PSU as well, but the
same setup in the next room was fine, which is weird in itself as the
outage was the same for both - oh well. We have bad power to our
facility and I've seen machines get corrupted for no reason at all,
usually installing a UPS fixes that. We don't know how the quality of
the supply is around here half the time, never mind what it is like in
China

One thing I have seen a lot is "Freezing", although power off and on
mostly gets them going again provided that not system files got hosed,
and the other good one is start screen/reboot/start screen ad infinitum.

xfile wrote:

As has been said in another branch to this thread, trying to fix a problem
like this can be very frustrating and time consuming and it is often doomed
to failure.

If you have the money resources, I would suggest that you buy a replacement
hard drive and clean install your system on it. It is seldom necessary to
get the same brand as the original drive; just make sure it has the same
interface (Sata vs IDE), and equal or more storage space than the original.
In recent years, some computer manufacturers have designed their notebooks
to allow very simple and easy access to replacing hard drives and memory
sticks, and have a downloadable manual with illustrations to do the
replacement, as well as specifications for replacement drives/memory. On
this clean install, make sure your AV/malware suite is up to date, and
install the minimum set of software to get your necessary work done. Work
the system a while to veryify that it is stable. Purchase a USB case to
hold the original hard drive; this will give you access to all your data on
this old drive. Scan it with your AV/malware software. Over time, install
the rest of the things you want on the new drive.

The nice thing about this plan is that if you find that you have forgotten
to get some key piece of information that can only be obtained while running
from the original drive, you can switch back to get that info, saving it to
a thumbdrive, then switch back to the new drive and use the info on the
thumbdrive.

If you are uncomfortable with doing this yourself, your computer repair
place should be able to do it for you. Just make sure they know to keep the
old hard drive and not attempt to 'clean it up' or format it, and to install
it in a USB case and verify that its data is accessible.

-Paul Randall

"popular" <brenden.cline@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:042dcd15fd9fe8756a02a8d72172bc82@xxxxxx-gateway.com...

I forgot to mention:
Hard drives can be partitioned and set up with a multiboot configuration.
If you get a large (300 or more GB), then you might partion it to have a
total of three primary partitions and one extended partition. The
multibooting software/mechanism controls which primary partition you boot
from. I prefer to do this manually. I create and format the primary
partitions and the extended partition, then hide all primary partitions
except the one I want to use now. I install the OS on all the primary
partitions one at a time, with the others hidden. I have a bootable
thumbdrive that holds the software for hiding/unhiding, and making one
partition the active (bootable) partition. I create little batch files with
names like Act-P1.bat and Act-P2.bat which do the hiding/unhiding and making
the right partition active, so I don't have to type in the arcane commands
to switch partitions. Then a reboot without the thumbdrive boots you into
that partition.

This kind of setup makes it relatively easy to switch to a 'clean' partition
when you get in a situation like you are now in, in order to verify that
with a clean system your computer runs as it should. This gives you the
flexibility of having more than one 'installed spare clean system'. Of
course, you will have to install your necessary applications on each of
these partitions, which can take a lot of space. You might have a different
mix of applications on the various primary bootable partitions. I use the
extended partition to create a drive that can be shared, no matter which
primary partition is booted from.

Note that your computer may already have a second primary partition that
contains recovery info that can be used to wipe out your current system and
recreate it like new -- all your data gone. This will limit you to having
only one spare bootable partition. Some computers come with a set of CDs or
a DVD that provides the same functionality of this recovery partition, in
which case you may choose to do it your way and have two customizable spare
bootable partitions. Other computers allow you to make your own set of
recovery CD/DVDs, but only one set, and have instructions in 'help &
support'. With your current system running so poorly, you probably can't do
that. Your computer manufacturer may sell recovery CD/DVDs specific to your
particular laptop model, but they typically require the laptop's serial
number or other info on a label on the computer.

I would also recommend getting a bootable BartPE or other windows Preinstall
Environment CD set up to allow poking around in a screwed up system using
the clean system on the CD. The CD should be non-rewritable which
guarantees that it cannot be contaminated with a virus after the CD is
created.

-Paul Randall


"Paul Randall" <paulr901@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:epkK$3k%23JHA.1380@xxxxxx