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slightly old gateway laptop

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PatboyX

Diamond Member
i removed the hard drive to format because it locked up so much.
it was in peices when given to me so i decided not to put the keyboard on, leave it open and watch it for the little time it does run.
it hangs while installing windows xp home now.
watching it, i notice the fan in the center of the machine stops moving 10-15 minutes sometimes.
pic. slightly larger than i usually post. hope its size would help.
the fan that goes on randomly in the bit in the center.
could it just be over-heating?
before changing hard drive, it would freeze constantly. no matter what.
 
Assuming the fan spins freely manually, and when it is running, it is probably just thermally controlled. First thing to worry about is the RAM, reseat it, then, if you can, boot a Memtest CD and give it a good thorough looking over. That could well be your problem, and it is nice and fixable, so try it first. Also, just as a matter of course, clean any heatsinks. Sometimes those get horribly dusty. From there, things get less encouraging. Laptops suffer from all sorts of strange ills sometimes, I've had one or two decide that they didn't feel grounded enough(this can happen in certain designs if not all screws are in place. Other weirdness is also possible.
 
i just pulled of the heatsink/fan...it is pretty dusty on the chip holder but not on the chip itself.
on your other point: swapping out memory chips could solve this problem?
ive not see that on a machine yet. however, on macs (which is what im usually using there are either 2 sticks of memory or an alert that pops up when one is bad)
does dos/windows still have a mem test?

 
Have you tried taking out the CMOS battery for a few mins? Could be that the electronics need to be reset.

Also, what model Gateway is it? Some older laptops use to have a memory chip soldered directly to the motherboard. And did you clean the old thermal compound off the cpu die and heatsink and reapply some new stuff?
 
Originally posted by: TheCanuck
Have you tried taking out the CMOS battery for a few mins? Could be that the electronics need to be reset.

Also, what model Gateway is it? Some older laptops use to have a memory chip soldered directly to the motherboard. And did you clean the old thermal compound off the cpu die and heatsink and reapply some new stuff?
Click to expand...

tried the battery. didnt help. just got my new thermal compound in so ill try that next.
i think the model is the 600. im at work now but im pretty sure thats the model. lots of problems, ive read now that its been given to me.
 
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