Dell Laptop - Need Computer Help

[brwrsfan]

So I'm generally pretty good with computers but lately my computer has taken a turn for the worst and I can't seem to fix it. Any help would be appreciated. Here's the story:

I have a Dell Inspiron E1705 - approximately a year and a half old. Everything has been working fine up until about a month ago. I used to be able to shut the lid, let it sit for hours on end, open it back up and it would come right back up. Sometimes it would turn off the hard disks so I would have to hit the power button, but it would just restore to where I had left off. Everything was working great. Now however, if I close it for more than an hour or so, it will no longer come back on. I have to hold the power button to basically shut it off, then turn it back on. It then goes through it's full startup and works fine. I create error logs and each time get a new problem but all of them lead to a "stop error" or something to that extent. It sometimes targets drivers, sometimes anti-virus.

I've turned off all hibernate, power save and shut off options, still no dice. I tried to check the drivers but I don't know how I would tell if one of them was bad or not. I went to dell.com and apparently all of my drivers are up to date, at least it doesn't find any new ones. I can't seem to figure it out and it's getting very frustrating. I can't do a system restore becuase none of the restores are more than 2-3 weeks old. I want to format it completely and start over, but I can't find my recovery CD.

Does anyone have any clue how to fix this or could possibly help me out?? I would be very, very grateful.

[bullox]

Sounds like a program is causing the computer to hang when the lid is closed. The following is assuming that you are running XP, and it's been a little while since I've run that but I'll give it a shot.

 

Best bet would be to check the error logs to see if you can diagnose what is really happening. Right-Click My Computer, go to Manage. In there you will see the Event Viewer. If I remember right, there is an Application log, System log, and Audit log. Check the Application and System logs for Errors that happen right around the time that you notice the issue taking place (it lists the errors by time occurred).

 

Someone else may be able to help you more, but this is what I would check first.

[JimH5]

I am on my 2nd Dell, and have always had terrific tech support whenever I called them. My issues were always related to connectivity and DSL to network to computer. . .but even when calls took more than an hour, they have been very skilled at finding the problem and fix.

[pitchleague]

I'm going to chime in on a laptop problem as well, rather than create a whole new thread.

 

My wife's laptop has been running fine for several years now (we got it in 2004), but just in the last couple of days, one of the fans has been making a horrible whining sound as if it may be dying. It comes and goes but runs very loudly. I opened it up to take a look and the fan is one of two on the heat sink covering the video card. Since it's a Gateway, I'm guessing it's a special order item to repair/replace, but does anybody think that my local computer repair shop could look at this and be able to fix/repair the fan? Or would it be better to just look for a new laptop for her?

[DSFastball55]

As for the hibernation problem, maybe try installing this: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/330909. If it doesn't work you can always uninstall it if you want.

 

You can find out how much that fan costs here: http://www.mundocorp.com/. Any competent computer shop should be able to replace it for you.

[pitchleague]

thanks, slobberknocker, for the link.

 

I checked on the fan price ($59), which is fine. But it was out of stock. Wonder if I could find it somewhere else.