We returned from the Christmas holidays and our laptop (which we lugged with us and never once turned on...oops) is all sorts of persnickety since logging in yesterday. When we log in, the welcome screen won't go away, it just "spins" after we put in our log in details.

It opens in Safe Mode, but is painfully slow.

I got it to open regularly last night once, but it was painfully slow, too. Delayed typing, programs wouldn't open when clicked. It was like the computer had a hangover.

This morning, we went to log in, and the same "spinning" happened. We've done a full and quick virus scan and even defragmented the hard drive.

We're at a loss...any suggestions for fixing will be greatly appreciated.

Does it make weird noises as well?
Sounds to me as a harddrive faillure. Make sure you backup your data asap. Afterwards just drop it off in a computer repair shop to swap the harddrive and reinstall.

It may be doing a large update. Or a monthly full virus scan etc.
Let it run overnight and see if the disk actvity is still there in the morning.

As said before. Back up now. Now. Right now. Stop reading this and back up your PC.


















Why are you still reading this ?

Hi - it's so odd that it would just fail like that after running so perfectly for a year. I even commented a few weeks ago how well the computer was running. We don't save anything on the hard drive, but instead an external drive which we use to back up the little bit that lives on the computer.

Argh...technology!

good suggestion and thought about the large update...I'll leave it on tonight and see what happens.

There were a couple of .NET updates in the latest Windows updates and on my old XP machine they took an awful long time to install (I don't know how long as I gave up waiting, but certainly at least 1 hour).

And today there's a security update to those .NET Framework 4 updates...

If it is updating or doing a virus scan then the user should be able to tell by opening Windows Update or whichever virus scan program is installed.

Not if it's mucking about updating stuff before the OS becomes available.

about "it's so odd that it would just fail like that after running so perfectly for a year."

It is odd that so many people do ask that sort of question; problems (unfortunately) can occur at any time.

Is your network running OK; no loose network connections? Did you try switching off your modem/router & restarting?

Indeed. My harddrive failed literally seconds after a complete backup had finished.

You mentioned you lugged it around with you. Could be a couple of things due to a severe jar.

Most likely a hard drive issue if it doesn't resolve itself after you've left it on say overnight. Do the following first though.

If the memory stick(s) got a bit loose it would likely blue screen on you but it is something to check because I've seen PCs work until a certain point is reached and then something goes wrong but usually results in a crash but could result in a hang as you describe. With it unplugged and battery removed open the memory compartment usually on the bottom behind a panel that is secured with usually a single screw. Remove the memory and reinstall. Close the panel, turn back on. If it still is having a problem and you have another PC, download yourself a bootable copy of memtest at www.memtest.org. Run it on the laptop for a few hours. You might find you have some bad memory. If it passes the tests after a few hours your memory is likely fine.

Assuming that's ok, then address the hard drive because we know your memory is good and won't create problems that aren't there on your hard drive or make them worse. Run whatever disk diagnostics you have or do a google search for bootable disk diagnostics. After running those you should have an idea of what's going on.