Heat and Dust
The most important part of your laptop that needs to be clean is… the heatsink. Yes, heat is the “cause of death” for most laptops. The heat not only causes all components to expand and contract a little (as you turn it on and off), but will also reach dangerously high levels and make your laptop crash or shut down if the fan(s) and the heatsink(s) are clogged with dust.Dust…
All computers work a little bit like vacuum cleaners – sucking air form one side and blowing it out from the other. Unfortunately they don’t come with filter bags to catch all the dust and debris. After just a few months the fans and heatsinks are well coated with dust. If not cleaned, their effectiveness quickly drops and eventually goes down to zero when the heatsinks get fully clogged.
For desktop PCs this process is somehow slower and less noticeable as there is a lot of air circulating inside the case, hopefully with both intake and exhaust fans pushing it through. Also the CPU heatsink and fan are quite bigger and more powerful. There are also fans on the power supply, on the video card and probably on the chipset, for a total count of up to six fans making sure your PC stays cool. However laptops usually have just one or two smaller fans that have to do it all.
I would suggest a little experiment. Look around you for a lamp with an ordinary 100W light bulb. Now turn it on for five minutes and hold your hand about an inch away from it (be careful not to touch the bulb, it will scorch you!). Do you feel it? Yes, that is the heat generated inside that shiny new powerful laptop you just bought.
The cure? It’s easy: get yourself a can of compressed air and blow away the dust off the fan and heatsink. This has to be done every couple of months or after about 50 – 60 days of using your laptop. The compressed air is quite handy for the keyboard too, blowing away all the debris from between the keys. This is not a very well known fact, but it is the most important part of maintaining your laptop.
heat1.jpgHowever if the heatsink has already been clogged, this won’t help. The compressed air will not be enough to unclog it. If you have never cleaned the heatsink and you had used your laptop for over a year, chances are that both the fan and the heatsink are clogged with dust and debris. The solution in this case is to remove the heatsink, clean it and install it back. This is best done in a laptop repair shop, as it takes quite a lot of experience and dexterity. One slip of the screwdriver may kill the laptop!
Some newer laptops have a special removable cover on the back for easy access to the heatsink. But most laptops have to be disassembled to reach it. Another problem is that the thermal paste between the heatsink and the CPU hardens with higher temperature, so if the laptop has been overheating, chances are that the heatsink is stuck solid to the CPU, making it very hard to remove. The process also includes removal of the old thermal paste from both the CPU and the heatsink and applying a small dab of fresh thermal paste, preferably silver filled for better heat transfer.
Another good overheating prevention is to ensure that the rubber feet on the bottom of the laptop are intact. Unfortunately they are usually just glued to the plastic and tend to fall off quite easy. They are very easy to replace and are available as spare parts for most laptops.
And lastly – don’t use your laptop while it’s on a soft surface, like bed cover or sofa. That will block the fan and the laptop will overheat. Try using something with a hard surface under the laptop, like a large hardcover book or a tray.
Simply put, heat is the biggest enemy of all laptops. By maintaining the cooling of your laptop at peak efficiency, you are doubling its lifespan.
Motherboard
A motherboard failure on a laptop that is out of warranty would usually mean that… it’s time for a new laptop. The price of a new motherboard is usually higher than the current value of the laptop.
Symptoms:
Plug in the power adaptor and try to start the laptop.
Nothing happens.
The “ON” light comes on, the fan spins, but nothing on the screen (black) and you can’t hear the HD working after 10-15 sec.
The “ON” light comes on, the fan spins, but after a few seconds the light goes off.
After pressing the “ON” button the screen stays black and you can hear a quiet high-pitched sound coming from the laptop.
Troubleshooting:
Look for the “lid closed” switch and try pushing it a few times. It’s usually a small switch near the hinges that is pressed when the lid(the screen) is closed. Sometimes these switches get stuck in the “lid closed” position that results in black screen(no backlight) or non-starting laptop. Also some laptops have a magnetic switch (newer Dell’s and most Apple’s), that doesn’t get stuck.
Test the laptop with another power adaptor. Although not common, the adaptor can fail and not supply the needed voltage even if it has a green “power on” light that lights up when you plug it in. Even if you measure the output voltage and it’s OK, the adaptor may have failed and wouldn’t supply that voltage under load (typically 3.5A to 6A). You can use an universal adaptor or go to an independent repair shop and ask them to check it (some shops will try to charge you for “estimate” for doing just that, so ask in advance).
Reset the RAM. See the article on RAM failures for instructions.
Remove the hard drive and the CD/DVD if it’s easily removable.
Finally try to start the laptop again with only the power adaptor plugged in and with the RAM reset and all removable components and the battery out. If there’s still nothing on the screen, you will need to bring it to a repair shop.
Corrupted Files
Computer files can get damaged in several different ways: by a power interruption, by virus or badly written software, by bad RAM or by physical damage to the hard disk.
Symptoms:
The laptop starts as usual but when Windows starts to load it goes to black screen with either “UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME”, “hal.dll is missing or corrupted” or “windows\system32\config\system” (or similar) is missing or corrupted. These error messages indicate a corrupted filesystem or a failing hard disk, about 40 / 60 chance.
Troubleshooting:
The easiest way to diagnose and possibly fix corrupted filesystem is to start the computer from a bootable CD, then scan the hard disk for errors. If the scan completes successfully, the registry can be restored by hand and the computer can be scanned for viruses.
The best way to do that is first to make an UBCD4WIN CD on another computer and start your PC from it. To make the UBCD4WIN you will need a working computer with high-speed Internet and CD burner, and a standard Windows XP SP2 installation disk, “Home” or “Pro”. It is possible to use XP installation disk without a service pack or with SP1, but it will have to be slipstreamed to SP2 before building UBCD4WIN (see http://www.ubcd4win.com/ for details). This is by far the best bootable CD for Windows users, as it will let you use your computer as usual. It comes with hundreds of free programs and utilities that can help you fix almost all software problems.
After starting your computer from UBCD4WIN, go to “Start” button -> Command Prompt and type chkdsk /r /f c: (in the black window that opens). This is the native Windows command for scanning and fixing your “C” drive. Depending on the size of your “C” drive and the number of files you have, this may take from about 30 min. to over 2 hours and if there are errors on the HD – even longer.
If chkdsk shows a lot of errors, especially in “Step 1″ or “Step 2″, you will have to replace the hard disk. You still should let chkdsk finish fixing the disk, so you are able to eventually copy your files to the new disk later on.
If the hard disk is very damaged, chkdsk either won’t start scanning at all or won’t be able to finish scanning it. It will get stuck and stop working. In this case the chances of you being able to copy your files to the new HD are slim. If your files are very valuable, you may consider sending the HD to a data recovery service, however the prices for that start at about $500.
If chkdsk was able to finish scanning the HD showing many errors, shut down the computer, replace the hard disk (if it’s easy to do so) and reinstall/restore Windows, or send the computer for service if it’s still under warranty. Then mount the old HD in an external USB box and try to copy your files. If you have chosen “Make my account private” when you were choosing your password, you won’t be able to open the old “My Documents” folder. Here are some instructions on how to fix that.
If chkdsk finished without any errors, or just 2-3 errors, you can assume that the hard disk is working properly. The file corruption may have been caused by freezing, restarting by itself, improper shutdown of the computer (pulling the cord), viruses or sometimes by bad RAM. If you suspect that there may be any viruses on your computer, use one or two of the antivirus programs that come with UBDC4WIN. To do that you will need Internet connection.
If the error message that prevented the computer from starting was “UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME” or “hal.dll is missing or corrupted”, you can try restarting the computer as normal (not from the CD). If it still doesn’t start (both in normal and safe mode) you will have to reinstall/restore Windows, but first backup your files.
If the error message that prevented the computer from starting was “windows\system32\config\system (or similar) is missing or corrupted”, now you should restore the registry files by hand. To do that (still from UBDC4WIN) navigate to “C: -> Windows -> System32 -> config” and rename software to software.1 and system to system.1. Open another window and navigate to “C: -> System Volume Information -> _restore{any-numbers-and letters}”. There you will see a few folders named “PR” + some number. Sort them by date (right-click on empty space and choose “Arrange Icons By -> Modified”) and open one that’s about a week old. Inside you will see one folder and many files. Open the folder.
Now copy the files named _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SYSTEM and _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE to the other open folder (windows\system32\config). Then rename them to only SYSTEM and SOFTWARE (no extensions).
Restart.
* The Windows System Restore is useful in only two occasions: the one described above and if a driver or Windows update doesn’t install properly and the computer wouldn’t start in normal mode but still starts in safe mode.
Removing Viruses and Spyware
You will need an Internet connection with a network cable, wireless will not work. If you use a wireless router, you will need to temporarily attach a network cable between the router and the computer. It is also possible to do this with dial-up connection but it will take quite longer.
Can you still access the Internet? If yes – continue to the next step. If not – you will need to fix it first.
To be able to do that, you will need to download several programs on another computer and burn them to a CD or use a flash drive to copy them to your computer. You will need:
Trend Micro’s SysClean.com and the latest virus pattern file http://www.trendmicro.com/download/viruspattern.asp.
Ad-Aware SE Personal and the latest definitions file (defs.zip) http://www.lavasoftusa.com/
WinsockxpFix.exe
Firefox or Opera or get both if you want to try them.
These instructions in plain text file (right-click -> Save As…). Follow those instructions to restore your Internet access, then return here to finish cleaning your computer from viruses and spyware.
Step one: Plug in the network cable and start the computer in “Safe Mode with Networking”.
To do that you will need to keep pressing the F8 key several seconds after you see the very first (logo) screen when starting the computer. If you have a BIOS password, start pressing the F8 key as soon as you enter it. If a “Select a boot device” screen appears, select the hard disk, press “Enter” and continue pressing F8. If the usual “Windows XP” screen appears, that means you’ve missed the moment. Wait for Windows to load, then restart it and try again. Eventually you will see the advanced startup screen of Windows (black screen with white text). Use the “Up” arrow key to go to “Safe Mode with Networking” and press “Enter”.
Log into your admin account (or your account if you have only one) and dismiss the warning that windows is running in safe mode by clicking “OK”.
Step two: Clean the Temporary Internet Files and Internet Explorer.
Go to Control Panel -> Internet Options, click “Delete Files…” on the “General” tab, then click “Settings…” just next to it, then “View Objects…” and delete all of them. Then click on “Connections” tab, then “Lan Settings…” and uncheck all three checkboxes there, then click “OK”. After that go to the “Programs” tab, click on “Manage Add-ons…” and disable all. Click “OK”, then “OK” again to close the “Internet Options” control panel.
Step three: Clean your temp folder.
Open “My Computer” and go to “Local Disk (C:) -> Documents and Settings -> [your account name]“, then on that window’s menu at the top go to “Tools -> Folder Options…” select the “View” tab and click “Show hidden files and folders” and uncheck “Hide extensions for known file types”. Then click “OK”. Now you should see a folder “Local Settings”. Open it, then right-click on the “Temp” folder and select “Delete”. Repeat this for the rest of your accounts if you have more that one. After that empty the trash.
Step four: Disable all startup items and non-windows services with msconfig.
Go to Windows’ Start button, then select “Run”, type “msconfig” and press “Enter”. This is Windows “System Configuration Utility”. Click on the last tab “Startup” then click on “Disable All”. After that click on the “Services” tab, then on the “Hide All Microsoft Services” checkbox, and then on “Disable All” again. Then Click “OK” and “Exit Without Restart” to return to the desktop. This will disable all startup items and non-windows services. You can enable the ones you need later, after cleaning all viruses and spyware.
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