That's right, removing the linoleum from the laptop surface should happen later in the troubleshooting process.

hewlett packard:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=1213399970436

damn...it was $899 when i got it.

tried that. no soap.

That means it has comprehensive diagnostics in the machine, provided on a CD, and also available on the web site. To break the problem down into parts - then verify the integrity of thost parts - only the better computer manufacturers provide such diagnostics.

Is the problem in Windows or in hardware? Diagnostics answer that. Verify each hardware item. Either test each hardware or run the entire diagnostic to test everything, including memory.

Diagnostics mean identifying the problem before fixing it which is why only better computer manufacturers such as HP and Dell provide them.

Do not format anything. That would be fixing something without any idea what is wrong. Nuke and Pave is the last ditch - burn down the world and let nature fix it - solution.

BUT....I'm a John Wayne Motherfucker....

Then shoot it and apply for warranty repair. Do you think those repair guys are going to argue once they see the bullet hole?

:lol:

tw must be gettin some - he's been a riot lately.

how long should the test take? it took mine appx 2 hours to complete with no errors. I started jinx's doing it, and it was going 2.5-3 times faster than mine.

I love tw Funny Day!
I've tried to map it, but it's not tied in with the phases of the moon. Solar flares maybe?

it's almost as though someone else had written it, too. there are participles and proper verb conjugation and all......

tw, do you have company over?

It can take a while to go through the whole test. 2 hours sounds about right. I don't know why there was a difference between your machine and Jinx's. Are your configurations exactly the same? If she has less memory or a faster bus, that might explain it.

The test is pretty thorough, so I'd start looking at other issues. One would guess the hard drive, but it's certainly possible to be other things. A virus, for instance, can play havoc with your machine.

It's a fairly new computer, isn't it? I'd say if it's not the hard drive, then you should have a strongly worded talk with the vendor. Unless you've poured a drink in the thing, it shouldn't be failing this soon.

You'd have a harder time of getting something out of them if it's the hard drive. A hard bump when it's reading or writing can ruin a sector or more.

If you've got automated diagnostics as tw suspects, I'd run those and see what it tells you.

Otherwise run the Windows drive tests I mentioned yesterday.

Good luck.

i saw the link to the memory test, but the drive test is where?

It's built in to windows.

Hardware involved with your problem is not detected by a memory test or drive test. However if those (or other) hardware has a problem, it is more likely to be found in the system (event) logs.

The only diagnostic that will test hardware relevant to your problem is HP's comprehensive diagnostics.

Why a difference between execution time of two machines? Those numbers (reason for the difference) may be found in BIOS settings. Those numbers may also be reported by HP's comprehensive diagnostics.

All those tests that Dar512 has recommended are in comprehensive diagnostics.

There is little to nothing useful in Windows diagnostics because Windows is designed to work around and avoid hardware failures whenever possible. However if Windows has seen a hardware failure, then that is stored and reported in system logs or is obvious in Device manager. Windows is a bad tool for hardware diagnosis.

Once a manufacturer's comprehensive diagnostic says OK, then move on to other suspects - which is not hardware.

I agree with this. The problem sounds like hardware and if you call for support, they will not go further with you until you've run those.