Recent FixesHere I'll put some of my recent learnings that may help my site's readers.
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09-11-12 Zoostorm Kangaroo (Windows 7) Boot Error
When this laptop was turned on, it would show the introduction screen and the proceed to attempt to load Windows 7. After a few seconds an error message would display. I don't recall the exact message. I tried tapping F8 to load into Safe Mode (also the method to access automated repair), but to no avail.
At this point I'm thinking there could be a software fault (corrupt file or malware) or a hardware fault (Hard drive or memory being possible faults). I tried booting from my trusted Puppy Linux CD which doesn't require access to the hard drive. It worked and ruled out all hardware faults except for the hard drive. Through Puppy Linux, I was able to access the hard drive and access files in order to back them up, almost ruling out a physical fault with the hard drive.
Once all backed up I tried reinstalling Windows 7 from a DVD. I left the recovery partition intact as it may be used at a later date. The Windows 7 DVD booted fine and I formatted the main partition. I selected it for installation. I first encountered an error (one I had seen before). I accessed the BIOS settings and changed the SATA mode to IDE which stopped this error occurring. Now, there was another problem. The original error message (which was appearing at boot) was displaying during installation. Weird eh?! The only logical possibilities that came to mind were a) There is a hard drive fault or b) The recovery partition is somehow corrupt and causing problems.
The easiest and cheapest thing to do was to delete all partitions and create one, large, partition and install Windows on that. That solved the problem, although I'm not sure what caused it to occur in the first place.
After reinstalling Windows 7, you'll need drivers to regain full functionality. The Zoostorm site is pretty poor at pointing you at these (I don't think it does at all). This link will do the job (if it doesn't, get in touch). http://downloads.zoostorm.com/drivers/laptop/VME50/ Just download the "VME50_ALL_DRIVERS.zip" file as it has everything.
At this point I'm thinking there could be a software fault (corrupt file or malware) or a hardware fault (Hard drive or memory being possible faults). I tried booting from my trusted Puppy Linux CD which doesn't require access to the hard drive. It worked and ruled out all hardware faults except for the hard drive. Through Puppy Linux, I was able to access the hard drive and access files in order to back them up, almost ruling out a physical fault with the hard drive.
Once all backed up I tried reinstalling Windows 7 from a DVD. I left the recovery partition intact as it may be used at a later date. The Windows 7 DVD booted fine and I formatted the main partition. I selected it for installation. I first encountered an error (one I had seen before). I accessed the BIOS settings and changed the SATA mode to IDE which stopped this error occurring. Now, there was another problem. The original error message (which was appearing at boot) was displaying during installation. Weird eh?! The only logical possibilities that came to mind were a) There is a hard drive fault or b) The recovery partition is somehow corrupt and causing problems.
The easiest and cheapest thing to do was to delete all partitions and create one, large, partition and install Windows on that. That solved the problem, although I'm not sure what caused it to occur in the first place.
After reinstalling Windows 7, you'll need drivers to regain full functionality. The Zoostorm site is pretty poor at pointing you at these (I don't think it does at all). This link will do the job (if it doesn't, get in touch). http://downloads.zoostorm.com/drivers/laptop/VME50/ Just download the "VME50_ALL_DRIVERS.zip" file as it has everything.
07-03-12 Toshiba Satellite (Windows Vista) Boot Cycling
Another ask to look at a faulty laptop. This one had a 320 gig hard drive and 2Gb of memory. The problem was that it wouldn't complete a boot up. It'd simply power cycle and restart each time.
The lady had been told by a famous computer place that the problem was with the hard drive. I took that with a pinch of salt and tried to run the recovery tools. They all failed. One of the built in and accessible options was the Windows Memory Tester. This was showing faulty memory. I opened the memory compartment to find that one of the two 1Gb sticks of memory had come out completely (dropped laptop?). I replaced it and ran the memory scan. Failed. I scanned each stick of memory individually and tried each memory slot and got a fail. Well, I wasn't convinced that both sticks of memory had failed. I tried booting up my good old Puppy Linux CD and it would load fine with one stick of the memory but not the other. I tried to install it on the hard drive but that would not boot.
Now it was time for the newest addition to my tool box. A friend had recently told me about the Hirens Boot CD. It's a bootable CD containing mostly freeware diagnostic and repair tools. I used it to scan the hard drive. It was riddled with bad damaged sectors (looks like the shop were right, well partially at least). I used it to scan the memory, and, as I suspected, only one stick of the memory was bad.
Fortunately, there were no files that needed recovering. The lady in question only uses the laptop to go on to her Facebook page. I ordered her a cheap 60Gb hard drive replacement (which passed the same test with flying colours) and left just 1Gb of memory in it. After reinstalling the operating system the laptop ran like new. Happy days!
The lady had been told by a famous computer place that the problem was with the hard drive. I took that with a pinch of salt and tried to run the recovery tools. They all failed. One of the built in and accessible options was the Windows Memory Tester. This was showing faulty memory. I opened the memory compartment to find that one of the two 1Gb sticks of memory had come out completely (dropped laptop?). I replaced it and ran the memory scan. Failed. I scanned each stick of memory individually and tried each memory slot and got a fail. Well, I wasn't convinced that both sticks of memory had failed. I tried booting up my good old Puppy Linux CD and it would load fine with one stick of the memory but not the other. I tried to install it on the hard drive but that would not boot.
Now it was time for the newest addition to my tool box. A friend had recently told me about the Hirens Boot CD. It's a bootable CD containing mostly freeware diagnostic and repair tools. I used it to scan the hard drive. It was riddled with bad damaged sectors (looks like the shop were right, well partially at least). I used it to scan the memory, and, as I suspected, only one stick of the memory was bad.
Fortunately, there were no files that needed recovering. The lady in question only uses the laptop to go on to her Facebook page. I ordered her a cheap 60Gb hard drive replacement (which passed the same test with flying colours) and left just 1Gb of memory in it. After reinstalling the operating system the laptop ran like new. Happy days!
01-02-12 Samsung RV511 (Windows 7) Dropped
I was asked to see what I thought of this laptop as it had been dropped and the screen smashed. Easy job I thought, just replace the screen. I was a bit shocked when I saw it though, The screen was so smashed it only lit up with a little white light ans loads of black liquid crystal. A few coloured lines could be made out on some of the larger fragments, but absolutely noting to give any clue as to what the laptop was doing. The DVD drive was missing it's cover and there was a rattling inside the machine.
The first thing I tried was to connect an external monitor and press the Fn + F4 button combination to switch the display. This didn't work. I tried reseating the memory and hard drive. Nothing.
So, I opened it up to see if anything had come loose and to investigate the rattling. The rattling was some broken plastic inside the case (probably from the front of the DVD player. Two of the screw fixtures had also broken inside. To me, this indicated that the machine had taken a bit of a beating. I powered it up while it was open and noticed that the fan wasn't even spinning. Oh dear!
I reseated the processor and removed and replaced the motherboard battery to reset the BIOS. Still nothing.
I put it all back together, turned it on (to see the same result) and stared at it to have a think. After about 30 seconds, the hard drive kicked into action. Life at last! That suggested the possibility of an error message on the screen (most likely Windows asking for an alternative startup option). I tried some of the Fn keys and noticed I could adjust the brightness of the smashed screen. I could even restart with Ctrl + Alt + Delete. Things were looking up.
I figured that I probably couldn't use the external monitor because no drivers had been loaded (Windows wasn't even loading!).
I tried a few different arrow / enter key combinations (shotgunning the menu that might not even be there), but I couldn't get it to switch video output to the monitor when I pressed the correct Fn key combination. I noticed after a while that it had locked up. I couldn't adjust brightness or restart without powering off.
Time for a new approach. Windows was obviously not going to work. I couldn't fix that without seeing what I was doing and I couldn't see what I was doing without the operating system loading. Catch 22? Not quite! I still have my good old Puppy Linux Live CD. If I could get it to boot that, I might be able to get it to display something on the external monitor.
Well, these laptops aren't set to boot from CD/DVD by default and always look for the hard drive first. I couldn't get into and edit the BIOS because I couldn't see anything! Simple, I'd just remove the hard drive. I theory it should look for a second boot device. Fortunately, it did and it booted from the CD.
I'm pretty familiar with the Puppy Linux load up and I'm aware that you have to select a few options before it completely loads up. The video drivers are amongst the last things to load from the CD so I had to select the options blindly. There's nothing wrong with the default options when you're desperate, so the Enter key became my best friend. After the odd tap here and there and the odd trial if the Fn + F4 key to switch to the external monitor I soon had the Puppy Linux desktop on my external monitor. Lovely!
I now knew that it was worth buying another screen. I still need to check out the hard drive to see if it's just corrupt or if it's taken too much of a beating to be of any use.
The screen replacement is pretty simple and a hard drive replacement isn't difficult either (if necessary).
The first thing I tried was to connect an external monitor and press the Fn + F4 button combination to switch the display. This didn't work. I tried reseating the memory and hard drive. Nothing.
So, I opened it up to see if anything had come loose and to investigate the rattling. The rattling was some broken plastic inside the case (probably from the front of the DVD player. Two of the screw fixtures had also broken inside. To me, this indicated that the machine had taken a bit of a beating. I powered it up while it was open and noticed that the fan wasn't even spinning. Oh dear!
I reseated the processor and removed and replaced the motherboard battery to reset the BIOS. Still nothing.
I put it all back together, turned it on (to see the same result) and stared at it to have a think. After about 30 seconds, the hard drive kicked into action. Life at last! That suggested the possibility of an error message on the screen (most likely Windows asking for an alternative startup option). I tried some of the Fn keys and noticed I could adjust the brightness of the smashed screen. I could even restart with Ctrl + Alt + Delete. Things were looking up.
I figured that I probably couldn't use the external monitor because no drivers had been loaded (Windows wasn't even loading!).
I tried a few different arrow / enter key combinations (shotgunning the menu that might not even be there), but I couldn't get it to switch video output to the monitor when I pressed the correct Fn key combination. I noticed after a while that it had locked up. I couldn't adjust brightness or restart without powering off.
Time for a new approach. Windows was obviously not going to work. I couldn't fix that without seeing what I was doing and I couldn't see what I was doing without the operating system loading. Catch 22? Not quite! I still have my good old Puppy Linux Live CD. If I could get it to boot that, I might be able to get it to display something on the external monitor.
Well, these laptops aren't set to boot from CD/DVD by default and always look for the hard drive first. I couldn't get into and edit the BIOS because I couldn't see anything! Simple, I'd just remove the hard drive. I theory it should look for a second boot device. Fortunately, it did and it booted from the CD.
I'm pretty familiar with the Puppy Linux load up and I'm aware that you have to select a few options before it completely loads up. The video drivers are amongst the last things to load from the CD so I had to select the options blindly. There's nothing wrong with the default options when you're desperate, so the Enter key became my best friend. After the odd tap here and there and the odd trial if the Fn + F4 key to switch to the external monitor I soon had the Puppy Linux desktop on my external monitor. Lovely!
I now knew that it was worth buying another screen. I still need to check out the hard drive to see if it's just corrupt or if it's taken too much of a beating to be of any use.
The screen replacement is pretty simple and a hard drive replacement isn't difficult either (if necessary).
06-12-11 Samsung V25 (Windows XP) Network Problems and 'Classic' Log on Fix
I was asked to look at this second hand laptop for a friend. When a network cable was connected it would detect it but say that there was limited or no network connectivity. When trying to connect to a wireless network I would get the error message: "Windows is unable to connect to the selected network. The network may no longer be in range. Please refresh the list of available networks and try to connect again.". Of course, I knew that the reason given was not true, It would help a lot if error messages told the truth and at least stated when they were speculating!
Looking through the installed software and hardware I noticed drivers for a 3 Mobile dongle. As I knew this was not used by my friend I uninstalled that (one possible complication out of the way). The problem still persisted.
I looked online for updated drivers for the network hardware. The Samsung website has links for the drivers, but the wireless one I wanted had a dead link! Clicking the link did however reveal the file name of the file (v30wxp&w2kwlan8.22.31.510.zip) in the address bar. A quick search for that and I had it. I've renamed the zip package for my convenience, but it is the same package. Click here to download it. It's worth noting that this driver is for the Agere wireless hardware. Some models of this laptop have different hardware,
This quickly fixed the wireless network connection issues (but not the internet connection), and replacing the wired network driver didn't help. I opened Internet Explorer (obviously, eventually got a 'failed to load' page). Clicked "Tools" and "Internet Options". Looked at the LAN settings and saw that it was set to connect to the internet via a Proxy. I assume this was part of the 3 Mobile settings, but it could be anything the previous owner had done. After disabling the proxy, the wireless network connection seem to work as it should. The wired connection worked for a while, until I disconnected it and reconnected it.
I strayed from that problem for a while to try to fix a separate logging on issue (it was stuck on 'Classic' log in mode). An attempt to switch the setting gave an error telling me to uninstall Client Services for Netware. To do this I had to go to Control Panel> Network Connections and right click on the wired network connection (whilst disconnected). Then I clicked 'Properties' and viewed the checklist of installed network services. At the top of the checklist was 'Client Services for Netware'. I unchecked and selected this and clicked 'Uninstall'. After restarting I was able to adjust the log on settings and restore the original method.
The wired network is still temperamental at best. I know the guy who will use this laptop won't use the wired connection, so I'm not wasting anymore time looking into it. I don't think there is a hardware fault as it will connect if I manually configure the ip address, but then I have to manually configure the DNS addresses. It could be that the original driver is incompatible with a Windows update, or a file is corrupt. If I ever do find a solution, I will post it here.
Looking through the installed software and hardware I noticed drivers for a 3 Mobile dongle. As I knew this was not used by my friend I uninstalled that (one possible complication out of the way). The problem still persisted.
I looked online for updated drivers for the network hardware. The Samsung website has links for the drivers, but the wireless one I wanted had a dead link! Clicking the link did however reveal the file name of the file (v30wxp&w2kwlan8.22.31.510.zip) in the address bar. A quick search for that and I had it. I've renamed the zip package for my convenience, but it is the same package. Click here to download it. It's worth noting that this driver is for the Agere wireless hardware. Some models of this laptop have different hardware,
This quickly fixed the wireless network connection issues (but not the internet connection), and replacing the wired network driver didn't help. I opened Internet Explorer (obviously, eventually got a 'failed to load' page). Clicked "Tools" and "Internet Options". Looked at the LAN settings and saw that it was set to connect to the internet via a Proxy. I assume this was part of the 3 Mobile settings, but it could be anything the previous owner had done. After disabling the proxy, the wireless network connection seem to work as it should. The wired connection worked for a while, until I disconnected it and reconnected it.
I strayed from that problem for a while to try to fix a separate logging on issue (it was stuck on 'Classic' log in mode). An attempt to switch the setting gave an error telling me to uninstall Client Services for Netware. To do this I had to go to Control Panel> Network Connections and right click on the wired network connection (whilst disconnected). Then I clicked 'Properties' and viewed the checklist of installed network services. At the top of the checklist was 'Client Services for Netware'. I unchecked and selected this and clicked 'Uninstall'. After restarting I was able to adjust the log on settings and restore the original method.
The wired network is still temperamental at best. I know the guy who will use this laptop won't use the wired connection, so I'm not wasting anymore time looking into it. I don't think there is a hardware fault as it will connect if I manually configure the ip address, but then I have to manually configure the DNS addresses. It could be that the original driver is incompatible with a Windows update, or a file is corrupt. If I ever do find a solution, I will post it here.