I run a Dell Latitude L400, Windows 2000. Recently I’ve had a string of really nasty crashes—I mean brutal—and I’m hoping someone reading this might be able to shed some light.
The scenario: it typically happens when I’m doing something fairly memory-intensive: Photoshop, creating a PDF, browsing a really dense Web site. But it has occassionally happened on more vanilla sites too. Not restricted to any one browser, though Mozilla seems most vulnerable. The system shuts down—shuts down completely, screen goes blank, fan dies—with an audible “click.” That’s it—I’ve got to reboot and of course I lose whatever was in progress. Sometimes it’s repeatable—I go back to the same Web site, re-open the image I was working on in Photoshop and perform the same operation . . . wham, down we go again.
Needless to say this is freaking me out. I fear it may be hard drive-related, which is something I ought to know something about, but being able to talk about the ins and outs of aerial density and RLL encoding doesn’t necessarily mean you can troubleshoot your own platter. So, ideas anyone? I’d be grateful—and, ahem, I don’t need to be told to go get a Mac or run Linux!
Posted by mgk at March 26, 2004 08:15 PMwell since you request not to hear the truth, i'll respect that... i advise changing out your ram chip, also your computer is old... it is time to whipe and reinstall. that will extend the seeming life of the hd. but really to me it sounds like severe memory corruption.
Posted by: jeremy hunsinger at March 26, 2004 08:37 PM | Link to CommentSo you think it's in the RAM (as opposed to the HD)?
Posted by: MGK at March 26, 2004 11:45 PM | Link to CommentI have basically the same laptop that you do, Matt, and when it starts to get overly wunky (which it does), I just backup all the data and re-install the OS from scratch. (Time consuming, I know.) I have not had the exact problem you describe, however, so I defer to those with more expertise in hardware.
By the way, my next computer is going to be an Apple.
Posted by: George at March 27, 2004 09:19 AM | Link to CommentThis sounds more likely to be a power management issue, such as an internal cable fault. Is your battery in good shape? A dying battery plus an intermittent power supply might be sending your machine spontaneously into power-related shutdown.
That said, jeremy is right. It sounds like your machine is more than 2 years old, in which case it's getting time to think about a replacement. If it's more than 30 months old, for a professional, it's high time.
Posted by: Mark Bernstein at March 27, 2004 12:18 PM | Link to CommentYou reallly ought to just get a Mac, you know.
;-)
Posted by: Ross at April 1, 2004 01:14 AM | Link to CommentI'm having the same problem with my L400.
And I AM running Linux!!
It's not windows, or too much software, it's a hardware glitch in the laptop. It's not the hard drive, as swaping doesn't help. It's not the battery (as you probably know as well). It's not power management because it happens even when that is disabled. My only guess is the ram or the main board. I'm guessing it's the ram.
-Jeremy
P.S. Don't get a Mac!!
(Someone had to disagree with you guys!)
Ah, finally someone who can empathize!
I'm now happily running an x300; but, Jeremy, if you're able to find any more documentation about this I'd still be very interested to see it.
Posted by: MGK at August 18, 2004 02:32 PM | Link to Comment