So how long does my computer have to live?

mts

OK, my llatop is maybe 4-5years old so its no spring chicken. As of late its been acting up. I fear that its the motherboard.

started off wireless acting weird
As of late, the USB ports have been crapping out, first it was my mouse (logitech vx nano) and confirmed it wasn't just the mouse since my jump drives weren't being recognized. a couple times it would pop up with an error message saying the usb device failed in its loading or something like that.

occaisionally i can pop the usb receiver of the mouse , replug it back in, and the mouse works again, but its becoming less frequent that works

also happening now
system won't come out of sleep. lights come on, but screen stays black forcing a reset.

problem is that often when reseting it stops loading at various points in the operating system startup. lately i have had to force power down, pop out the battery, and try again.

its getting to be a pain in the ass, especially since i have had to work on my computer alot trying to finsish my dissertation.

Specs of the system

HP dv4250
Win XP pro Sp2
2GB ram- it runs pretty hot , this was an upgrade i did
12 cell battery (the big extended ones)

it has long since passed its warranty.

I know its hard to diagnose problems over the internet, but any input would be appreciated in extending the life of this puppy.

Do you think a format/reinstal would make things work again? it has a lot of extra crap on it in order to access my work network, but i am leaving soon so it needs to get reformated and reinstaled to get rid of everything.

mts

i forgot to add:

i just noticed this today. i was working on the couch and i shifted the laptop on my lap. this caused the usb drives to stop working and i had to reset to get things working

proXimity

Hmm... that does sound like a rather unfortunate situation. It really can't hurt that much to try reinstalling XP, but it probably is the hardware.

Bendery It Like Beckham

sounds like something is coming loose from the board. Could have years left, could have minutes left. Won't know till it happens.

BlindZenDriver

Sounds to me like at least the USB ports soldering to the board are giving up. A way around that can be to get a PC Card with USB ports - they are pretty cheap so if you have the PC-Card slot that should fix that.

However it also sounds like there are other problems. It could that simply reinstalling the OS plus apps would help things along + it could mean a more responsive system depending on how much unused stuff you have on it now.

If you're up for it taking the whole thing apart, dusting if off (us spray cans with air) and putting it back together can do wonders. After such a long time the repeated warming and cooling of the machine can make for bad connections between components which then are fixed simply by the disassambly+assambly process.

Natsus

it it was me, I would take the plunge and buy a new laptop. 4-5 years is a pretty good life of a laptop and there's some really good stuff out now.

If you really want to try and salvage your laptop, your best bet would be to reinstall XP but... honestly it sounds like your hardware is failing.

illig

if you want to use it as an excuse to get a new laptop, then by all means do so

but this seems like a simple usb hardware issue... laptops are prone to breaking the solder joints between the mobo and external ports... you can either open it up and fix it, or use a PCMCIA usb card as a quick fix

everything else seems like a software issue, and a reinstall should fix it

MrMonroe

You might want to check the battery contacts for dirt, rust, etc. Sounds like you're losing power when it giggles.

Reinstalling windows certainly won't hurt.

mts

i think the theory on bad contacts/soldering in the usb car might have some merit to it. my bag recently fell off the car seat when stoping short this week. its padded out but it still sounded like a big hit, I have had issues with bad contacts before on this laptop with the DVD drive. It has USB ports on both sides, would they be based on the same attachment?

it doesn't explain the weird startup/freezing issue though