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Okay, so Retro, here's the crux of the matter.
I'm having some crashing issues (Screen completely freezes, can't interact with the keyboard, almost nothing changes at all, it still recognizes the power cable with a loud "BEEP" but that's it) with my old laptop (IBM thinkpad T40). At first, I had thought the issue was the hard drive slowly dying on me, but then I started to feel like that might not be the case. In addition to the crashing, when trying to boot back up the screen would be completely blank, so someone suggested that this was a case of the graphics card crapping out on me. I thought this might have been legit, especially since the laptop seemed to crash more often in warmer rooms than colder ones, so I thought it might be a case of the graphics card overheating.
So with that in mind, I started to open it up to clean out the fan, since that would have been the likely problem, right? Turns out the fan was clean as a goddamned whistle. So that clearly wasn't the problem.
Then, out of pure curiosity, I noticed the placement of where the hard drive is inserted. Right underneath the right side of the keyboard, where I naturally bear down on it. That made me think that it was a possibility that bearing down on it was making the hard drive come slightly loose and making the computer crash.
I pulled out the USB keyboard, and tested this theory. Using this, I didn't need to bear down on the keyboard anymore. For a while, it seemed to work as I theorized, but then a couple of days later I seemed to still have minor, if random crashing issues.
Inspecting the hard drive further, I found the ribbon on the top (It's a ATA/IDE hard drive) was a bit loose (Maybe an inch or so? Whatever sealant that was supposed to keep it down seemed to be coming apart). I can't help but think this isn't a good thing. So, with no other alternatives, I taped it down.
Initially, it seemed to work the first day I tried that trick, but the next day I had all kinds of crashing issues. Then the next day (today) it's not crashing at all. So yeah, probably tomorrow it's going to give me all kinds of technical fits, because that's how this thing likes to roll.
I have absolutely no fucking idea what is wrong with this machine, so I figure Retro can have an idea. Also, keep in mind I have about maybe $20 available to spend on fixing it. So remember that when suggesting ways to fix it. And no, getting a new computer isn't really an option at this time.
If it's relevant, the OS is Windows XP SP3
I'm having some crashing issues (Screen completely freezes, can't interact with the keyboard, almost nothing changes at all, it still recognizes the power cable with a loud "BEEP" but that's it) with my old laptop (IBM thinkpad T40). At first, I had thought the issue was the hard drive slowly dying on me, but then I started to feel like that might not be the case. In addition to the crashing, when trying to boot back up the screen would be completely blank, so someone suggested that this was a case of the graphics card crapping out on me. I thought this might have been legit, especially since the laptop seemed to crash more often in warmer rooms than colder ones, so I thought it might be a case of the graphics card overheating.
So with that in mind, I started to open it up to clean out the fan, since that would have been the likely problem, right? Turns out the fan was clean as a goddamned whistle. So that clearly wasn't the problem.
Then, out of pure curiosity, I noticed the placement of where the hard drive is inserted. Right underneath the right side of the keyboard, where I naturally bear down on it. That made me think that it was a possibility that bearing down on it was making the hard drive come slightly loose and making the computer crash.
I pulled out the USB keyboard, and tested this theory. Using this, I didn't need to bear down on the keyboard anymore. For a while, it seemed to work as I theorized, but then a couple of days later I seemed to still have minor, if random crashing issues.
Inspecting the hard drive further, I found the ribbon on the top (It's a ATA/IDE hard drive) was a bit loose (Maybe an inch or so? Whatever sealant that was supposed to keep it down seemed to be coming apart). I can't help but think this isn't a good thing. So, with no other alternatives, I taped it down.
Initially, it seemed to work the first day I tried that trick, but the next day I had all kinds of crashing issues. Then the next day (today) it's not crashing at all.
So yeah, probably tomorrow it's going to give me all kinds of technical fits, because that's how this thing likes to roll.I have absolutely no fucking idea what is wrong with this machine, so I figure Retro can have an idea. Also, keep in mind I have about maybe $20 available to spend on fixing it. So remember that when suggesting ways to fix it. And no, getting a new computer isn't really an option at this time.
If it's relevant, the OS is Windows XP SP3
