The disk in this laptop is second hand. I bought it used from a
"friend". It seems to work and all that, and I’ve used it for about a
month without problem, but I’m slightly uneasy.

- In the box I recieved the drive in, it had slipped out of a wad of
protective packaging and was just slinding around freely.
– The drive was used.
– It makes odd noises.

That last one is what’s really bothering me. In normal operation, you
can bearly hear the drive over the fan. It’s nice and quiet. But if I
just leave the machine sitting for a few moments with nothing running,
I hear random clicks, about once every two minutes. And they don’t
sound like the drive does normally, they are almost like pings. Oddly,
there are different lengths of them. One is just a short "ping" sound,
the other is longer, it almost sounds like the ping, then a metal
object hitting another metal object. I’m not entirely sure what to make
of it.
It does this in both Windows 98 and Debian Linux 3.1

I tried to record a clip of the drive in normal operation, but it was
inaudable over the fan. Here is a clip with one of the shorter pings:
http://gecko.f2o.org/download/test1.wav

The drive is a TravelStar, capable of holding 20gigs.

Is my disk getting ready to die on me?

Hi,

Just found this forum trying to figure out whats wrong with my
laptop.

I’m not sure whats wrong, so I’ll just outline the issues and hope one
of you guys can help me out.

1) A few weeks ago, my screen suddenly froze completely, windows goes
blank then comes back with teh lowest resolution possible.

2) The computer doesn’t restart properly the first time (begining of
my nightmare)

3) I restart again, windows tells me there was a serious error, I
install a new display driver.

4) Now, the display is fine, but it takes like 10 attempts before my
computer will boot up sometimes.

I switch it on, and the fan starts to whirl like usual, then Cd drive
clicks once, also as usual, but nothing comes on the screen at all
and then the cd drive will click again and nothing else will happen.

This happens a lot now, but eventually, after manually powering off
and switching on a few times, something happens and my laptop will
boot up like normal.

Possible reasons?
This only seems to happen when I bring my laptop from where I live to
the Univeristy I go to (and back). Could it be because of the cold
(-20 degrees C sometimes in Canada right now), or because I might
have knocked something loose inside the laptop walking to campus?

Any help will be appreciated.

Not sure if I posted this info or not.

For a while I was having trouble with the LCD on my Toshiba Satellite Pro
4600 flickering and going black. Sometimes 4 or 5 times a day.

About two weeks ago now I took the bezel off the LCD, removed and
reinstalled the inverter. Ever since then I’ve never had a problem with the
LCD flickering or going black.

Just thought I’d pass that along.

Steve

My 600m has a bad display, and I’m trying to figure out if it’s the
inverter or the CCFL tube.  The behavior I’m seeing is that, when the
display fails, I can still see the image by shining a flashlight (at an
angle) on it.  However, I noticed that the display would flicker on
momentarily when the display first got power.  I wrote a little script
that would continuously turn the display on and off, and I managed to
get it to stay on after a few cycles.  The display fails regularly, and
I keep having to run the script for a while to finally get the image
restored.  It seems to be failing more frequently.

I want to know if this behavior narrows down the problem to the CCFL or
the inverter.  Any thoughts from anyone?

Thanks.

Hello,

I have been out of the loop with the newest laptops/notebooks.

I am researching various brand name laptops/notebooks that can be found and bought in retail
local stores (Southern CA, USA) to see and buy. They will have to be PCs and come with all the
usual features for today’s computer usage. Prices should be low as possible and the unit should
be light to carry for travelling. Computer gaming is not part of the requirements.

Thank you in advance.
—
"We are closer to the ants than to butterflies. Very few people can endure much leisure." –Gerald Brenan
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    ( )

Will a universal docking station work with the Dell Inspirion 1100?

I had to do a system restore on my Toshiba S-5105 and it kept aborting.
 Then I reinstalled XP, and it worked.  However, I don’t automatically
connect to my wireless network  (as I should with system
restore/recovery) and can’t figure out how to do it manually.  I’d
appreciate any advice.

Bob Feduniak

I have a Toshiba satellite for over a year now and i have had quite a
few problems with it. Most prominent of em is that it shuts down on
it’s own at least twice a day. I know that it is a very common
problem in toshiba laptops. But how can i stop it from doing that?
Secondly, recently the AC Adapter has been acting funny. Whenever i
hook it up with a power outlet, it’s not recognized by the computer.
Until and unless i play around with the wire does it recognize the AC
adapter. I seriously think my AC adapter is messed up but i don’t
know. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Before somebody points me to DNA drivers or whatever, they screwed up
my 3400 but not my Ferrari 3000 for some reason. This was back in
august mind you.

My Question is this. Does anyone here have an Acer Ferrari 3400 and can
confirm the latest set of drivers that work?

Need a new set of keypad buttons or entire keypad assy.
Can anyone help?

John