Windows XP computer help needed

Pydpiper

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My laptop actually.
For a while after jumping through a couple hoops to get it fired up it is locking up on me after a while, or it gives a blue screen.
Today I wrote what it says when I fire it up, hopefully it means something to someone:
I get a black screen that tells me there are 2 errors, first is a time/date error, I suspect I get this because I have to pull the battery and power plug to get it to turn off when it freezes.
Next error (error # 0251) says "System CMOS Checksum bad, default configuration used"
Press F1 to resume F2 to set-up. I always hit F1 and it buys me a short amount of time to work on the laptop before it freezes or crashes.
One other thing that may or may not be important, sometimes when it fires up and windows does work I get the "this program has encountered a fatal error" I check the close box and don't hear from it again for a while.
Anything I can look into myself or is this a job for a pro?

Thanks guys!
 
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z96Cobra

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You may be able to turn it off by holding the power button down for 6-8 seconds instead of the battery/plug removal process.

It sounds like your problem my be a bad backup battery for your CMOS. How old is the laptop? What brand? The backup battery (usually a coin cell) keeps the date/time current and all of the other settings in the CMOS. If it goes dead the only thing keeping your settings is either the main battery or AC power. Remove those and the CMOS gets wiped. Next time you fire it up, go into the bios and look for an option along the lines of... "safe start settings", this should get you going for the most part. If you know what you are doing, you can go into each menu and adjust the settings accordingly. You will have to manually set the date/time, but the next time the laptop loses power (no battery or AC) you will have to go in and reset everything.


Roger
 

scott.cr

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Sounds like a hardware problem to me. That wouldn't happen to be an HP/Compaq laptop would it? Something similar to this happened to my wife's HP two years ago, and then one evening it just died. We brought it to CompUSA for repair, and they came back with a $600 estimate (new system board plus labor). So we just bought a new laptop, this time a ThinkPad and it's been holding up fine.

About 10 years ago I was a factory-trained Toshiba laptop repair tech... those things were rock-solid. My most common job was replacing keyboards (that people spilled drinks on), RAM upgrades and hard drive replacements.
 

alfreddajero

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I also own an HP and Toshiba, my wife owns a Compaq.....i would try to do a check disk, that is if you can get that far............if theres something wrong then windows will try to repair it.......I have had my hp for years now and the only thing that i had to replace is the hd......which was simple enough and didnt cost me a thing. And i prefer XP over Vista since some of the programs i use dont work with vista yet. Did you install any new hardware lately.......
 
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Pydpiper

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It is a Compaq, I can do a check disk, it says it found and repaired a problem, each time. The computer is about 6 years old, I think, maybe 5..
 

alfreddajero

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Oh didnt know that......you might want to have it checked then, i would say swap the HD but dont know if you can find one that old....have you thought about getting a new laptop.
 

z96Cobra

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I can't find the battery..? The internal one.

If the problem is the back-up battery, it is internal and likely not "user serviceable". Thats not to say you can't open it up and replace it yourself, if you are comfortable doing so. It may be an easily replaceable coin cell, or it could be soldered in. I would get into the bios to see if everything looks normal. According to your error message you need to make sure the date/time is correct anyway.

Laptop HD's are usually just standard 2.5" drives, and are easily replaceable, and easy to locate. I upgraded mine a few years ago with on from Microcenter. From the info you've provided it doesn't look like a HD error to me. All of the errors point to the Bios/CMOS.

Roger
 

z96Cobra

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Got a database error so I reposted.... It went through the first time!
 

cmacclel

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It definetly sounds like the Cmos battery for the date and time but not for the lockups. It sounds like it's time for a format and re-install.

Mac
 

Radio

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Yup...Dead CMOS battery, no need to wipe it, just get the instructions and replace the battery ($5) and update the bios with the latest firmware update on the net and good to go.
 

Pydpiper

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This is what I see when it locks up, it either gives me this screen or just freezes.
I am sure I didn't install anything new.
Where do I get instructions on the CMOS battery? I pulled all the little covers, it certainly isn't obvious.. A least to me.

P3060302.jpg
 

Beamhead

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If its a dead CMOS cell you should be able to select Default Setup in the BIOS/CMOS setup utility on every boot and run the OS fine IMHO.

Now that error you just took a pic of could pertain to a bad or corrupt paging file, bad sector on the HD, bad ram...........

Have you tried booting it in safe mode?
 
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jrmcferren

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Ok, that is one sick computer from those pix. First off can you run the computer off battery power? If so I would not worry about the CMOS battery, the CMOS battery is used only when there is no other source of power. Second, the Windows XP problems can be fixed. Do you get the same error each time it blue screens, if yes it could be a virus, driver, hardware, or hard drive issue. Most of the time when I get a blue screen it is either a hardware, or driver issue. If the errors are random, start looking at your power supply (this requires a new motherboard if the issue occurs on battery), RAM, processor or cooling.

Let's get back to the CMOS battery for a moment here. The only thing that makes me wary of fixing anything on this computer is that the CMOS battery is failing. This usually fails due to a power issue (overcharge most likely) as these are rechargeable most of the time, heat, or age. Any of these means that other components are nearing failure.

A little background you may skip if you want:
I built a computer back in 05 (the one I'm using now) and I've kept it running through all of these years, it spent most of the time from February 2006 until now running continuously. Here is the hardware I had to replace in order of failure the reason is also given.

Power supply: Low quality, voltage went out of regulation
Video card: Did not fail, upgraded
DVD Burner: original had read errors on second layer
Power Supply: Glue started to burn, replace to prevent future issues.
Keyboard: "Upgraded" to IBM model M
Mouse: Replaced with keyboard as original was part of wireless set.
Monitor: intermittent power connection, replaced instead of repaired for safety reasons (power was 120VAC)
Speakers: Integrated into old monitor, but not the new one.
RAM module: Original RAM module failed the module added in 06 was used in the meantime to retain uptime.
CPU Fan: Replaced Due to age heatsink not changed
CPU Fan: Broke the blades on the replacement
Case: Busted the USB ports leaning the computer forward, got mouse poison on the case, other minor issues. Also allows for better cooling.

My personal system has seen about 20 to 30k hours of operation and each of these issues was expected except the second power supply, DVD burner, second CPU fan (my opps), RAM module, monitor (and speakers), case, and the video card (the system was not designed originally for game playing. The list does not include intentional upgrades such as a second memory module (which save me when the one failed), second hard drive, and non-original components other than video card. The TV card failed due to me being dumb and not storing it properly. Good riddance to that piece of trash anyway, I also watched more TV when I got a real set in my dorm room. The removal of the modem, (upgraded to DSL and used cable at school), the ZIP drive (which was junked since some of the pins would have broke when I put it into the new case. Non-essential components such as bluetooth/IR adapters (added in 07), webcams, digital cameras, USB phones, iPods/other MP3 Players, external cable/DSL modems, network components.

I prize my uptime more than I should for a personal system, so I'm more critical, my system has been up for almost 20 days without a restart, it is running slugish, but I'm not restarting over that.

Sorry, I felt like being verbose this morning, but it helps give you a background of my personal system and the work I've done to keep it up from mid senior year of high school to after college.
 

matrixshaman

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Since I haven't seen it mentioned here there used to be a bad virus that would corrupt CMOS settings. Not too common but it exists. But as most have said and since your laptop is about 6 years old it's likely the CMOS battery. That being dead will lead to other problems and until that gets replaced it's probably no use trying to fix anything else as things will just keep getting hosed.
 

alfreddajero

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I used to get that screen when the sprint cards came out......downloaded the new bio's and i never got the blue screen of death again.
 

cmacclel

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Ok, that is one sick computer from those pix. First off can you run the computer off battery power? If so I would not worry about the CMOS battery, the CMOS battery is used only when there is no other source of power. Second, the Windows XP problems can be fixed. Do you get the same error each time it blue screens, if yes it could be a virus, driver, hardware, or hard drive issue. Most of the time when I get a blue screen it is either a hardware, or driver issue. If the errors are random, start looking at your power supply (this requires a new motherboard if the issue occurs on battery), RAM, processor or cooling.

Let's get back to the CMOS battery for a moment here. The only thing that makes me wary of fixing anything on this computer is that the CMOS battery is failing. This usually fails due to a power issue (overcharge most likely) as these are rechargeable most of the time, heat, or age. Any of these means that other components are nearing failure.

A little background you may skip if you want:
I built a computer back in 05 (the one I'm using now) and I've kept it running through all of these years, it spent most of the time from February 2006 until now running continuously. Here is the hardware I had to replace in order of failure the reason is also given.

Power supply: Low quality, voltage went out of regulation
Video card: Did not fail, upgraded
DVD Burner: original had read errors on second layer
Power Supply: Glue started to burn, replace to prevent future issues.
Keyboard: "Upgraded" to IBM model M
Mouse: Replaced with keyboard as original was part of wireless set.
Monitor: intermittent power connection, replaced instead of repaired for safety reasons (power was 120VAC)
Speakers: Integrated into old monitor, but not the new one.
RAM module: Original RAM module failed the module added in 06 was used in the meantime to retain uptime.
CPU Fan: Replaced Due to age heatsink not changed
CPU Fan: Broke the blades on the replacement
Case: Busted the USB ports leaning the computer forward, got mouse poison on the case, other minor issues. Also allows for better cooling.

My personal system has seen about 20 to 30k hours of operation and each of these issues was expected except the second power supply, DVD burner, second CPU fan (my opps), RAM module, monitor (and speakers), case, and the video card (the system was not designed originally for game playing. The list does not include intentional upgrades such as a second memory module (which save me when the one failed), second hard drive, and non-original components other than video card. The TV card failed due to me being dumb and not storing it properly. Good riddance to that piece of trash anyway, I also watched more TV when I got a real set in my dorm room. The removal of the modem, (upgraded to DSL and used cable at school), the ZIP drive (which was junked since some of the pins would have broke when I put it into the new case. Non-essential components such as bluetooth/IR adapters (added in 07), webcams, digital cameras, USB phones, iPods/other MP3 Players, external cable/DSL modems, network components.

I prize my uptime more than I should for a personal system, so I'm more critical, my system has been up for almost 20 days without a restart, it is running slugish, but I'm not restarting over that.

Sorry, I felt like being verbose this morning, but it helps give you a background of my personal system and the work I've done to keep it up from mid senior year of high school to after college.



I have built 100+ computers in my day and have never seen a rechargeable CMOS battery in a personal type computer.(They are mostly CR2032's). After 5 or 6 years I have seen a few die and replaced them.

Replace the CMOS battery and format and re-install the OS is what I would do. Troubleshooting Blue screens in my opinion is not worth it.

Mac
 
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jrmcferren

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I have built 100+ computers in my day and have never seen a rechargeable CMOS battery in a personal type computer.(They are mostly CR2032's). After 5 or 6 years I have seen a few die and replaced them.

Replace the CMOS battery and format and re-install the OS is what I would do. Troubleshooting Blue screens in my opinion is not worth it.

Mac

I've seen NiMH in notebooks as late as Pentium 3 and NiCd on desktops as late as 486 processors.
 

bpool21

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Did you find a solution yet?

Question, did this "press F1 to continue" start before the Blue Screen Of Death (BSOD)?
If this problem occured BEFORE the BSOD, then it is likely there is a misconfigured setting in CMOS.

We need to know the model number, size of Hard Drive, Size of RAM possibly, processor speed and which service pack.

Have you attempted a BIOS upgrade? (recommended!)
Have you taken any advise on the chkdsk or safe mode?

0x7a stop code with the second parameter being 0x000000e would mean unrecognized hardware I believe.
This 'could' be an impending doom on the hard disk or RAM or it 'could' be the result of misconfigured CMOS settings like cache enabled or disabled and LBA modes, etc...

boot the lappy into safe mode (press F8 a few times after POST if you see the windows loading screen you werent quick enough).
Once in "safemode with command prompt" type "CHKDSK C: /F /R", once complete either type "explorer"(to get into windows) or just "defrag" and defragment the disk. If either one of these utilities fail (chkdsk or degrag) with an unrepairable error, then there might be physical damage to the disk or it could be dirty or in need of a new format.
That should get rid of the possibility of a failing hard disk if it completes.
NOTE!! /F /R option will fix problems and recover data, this will take QUITE a while, make sure the laptop is on a non-porous surface and has adequate cooling. A 60gb hard disk 1/2 filed (30gb) would take 1:15 hours. This is your best bet on fixing any bad blocks though. If at anytime you hear repeated "ticking" like a timebomb, you likely have some physical damage to the drive. DEFRAG can seriously damage the drive if you disconnect power while its running - to the point of reformatting. It moves data from one place to another and disconnecting power could write over other data or mess up the filestructure. Let it do its thing and make sure the laptop can breath as it will get hot! Make sure its plugged into power and no one can accidently disconnect it then check it in 1 week and see if its done haha just joking.

Next, windows can manage or you can manage the size of the page file,
<copied txt>You can adjust the pagefile size by going into the control panel, clicking on the system icon, then on the advanced tab, then on the performance options button, then on advanced tab again, and then at the bottom it will say page file. This number + size of your RAM = total pagefile. </copied txt>

It is possible that these are errors related to the size of the pagefile or that it is physically impossible to dump the information to disk or memory because of bad blocks.
A memory upgrade is due anyway right?;)

Have you seen any BSOD with the word "ATAPI.SYS"? This would mean the CD-ROM drive and Hard disk are having issues being on the same controller and you should remove the CD-ROM drive. I have seen many failed drives giving Blue Screens when plugged in but I cannot remember the codes, these usually occured on older 400 - 800mhz systems.

If your CMOS/BIOS battery is dead, you will see the failure code with a possible "battery depleted or check battery" code as well when you remove the laptop battery and power adapter for a period of time. If you do not see any errors on Cold boots then the on-board battery is fine. They tend to go out in laptops of this age if stored for many years with no primary power.

The error message you receive when windows boots is just a precaution for PCs that can reboot automatically if there is a power failure most likely. The general windows error reporting can be turned off if it bothers you. It does usually contain information regarding the nature of the failure read from the dump or logs, but I havent seen one in so long, I dont know what could be usefull in the blue link that says "see what is being sent to microsoft" or similar text.

PM me if you need help getting some of these comments executed.
Usually a CHKDSK C: /F /R will help a 0x7a stop, but most of the time it is RAM or Drive failure:shakehead
 

mayo

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This is most always a memory error. After swaping memory you may have to do a repair of windows via XP disc.
 
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