Laptop not working at all, help!

My wife's laptop started very strange today in that at first the colours were kind of shaking or vibrating is the only way I can beat explain.
She restarted it and all the colours were like a faded green and the mouse pointer wouldn't move and the keyboard doesn't work either.
I tried to put it into safe mode, but only about half of the screen seems to work faintly and also the green and blue colours are there as well. Wasn't able to do anything because the mouse and keyboard wouldn't work either.
She said it worked ok about an hour before all this happened, although admits the colours were like that for a short time last week but didn't mention it to me.
I thought at first maybe the screen was faulty but that would explain the mouse or keyboard not working.
Is her laptop fit for the bin or can it be sorted easily?
She only really uses it for Facebook and surfs the net now and again so I suggested she gets a tablet as that would do the same thing. When I mentioned that I nearly had my head to play with! Women, can't live with them and can't live without them
Any ideas anyone?

reply to post by scotsdavy1

Please give details of the laptop make and model, and also the operating system it's running. Without this basic info it's almost impossible to figure what the cause/s might be (or advise some procesdures on how to help you).

Thank you.
ETA: I don't claim to be a hotshot expert on all this but I can tell you that the above info will be needed. Just saving time for when the true IT geeks arrive. But meanwhile, if you have a PC keyboard around the place and you can connect it to the laptop, trying pluggin it in and see if it works. Worth a try. If it does, then at least it means the drivers are still available and you can use the keyboard to run commands.

assuming it isnt a virus/malware

did ya try reseating/replacing the RAM/memory chip

reply to post by Blowback


Never thought of that, will try that when she gets back in as she's got it with her....

its probably the screen on its way out or the ribbon cable from the base part to the screen wearing out hopefully...try and connect the laptop to a monitor/tv etc and see if everything looks fine, if so its generally ok to consider the "base" part of it ok and its time to look more at the screen side of things with the panel/ribbon being the most common things

reply to post by JustMike


Will give make and model ASAP once she's back in with it.....

Ran a computer repair biz for 9 years, sounds like it's overheating. Make sure that it's not being used while resting on carpet or a couch cushion. Laptop, not couch-top. It needs sufficient airflow underneath. Check the cooling fan on the underside to see if it's working, blow some canned-air in the fan and the little "radiator looking thing" on the back. Chances are that a big poof of dust will come out.
If that doesn't work, it sounds like the video processor or VRAM is going bad. Both of these can occur from overheating as well.

reply to post by Maxatoria


I have a spare 22" monitor it can try later to see if it makes any difference...

reply to post by sageturkey


She's got a bad habit of lying it on top of the bed while using it, have told her constantly to make sure air can circulate underneath because it does get really hot at times. My laptop is on a stand that has plenty of room underneath it and is only warm if left on for hours with no problems...

scotsdavy1
reply to post by Maxatoria

 

I have a spare 22" monitor it can try later to see if it makes any difference...

That would be a good test, hook it up to a known-good monitor. Chances are, that you will see the same thing. LCD's do go bad, but not nearly as often as the on-board video components. I only saw a few during my tenure...

reply to post by scotsdavy1

Yep, certain models are prone to that. They have inherent cooling problems to begin with.

Last laptop she had only for a week before it broke down! Wasn't her fault, my dog thought it would be cool to pee on it and it blew up! Lucky he didn't as well lol
I took it back to the shop and said it had suddenly stopped working, well, I wasn't lying, and they replaced it on the spot! That was a few years ago.

scotsdavy1
Last laptop she had only for a week before it broke down! Wasn't her fault, my dog thought it would be cool to pee on it and it blew up! Lucky he didn't as well lol
I took it back to the shop and said it had suddenly stopped working, well, I wasn't lying, and they replaced it on the spot! That was a few years ago.

That's a good one!
My first computer was a Commodore 64 from Sears. Had it two weeks and the wife spilled a Pepsi into it. That was more than a few years ago, god I'm old...

reply to post by sageturkey


Mine was a monster of a thing that ran windows 98 and crashed every other day it seemed normal. When I first got it, I thought you just had to pull the plug out of the wall to switch it off! I still have the original receipt somewhere with all the specs it had and it's funny how little the hard drive was on it.
My brother started on the BBC one years before me.
My pet hate was the dial up with the noise it made and if someone used the phone I would be cut off. I remember well I was downloading a small file, think it was about 65mb and I fell asleep on the chair waiting for it to finish!

reply to post by scotsdavy1

Ahhh yes, the good 'ol days...
I used to have to dial-up BBSes to get drivers for repairing IBM XT's. 64kb ram and whopping 10mb hard drives


Decided to start my own Wildcat5 BBS, was a breakthrough using HTML code. Then the Internet happened...

reply to post by sageturkey


Day I will always remember is when I first got broadband, thought it had won the lottery!

Between all the great tech advice here we can all benefit from...sounds like if its where a dog can pee on it, and she also voluntarily uses it for hours on a bed-blanketed surface...she's under the impression she can and should be able to use it wherever she wants. And that includes leaving the fan blocked on the bed and left on for hours and hours.

None of this is a good for the unit. It does need clear fan airflow to keep cool and needs to be turned OFF once in while. Laptop pads with a usb cooling fan can be bought for around $10 U.S.

It may be she needs to rethink her version of proper care.

reply to post by mysterioustranger


I know and agree with you on that.

SageTurkey has you on the right track. The computer industry isn't the best at telling people how to care for their investment. I have a stack of laptops in storage that died early deaths because of abuse. Most of it unintentional, but some of them from just plain stupidity.

reply to post by Klassified


I have mine on a stand and also a plastic support that is at an angle and been like that for many years with no problems. Sometimes it's cheaper just to get another one than repair it.