Member Avatar for Katie**

Hi, my Dell Laptop won't respond and I don't know why.

It worked fine this morning and then I left it on for about an hour and when I came back it was just unresponsive. Even CTRL, ALT, Delete didn't do anything, so I had to turn it off at the switch.

When I turned it back on it loaded fully and as soon as i tried to click on a program became unresponsive again.

I turned if off again and turned it on a while later and after loading a blue screen came on and said there was a problem and it needed to shut down, and turned itself off.

When I turned it back on it did a system scan to check the disk for errors and then loaded fully. It worked for a short time and I run a full systen scan using AVG, it then became unresponsive again. I dont want to keep turning it off by the switch because that damages your computer aswell but am unsure what to do any help?

AVG found no threats or viruses and I only had a new hardrive fitted 4/5 months ago so I wouldn't have thought it was a problem with that.

Thanks, Katie

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Generated

As described, the machine went from usable to completely unresponsive and then produced a stop/blue-screen during boot. That pattern most often narrows to one of three areas: failing hardware (RAM or the drive), a low-level driver/service problem, or a resource‑starving conflict that surfaces when a full scan or program starts. Priority one: secure important files before running lengthy or stress‑inducing tests. Repeatedly flipping the external power switch is harder on the hardware than a single forced shutdown; if forced power‑off is needed, hold the laptop power button for ~5–10 seconds rather than toggling a wall or inline switch.

Practical triage steps (in order):

  1. Attempt Safe Mode (as suggested).

    • Vista/7: press F8 during POST to get Advanced Boot Options.
    • Windows 8: hold Shift and click Restart (or use recovery options) or enable Safe Boot via msconfig.
      Once in Safe Mode, run sfc /scannow from an elevated prompt and check Event Viewer (eventvwr.msc) for critical errors at the freeze times.

  2. Backup immediately if Windows is intermittently usable. If not, boot a clean USB environment (Linux live or Windows recovery) on another PC and copy personal files to an external drive.

  3. Hardware tests: run the Windows Memory Diagnostic (mdsched.exe) or Memtest86+ (bootable USB) for several passes. Check the drive’s SMART status from BIOS or a diagnostic utility; many tools will report reallocated/pending sector counts.

  4. Disk and driver checks: only after backing up, consider chkdsk C: /f /r (it can take hours and stresses a failing drive). Use a clean boot (msconfig -> hide Microsoft services -> disable non‑Microsoft services/startup) to isolate faulty software or drivers.

Collect these items before any deeper repair: the exact BSOD STOP code, any minidump files under C:\Windows\Minidump, Event Viewer error entries, Memtest results, and SMART report. Those details will pinpoint whether the fix is software (driver/repair/clean reinstall) or hardware replacement (RAM or drive).

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Member Avatar for finito

It sounds like malware.

Read this thread

Then post your query here

You may have to go into safe mode.

Member Avatar for Katie**

Thank you, I'll post it in the other thread, thought this was the right one for it. Read the read me before posting but i can't do what it says and download anything to my computer because my computer becomes unresponsive before I can open any programs.
katie

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