Laptop Diagnosis

[iLB]

My dell inspiron has taken to freezing when attempting to play video files (.avi) or DVD's, but seems fine to play youtube videos- which ruins my theory about the graphics card.

When it freezes it won't respond to the usual ctrl, alt +delete ploy, and a system restore hasn't solved the issue.

Any thoughts on what might be wrong?

 

[4F]

Too much porn downloaded.

 

[Norm]

Large avi files and DVDs take a lot of resources, whereas YouTube vids are compact for sending around the world.

How full is your hard disk? Have you checked or cleaned or defragged it recently?

 

[Norm]

Oh, and start the system monitor before playing the vids, to see if something is stalling or stopping it by hogging all the resources.

 

[iLB]

Strangely since posting this thread the problem as ceased to be so. I did a full system scan yesterday and got rid of a couple of pieces of malware, and defragged the hard drive this morning.

I'm now able to play the dvd and .avi which caused the initial problem, without issue. Could the restart after defrag have been the key?

 

[Norm]

Yes. (possibly )

 

[Red Light]

Could the restart after defrag have been the key?

Possibly but more likely after the defrag you now how a contiguous area of disk to buffer the video on rather than have the heads hop all over it piecing a big enough piece together.

 

[iLB]

And now back to square one of not turning on... trip to pc world?

 

[Red Light]

And now back to square one of not turning on... trip to pc world?

How old is it? Both my daughters' Dells died in that way within a few weeks of each other. The first one I rebuilt the OS and programmes/files from scratch and it lasted a few weeks more before dying again in the same way so I junked them both.

 

[iLB]

It;s about 3 years old now, so doesn't really owe me anything.

I somewhat hastily bought a lenovo z570 this morning, but can't bring myself to open it having no idea about the reputation of the brand. Anyone used them before?

 

[Red Light]

It;s about 3 years old now, so doesn't really owe me anything.

3 years is about right, its when my daughters' Dells both failed.

 

[Furkz]

It;s about 3 years old now, so doesn't really owe me anything.

I somewhat hastily bought a lenovo z570 this morning, but can't bring myself to open it having no idea about the reputation of the brand. Anyone used them before?

Lenovo is a brand of IBM or the geniuses behind IBM or something or other

 

[Norm]

Was a brand of IBM, they sold out to a Chinese company, IIRC, about 5 or 6 years ago.

 

[Norm]

Indeed, my comment that they sold out to a Chinese company should not be taken to mean that their quality dropped from the time that they were IBM.

I've just Wiki'd it and the sale was in 2005, apparently, so my 5 or 6 years was pretty close. They've got around 10% of the global market and are 3rd or 4th (depending on the timing) largest PC maker, behind Dell and HP, close to Acer and ahead of Toshiba.

 

[iLB]

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/lenovo-ideapad-z570-15-6-laptop-blue-10747042-pdt.html

that's the one I went for, a bit of research hasn't thrown up anything negative other than the usual moans about build quality and screen glare from the odd person.

the specs are pretty tidy for the price though I think? And the sandy bridge i5 chip at least sounds impressive...