Laptop problems

[cannabis campbell]

Well at the moment i only have a laptop and its only a 30GB one has i haven't bought an external hard drive for it yet.

I have a problem with it, whenever i am say for example watching a video on youtube or on here, and have windows media player open or something it would just crash.. just freeze the screen would just freeze and stay the same but have weird blue lines going down it sometimes as if it were a crappy quality picture..

I have no idea why this is happening could this be because its overheating or what?

Could it be because of low space in the drive?? at the moment i only have 200mb free which isnt really much at all its because i have so much music but i always try and delete what i dont listen to but i never normally have more than 400mb free space on it so could it have anything to do with that?

I dont see why its happening its not like its a crap laptop or anything it cost about £900 and its only a year old.

any help would be appreciated..

thanks in advance.
CC.

cannabis campbell Reviewed by cannabis campbell on 07-17-2007. Laptop problems Well at the moment i only have a laptop and its only a 30GB one has i haven't bought an external hard drive for it yet. I have a problem with it, whenever i am say for example watching a video on youtube or on here, and have windows media player open or something it would just crash.. just freeze the screen would just freeze and stay the same but have weird blue lines going down it sometimes as if it were a crappy quality picture.. I have no idea why this is happening could this be Rating: 5

[cannabis campbell]

Err i should think so.. i have all the same drivers that i got with it when i bought it? Lol im not really good with hardware stuff, and yeah i know but i figured that i really need help with this asap, if this breaks down that will be the end of CC for a good long while lol.. and i wanted to get more replies asap.

[stinkyattic]

Well I saw the thread header, and since it wasn't posted in tech, my dirty mind thought you were having an issue with something else... hee hee

But since it's a simple Q, here's my suggestion:

Go into Start- Run- msconfig and you will see all the other shit that your computer has running in the background every time you start up. Most of it is not necessary. You can turn it all off except for the mouse/touchpad driver ('pointer' might appear in the name) and your virus protection. Things should speed up significantly, and your crash problem should REALLY improve.

[KingsBlend420]

Try to keep at least like 500 mb of ram free at all times, it can greatly slow down your computer. Is it loud when it's freezing? That's a clear sign of a computer overheating, how much RAM do you have? What's your processor?

[cannabis campbell]

Pardon me for being stupid haha, but how would i find that out KB420?

[KingsBlend420]

Right click my computer on your desktop and hit properties.

Should look something like the pic I attached.



Also, does your computer freeze when your running several different applications?
If not, try getting a free virus scan program such as Spybot S&D and Ad-aware.

Spybot : The home of Spybot-S&D!

Ad-Aware : Ad-Aware 2007 - Reviews and free downloads at Download.com

[cannabis campbell]

Ok, heres what mine looks like i dont know if its good or what probably not though becauses its only a laptop, what can you find out from that?

[KingsBlend420]

Your processor is definitely a little out of date. Mine is a duocore processor clocked at 2.00ghz. So it's 4 ghz, yours isn't even one. You also have about 512 mb of ram which is the recommended amount for running Windows XP which is what I see you have.

Now is your computer being really loud when it freezes? Put your hand next to where the fan is in your laptop and see if it's really hot and a lot of air is coming out of the hole when the laptop is freezing. If it's really hot and a lot of air is coming out, your laptop is definitely overheating which I'm not surprised because a less than 1 ghz processor running windows XP is probably really stressing your system especially with that low hard drive space you have and that tiny amount of ram you have.

These are the system requirements for Windows XP.

Here's What You Need to Use Windows XP Professional
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PC with 300 megahertz or higher processor clock speed recommended; 233 MHz minimum required (single or dual processor system);* Intel Pentium/Celeron family, or AMD K6/Athlon/Duron family, or compatible processor recommended
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128 megabytes (MB) of RAM or higher recommended (64 MB minimum supported; may limit performance and some features)
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1.5 gigabytes (GB) of available hard disk space*
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Super VGA (800 x 600) or higher-resolution video adapter and monitor
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CD-ROM or DVD drive
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Keyboard and Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device
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You meet a lot of the requirements, which is why it's kind of weird that your laptop would be overheating. However if it's kind of old the material that keeps your cpu cool and everything inside your laptop cool could have worn out by now. It happened to my sisters bf alienware that he got for 2.5 grand just recently.

Try running those virus programs I linked also.


Oooo Also, what browser are you using.

Do a ctrl + Alt+ Del and go to these tabs and let me see how much ram is being used and how many processes you have running

this is what it should look like:


What program are you using to browse the internet with?

[cannabis campbell]

Well no i dont really have the problem of my laptop being really loud, but when i put my hand next to the fan it does seem quite hot most of the time and quite a bit of air coming out.

Ok so it doesnt suprise you that its overheating, less than a 1ghz processor (whatever that is lol!) and running windows XP puts a lot of stress on the laptop well it seems quite stupid to make this laptop then doesnt it lol..

Ill try running those virus programs that you told me to, I had ad-aware on my main computer before when that worked so i know thats a pretty good program.

The browser im using is firefox, and as far as i know thats the only program that im using to browse the internet with, Heres what mine looks like when I Ctrl+Alt+Delete..

so.. what do you think from this then?, thanks for the help by the way.. !

[KingsBlend420]

From that I can see that you have a lot of processes running on your comp whic h could potentially be viruses. I have no idea though, run those anti-virus programs. Your laptop could have been made before windows XP came out btw, or did it come brand new with XP? From your first screenshot you can see that you have about 5000mb of RAM and about 90 some available, that could be greatly slowing down your comp. When I have more time, I'll run you through the steps of how to turn off some of those processes and stuff like that, but I don't have time atm, maybe later.