(I hope this is the right sub-group! Apologies, if it's not)
I am running a Dell Inspirion N5010, Win 7 Ultimate, RAM 4GB, 64bit; Intel(R) Core (™) i3 CPU, M350 @ 2,27GHz 2.26GHZ
I’ve been experiencing a wide range of issues with it over the past year and have lost all hope to IT-services I’ve turned to so I’m hoping to somehow prolongue its life myself until I can afford a new laptop.
The lead-up to my current problems:
First, I started getting quite slow and had graphic glitches and soon after blue screen errors and beeping instead of turning on (this happened straight after I had it checked just in case before my warranty ends at the warranty place)
Eventually, I took it back to the warranty (that was still valid) and they said it was a hard drive problem and said they’ll change it. They ordered the drive while I was still under warranty, but the fixing itself happened after
While being fixed, I got a call saying that my motherboard had crashed (which I figure was the initial problem anyway), but as ‘they broke it’, they’ll replace it for free (I am worried I got a faulty motherboard maybe?)
Had a friend’s IT guy install a new OS (to my knowledge its genuine) and everything was working fine for about 2 months ‘til problems started again
What is happening with it now:It’s still quite slow and freezes/doesn’t respond often
Cuts power without a warning and takes half an hour to agree to turn on again. The cuts appear to be random - sometimes it handles hours of Photoshop, other times it cuts in the middle of only using Word; with and without being plugged in)
When it does, it always offers a CHKDSK which I can’t complete as it always cuts power after a few minutes. The only way to get the laptop to turn on is to cancel it and after it gets to the Windows 7 screen, it will stay turned on
Recently, the sound has started to randomly turn robotic and the cut altogether.
Around the same time, I also stopped being able to ‘check for updates’ on Windows Update.
When the battery drains, instead of resuming windows, I have to start it up again.
What have I done:I am not too good with computers so this bit is fairly limited.
Tried to complete CHKDSK, but never get past 5%
I downloaded HWMonitor, but not sure what the right levels are supposed to be. I imagine the power cuts are to do with overheating, though the laptop, though warm, doesn’t, actually get hot. The fans do make quite a lot of noise though.
I have tried to check the drivers etc and they seem to fine/not in need to be updated.
I did a disk clean up, but disk defragmenter doesn’t start.
I know the best option here is probably to buy a new laptop, which I currently can’t afford. I currently have no familiar IT-guys in my disposal and I’d rather not pay £50 for diagnostics somewhere else, as it’s already like 20% of the price of a low-rate new laptop.
Thanks for any suggestions what to try!
I have no idea what to look out for. I currently only had one window open, normally the temperatures are slightly higher.
