stumped!!

[fraggle]

ok im hoping maybe one of u clever ppl can give me some advice, ive got an old IBM T22 thinkpad laptop, the damn thing just wont behave rationally, sometimes it boots n sometimes it doesnt, sometimes it runs for 3 hours before crashing sometimes the moment it boots up it crashes, ragardless of what programs im running it just keeps doing it lol ive tried reformatting, reinstalling xp, reinstalling 98se and nothing seems to work, im at a loss so im guessing its some serious hardware problem. the laptops speed is fine, when it does actually boot it boots pretty rapidly and when running its pretty damn quick for what it is but it just restarts its self without warning, completel;y crashes n freezes, im no computer genius but this is the first time ive been totally stumped! anyone got any idea or should i just bin the thing n buy a new one? lol cheers fraggz

[Thong_Ispector]

One thing that comes to mind is cpu temp

Short of pulling the keyboard and physically checking the thermal grease between the cpu and the heat sink you can set it on a cool pad to try and keep the heat down and see if it changes it in some way.

I use a cool pad all the time ( 3/4" plate with two fans that run off the usb port power)

Heat in the confines of a notebook pc is probably the number one cause of problems, (aside from dropping them)

[fraggle]

possible because it does feel like the air coming from the fan does feel somewhat "hot" even after just a minute or so of operation, but could it be something so simple causing so many problems? lol

[Thong_Ispector]

In a word..

YES...

[fraggle]

ok well the strupid things booted fine so im just skipping through a few dianostic programs just to double check theres no obvious faults, but the things been running fine for the past hour lol it confuses the hell outta me, its running fine, only thing different is the lan isnt connected, dunno if the network card could have developed a fault????

[JANINE]

wahey!!! somebody else with an old IBM thinkpad. man i like you, i thought i was the only one that had one that still worked. mine also has a tendancy to misbehave occasionally and i have put mine doen to being just a tad too warm. the advice you have been given is right but as you know its not easy when you have 1 usb port. do this anyway even for a short time just to get the cpu temp down.

also id suggest going into your BIOS and seeing what your cpu temp is running at. i've found mine to crash when it reaches 45 degrees plus which is rare.:D