Do laptop die? Not a battey.

disneyjoe7

Dell XPS M140 laptop, having some problems. Screen goes lines, laptop locks up.... I took it apart and rebuilted / cleaned it out. Reinstalled Ubuntu 11.0.4 still have issues, so downloading 11.0.10 (I think on another computer, since this one locked up before it got it.)


Can motherboard die? It's 6 year old. Yes I'm cheap.

ryanjoachim

Yeah, it can die...but the lines on your screen makes me lean towards a GPU issue firstly. Possibly a heat issue?

disneyjoe7

Not a heat issue, I rebuilt it and put some grease to between heat pipe and cpu. And computer is only one for 3 mins or so.

quadzilla

It's a 6 year old computer. I'd say you're lucky it lasted this long.

cnh

Usually when a Dell does that something is wrong with the video board or more! I have a 6 year old (institutional Dell) that started to do that two years ago. ITS took out my hard drive and put it in another used unit--have been running ever since.

Yes! Laptops do "die". I'm due for a new one and this one could probably "go" at any moment. lol 6-7 years is a pretty good run these days!

cnh

disneyjoe7

Not even sure its the video card issue, this laptop only has a video circuit on the motherboard. The mouse locks up, I can't click anything at times. It seems do this on either Wins xp Pro or with Ubuntu. HD been replaced, and memory has been upgraded, years ago.

cnh

Hmmm...something like that happened to my wife's fairly new Dell recently. Does an external mouse not work or is it the track pad, or both?

What I did as a temporary solution for her till we could get it to our Tech Dept., was disable the Track pad and make it external mouse only--this seemed to work in the SAFE mode. ITS solved the problem, not sure what they did, but I suspect they did a wipe and re-install of Windows 7. I'll ask her if she knows anything more about this...but I doubt it.

cnh

Glowrdr

I think the GPU idea is right. I repair and see laptops (mostly Nvidia chipsets) that need to be reflowed. The heat releases the chips from the motherboard. Regreasing wouldn't resolve this issue.

Check your local craigslist - should be something that can be fixed for about $50 locally.

VR3

Did your name use to be GoingGanzo?

inspiredsports

ryanjoachim wrote: »

Yeah, it can die...but the lines on your screen makes me lean towards a GPU issue firstly. Possibly a heat issue?

That's my take on it too. Graphics card.

disneyjoe7

Ubuntu 11.10 is installed and seems to work ok. Can't install Google Chrome, its states an internal problem. I'm working on it now with Firefox, and I found out my wireless mouse chick switch was dirty so it wasn't working. I cleaned it with some electronic cleaner, and now place it in a plastic bag to keep it clean.


Knock on wood I see if it still works later.

Glowrdr

Vr3MxStyler2k3 wrote: »

Did your name use to be GoingGanzo?

Assuming this is meant for me? lol - nope. I'm guessing that's a good thing for me? Those questions usually don't start out as "Hey - aren't you the really cool guy that got banned and had to change his name"

I used to have an '83 Cutlass w/ t-tops. Lowered, Craiger S/S rims, and chrome duals all the way to the tires. Also happened to have purple neon lights under it (brand: Low Glow). So I was the Glow Rider. Just one of those names that hasn't been appropriate for over 15 years now, but never got changed once I started using it :redface:

VR3

Actually I was asking Steve (Disneyjoe) that - Goingganzo is a member here that could not spell to save his life - we use to joke about a decoder ring

disneyjoe7

Goingganzo is a member here.

Sherardp

6 yrs is a really good run on a laptop. Do you have everything working on it now? Not sure what you can do about grahics card but if it is built into the mobo which most are, you will have to replace the board. Most times it's cheaper to buy new laptop at that point. GL bro.

disneyjoe7

Well the laptop is working for the last 2hrs ok. My issue was that Ubuntu Google Chrome when I opened it with many screens at work and only at work it would only open the first screen. When I would click another screen it clicked, clicked, clicked to the first screen. So after several months of that crap, I pulled the laptop apart to clean it (never did that before) it still gave me problems. So thinking the Laptop was dieing, I installed the OS again, then it started with the graphics screen problem. Since I never seen that before started thinking the motherboard was dieing for sure. Now all is good, running Ubuntu 11.10 OS.

Sherardp

When in doubt add more RAM, which could be problem to things being a tad slow. 2gb of RAM is not much by today's standard, so it seems.

disneyjoe7

2gig is max this laptop can do, 1gig per slot.

BTW Ubuntu 11.10 runs really nice, fast and looks great. Love it my 6yr old laptop lives on. :cheesygrin:

exalted512

i have the exact same laptop. It started having issues so i reinstalled windows. worked great for a while. started having issues again about a year ago. Reinstalled windows. Still doesnt work right. It had a good run.
-Cody

cnh

2 gigs? I've been running XP with 1 gig for the last six years on a 1.6 Ghz processor. I don't do much high end processing so this is plenty fast. For basic functions, you don't really need much (Word, PPT, Chrome, Media Player, etc.).

I've been wanting to upgrade my netbook, though, to 2 gigs because the 1 gig on my Dell is about twice as fast (or more) as 1 gig on a netbook.

Glad to hear things resolved themselves Steve!

cnh

Sherardp

Lasareath wrote: »

laptop made by man. all thing man make die. if made by god last for at least 2000 years.

Buy yourself a new laptop!

and please stop speaking like caveman

LMAO!!! I was wondering why you were typing like that.

dorokusai

I'm betting the operator caused more problems than were thought to be fixed. It's junk, get rid of it and upgrade.

disneyjoe7

dorokusai wrote: »

I'm betting the operator caused more problems than were thought to be fixed. It's junk, get rid of it and upgrade.

HeHe... Maybe my 40 screens open at times, I needed to have 2 Google Chrome webs open. But it does what I what so it works.