Laptop restarts by itself... PROBLEM SOLVED!

[zveruga]

Opened up the laptop, took out a RAM stick, no more crashes. THANKS Willoughbyva for suggesting that the problem is RAM-related!!

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My brothers laptop kept getting blue screen errors (something with VFAT in it), so reinstalled the system, then upgraded to Windows XP. Now it just spontaneously restarts, often when no clicking/typing is being done. Right before the restart, it pops up a blue screen with a LOT of text on it, but it doesnt stay for longe than 1/2 second and restarts.

I have a bad feeling the problem is hardware. How do I go about figuring out which component is doing this to me?

 

[zveruga]

any diagnostic utils can help me with this?

 

[Willoughbyva]

Memtest86. do a goolge search it is usually one of the first sites that comes up. Look into event viewer in XP to see what the problem is. It should be found under admenistrative tools.

Might want to list laptop model and specs.

 

[zveruga]

The specs:

Laptop model: Thinkpad 600
Processor: PII (either 400 or 500 mhz)
Ram: 192MB

I will try the diagnostic tools and let y'all know...

 

[zveruga]

Event viewer -- what do I look for there? I see a bunch of system errors, but I think based on time stamps that those are the actual warnings XP gives me "you have just recovered from a serious error" and not the actual errors as they occurred.

How can I find out what happened? Gonna download the memory utility...

 

[zveruga]

Cant use memtest86... these files dont write to CD, and laptop has no floppy drive Any other suggestions for testing RAM? Is that the first place i should look for trouble?

 

[zveruga]

help?

 

[Willoughbyva]

I am not on an NT based machine now, but the event viewer usually lists the problem with the error and what device caused it.

I have never tried it but could you make the floppy on another machine and make a bootable cd with the floppy and set the laptop to boot from cd?

 

[zveruga]

Found the memory. It is found behind a latch on the bottom of the laptop. Lets see if this works....

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Something i didnt know about Thinkpads... I pushed F12 key, and it went into a self-diagnostic mode, and told me my memory has errors...

Since my brother bought that Thinkpad 600 used, but it has 192 RAM, I am assuming it is more than 1 stick, and I am hoping the error is only with 1 of the sticks. So... Any good websites with a guide to opening up this laptop? I will check the IBM site as well for this info.

Thanks!

P.S. I think the guidance I need is HERE, but the website is down for maintenance....