Win XP Crash ??

[pennydog]

I was using my laptop this morning. I went to my banking site and the screen froze then got a black screen. I turn the laptop off and tried to reboot and still get a black screen. I get the Windows logo then it goes to a solid black screen.

Any ideas on what could cause this? It has been working fine until a few minutes ago. I use DSL, WIN XP, have a firewall and AV. Have scanned and no problems as of yesterday.

Thanks.

[SuperSparks]

Are you able to boot into Safe Mode?

[pennydog]

I finally got it to come back up. No it would not boot into safe mode either. I just kept turning it off and back on until it finally booted up. Took over a dozen tries though, each time I would get the windows logo then a black screen. Have no idea what caused it. Thanks.

[Midknyte]

When was the last time you cleaned out your heatsink/fan with compressed air?

[SuperSparks]

Download UBCD and burn it to CD, it has all the memory testing and disk diagnostic utilities on it plus many more besides. Run MemTest and Windows Memory Diagnostic, as well as the disk utility for your brand of hard drive (or Seatools if you aren't sure). All you have to do is to boot up with the disc in the drive, select the utility that you want to use, and it will run.

Ultimate Boot CD

[pennydog]

Thanks guys. The fan was cleaned out last week. It keeps happening and is very hard to get it back up and it will still not boot in safe mode.

I will do the mem test/diagnositcs when I get home tonight. Thanks for the info and I will post back the results.

[pennydog]

Ok I am confused - where do I download this program? I followed the link but could not find a download spot.

Never mind I found it. Duh!

[Shinma]

Select Download UBCD,
Under Mirror Sites,
Select/Click ISO from any of the various sites listed.

[Midknyte]

The link is also in my signature.

If you don't know how to burn .iso files, read the UBCD FAQ

[pennydog]

Thanks. I found it and it write to a cd. I tried to run it and it wants to write it to the cd again, so I put in another cd and let it write it. When I try to run it either wants to write it to the cd or install on the laptop. What am I doing wrong? Should I use a DVD instead of a cd?

[Midknyte]

Did you follow the instructions on the FAQ page? It should be burned as an image on a CD, not DVD.

After you burn it, you need to boot from it, not run it from Windows.

[pennydog]

Ok I will try again.

[pennydog]

Is there something else I can try to fix the problem? I cannot get the iso file to write to the cd. I downloaded a program that will write iso files, followed instructions in the FAQ and still cannot do it.

[Midknyte]

Which program are you talking about? There are several listed.

Using various freeware for burning an ISO image to CD or DVD

[pennydog]

Which program are you talking about? There are several listed.

Using various freeware for burning an ISO image to CD or DVD

I downloaded the infrarecorder program but it would not write the UBCD program to the cd. I kept getting the same error message, files waiting to be written to cd. I even tried it from our desktop computer and the same thing. Obviously I have no clue what I am trying to do, altho I make other cd's all the time. Guess they are not ISO ones.