Laptop issues

Tim Burton · Post by **Tim Burton** » Wed Sep 20, 2006 1:30 pm

I'm out of town and my parents are flipping out. I took out an extra stick of RAM I had in their laptop.

Well, a week later they called me on my trip and said the laptop won't boot. It goes to "Resuming Windows...", but no bar shows up and no HD light comes on.

I had them open up BIOS and look and there is a HD health test. I had them run that both in long and short tests and both came out with a healthy status.

I am lost at what they should do. They are flipping out that I did that to their laptop. They are going so nuts that they need the laptop for work that they are telling me they are going to buy a new laptop.

Supposedly they called a tech place and they said it would be $450 for them to figure it out and fix, so they said, "We can get a new laptop for $1,100, we don't want to spend that much on a 2 year old laptop."

I don't want them to buy a new laptop till Vista comes out. Any suggestions at what I can do do get it fixed?

kenc51 · Post by **kenc51** » Wed Sep 20, 2006 2:04 pm

It sounds like an OS issue........the laptop was either in hibernate or standby and can't resume......

Did you have the laptop completly powered of when you took out the ram?
My guess is that it was in hibernate/standby when you`removed the ram and that stick contained info required to re-boot the system..........if that makes sense?

The problem is that since you removed the ram, it now has no data.......
Try to statup the laptop again and press "F8" on startup repeatedly.....
You should get a windows startup menu --> choose "Last known good config"

If that doesn't work, goto the startup menu again and try boot into Safe Mode. if you can get into safe mode........just reboot and load windows normally.....
IF there was any unsave data when it was shutdown....it will be lost!
BUT it doesn't sound like the laptop is dead......far from it!

Tim Burton · Post by **Tim Burton** » Thu Sep 21, 2006 12:11 am

Ok, if I tell them to get a stick of 512MB of RAM and have them put it in (I taught my mother to do it) then it should boot up just fine?

kenc51 · Post by **kenc51** » Thu Sep 21, 2006 5:12 am

I think I will work with the RAM thats in it now.......no need to put the 512 stick back!

Just try boot into safe mode.

KnightRid · Post by **KnightRid** » Thu Sep 21, 2006 7:19 am

Tim Burton wrote:Ok, if I tell them to get a stick of 512MB of RAM and have them put it in (I taught my mother to do it) then it should boot up just fine?

no it probably wont - do the F8 key Ken has said about - last known good configuration, and then if that doesnt work - go to safe mode and see if it works.

I have had computers that once I booted to safe mode, then all of a sudden they would boot in normal mode again - gotta love windows ;)

Mike

Tim Burton · Post by **Tim Burton** » Sat Sep 23, 2006 7:17 pm

Tried F8 and no joy.

She is picking up RAM tomorrow after church. Hopefully that will do it.

What is the Fx button that goes to boot in safe mode?

KnightRid · Post by **KnightRid** » Sun Sep 24, 2006 5:57 am

F8 - that will give you a list to choose from - if you havent seen the list, then you havent tried the last known good configuration yet

right after the keyboard lights up that is has been checked - press the F8 and continue to press it rapidly until you see the screen - then move the down arrow quickly so time doesnt run out on you ;) If you see the windows logo like it is booting windows, then you did not do it correctly and you have to restart and try again.

Mike