A virus would not normally make a laptop stop powering up or prevent the battery from charging. The problem with your son's laptop is more likely either a bad powerjack or a defective motherboard. ...

Some information about the spyware you were trying to clear can be see at this link:
http://forums.spywareinfo.com/lofiversion/index.php/t59869.html
It appears the cws.msconfig find may be a false...

Was the computer on when you had the power outage? What caused the outage, lightning or some other electrical surge? If so, you could have a damaged power supply. Look inside the case and check...

It sounds like a backlight problem. Try pressing the lid close switch a couple of times to see if the backlight will come back on. If it does then the lid close switch is defective. The fact that...

Was the system working properly before you attempted to install Vista? What new hardware had you installed?

It appears the laptop is attempting to boot from a network device (PXE). Either the laptop can't find a working boot device (hard drive or CD/DVD drive) first or the boot order has changed. On try...

It could be a pinched cable or something else internal causing a short when power is applied. Another possibility is a defective voltage regulator chip on the motherboard or a chip that has a bad...

I believe all the light indicates is the board is receiving the 2.5v standby voltage that allows the RAM to maintain data while the computer is in standby mode. This is not a true indication thea...

Have you run through the steps in the My PC Won't Start sticky at the top of the forum? I do't think the heat sink would prevent the PC from booting unless it has already caused the processor to...

Did the problem start when you upgraded the motherboard? Some newer P4 /AMD Athlon motherboards have an additional 4-pin power connector on the board. If this isn not connected you will not be able...

This may sound like a silly question but is the game disk possibly a DVD? Does the CD drive read other CDs properly? Could be a defective game disk.

It could be a bad power supply, bad power switch, or a number of other things. Try running throught the steps in the My PC Won't Start sticky at the top of this forum if you have not do so already. ...

More information would be helpful to answer your question. Is the computer a laptop or a desktop? It really doesn't sound like a bad power supply but the easiest way to tell is try another known...

The attachment is not clear enough to read the text on my display, but if you are getting through POST and seeing an error you should be able to diagnose the problem fairly easily. If you have...

Sounds like the CPU fan may be defective or has dust in the bearings causing it to not spin or spin very slowly. I would replace this first. If the fan has been bad for a while, the processor may...

Sounds like a stuck key on the keyboard. What did you use to clean it? I would try another keyboard and see if the problem goes away.

It sounds like defective memory. You should run memtest from the boot prompt of a Knoppix CD or swap in some known good memory. If you still have the problem after verifying the memory, post back.

Press and hold the power button for about 6 seconds. If the power light continues to flash, disconnect the AC mains adapter and then remove the battery. Reconnect the AC mains adapter and press the...

When you say you removed the on-board graphics, I assume you are refering to removing the Display agapter in the Windows Device manager. Depending on your system, you may have a BIOS setting which...

More information is needed. What version of Windows? Have you added any new software, hardware, or external devices recently?

If the computer completes POST then it is not dead. It sounds like you may have a problem with the CD drive rather than the hard drive. You can't take a hard drive with Win XP installed from one...

Is this a laptop or desktop system? If it is a desktop system, are you using a PS2 keyboard and mouse or USB devices? PS2 connectors are round while USB are rectangular. Try using the opposite...

I would recommend checking the memory as well. Another possible cause could be a damaged processor. I had a similar problem with a Toshiba that would post but not complete installing the image from...

What operating system are you using? I don't see an option in Win XP to "hide" the desktop options. However if you right click on the desktop, select "Arrange Icons By" and uncheck the "Show...

The processor frequency is double the listed jumper setting so 100 bus = 200 processor core. Setting the jumpers to 166 bus should give you the 333 core required for your processor. According to...

When you restored the BIOS were the date and time wrong before the restore? If so you probably have a bad CMOS battery which would not keep power on the BIOS storage chip allowing the BIOS to clear...

First, are you sure Sony sent you the correct recovery CD set? It sounds like you may have a driver conflict problem. Another possibility is a memory error. If you can get the laptop to boot into...

What is the problem you are having with your laptop? What model is it? I would need a little more information before I could even attempt to answer your question.

According to the users' manual for the A20 posted on the Toshiba website, you need to turn the laptop off, then press the F12 key as you turn the laptop on to access the boot option menu. You should...

Here are some things to check before going any further.
1. Does the crash/freeze happen shortly after starting the computer, say within 10 minutes, or does it take longer before it happens? If it...

Last posibility to force the computer to enter the bios is to remove the hard drive and attempt to boot. You should receive an IDE 0 or other hard drive error and a prompt to press F1 (or F2) to...

Does it continue to freeze if the Corega USB ethernet adapter is uninstalled from device manager? Have you run memtest to verify it is not a RAM problem? You can run memtest from a knoppix CD.

Have you tried holding the F1 key down while you power the laptop up?

Corega driver should be available here:...

The laptop looks similar to an Compaq Presario 700 but not exactly like it. I also found some information that the laptop may be an NEC clone. If you don't feel the laptop is worth repairing, maybe...

Either the sound driver is not loaded, the sound device is not enabled in the BIOS, the sound is muted in the control panel, or the sound chip is defective.

Could be a bad cable or a bad solder connection where the video connector attaches to the mainboard. The main question is will the repair cost (parts and labor) exceed the value of the computer?

Sounds like you shorted the mainboard. Unless you have the proper electronic test equipment and are very skilled at soldering, you are probably looking at replacing the board.

If it's the original adapter that came with the laptop it should be correct. It soulds like there is a short in either the power board or the motherboard. What is the brand and model is the laptop?

A quick and easy way to determeine if the hard drive is the problem is to install it into another computer and try to format it. Another option (as one of the other answers suggested) is to run the...