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    m1530 has become unresponsive, where to start?

    Discussion in 'Dell XPS and Studio XPS' started by scofmonkey79, Jun 17, 2009.

  1. scofmonkey79

    scofmonkey79 Newbie

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    Hello, recently I was using my XPS 1530 under normal circumstances when out of nowhere it started to become unresponsive and internet explorer froze. I had to manually turn off the power and then restarted. The laptop installed some Windows updates and I figured all would be well.

    Well, I was wrong. Ever since then my laptop is extremely slow and programs such as internet explorer refuse to start. The problem is worse when my wireless card is active. For some reason all my restore points are gone as well. I dont know if I picked up a virus or if my HDD is starting to die. Most frustrating is the fact that I can't run any diagnostics without the laptop freezing or becoming horribly slow.

    So, my problem is I dont even know where to start on how to fix this. My last resort would be to re-format my HDD and see if that fixes it but I dont want to do anything that drastic yet. Any ideas would be helpful seeing as I dont feel like dealing with Dell support yet. Thanks in advance.
     
    scofmonkey79, Jun 17, 2009
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  2. joey-t

    joey-t Notebook Consultant

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    Any Eventviewer errors?

    Boot to Safemode to see if the sluggishness stops.
     
    joey-t, Jun 18, 2009
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  3. scofmonkey79

    scofmonkey79 Newbie

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    Not sure what event viewer is; rebooting in safe mode doesnt help either. Also, when the laptop is doing its unresponsiveness thing the hard drive light is constantly on and there is a slight ticking every second or so comming from the hard drive bay area.
     
    scofmonkey79, Jun 18, 2009
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  4. joey-t

    joey-t Notebook Consultant

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    Start > Run and type Eventvwr
    Click on Custom Views and then Administrator Events
    In the Administrative Events window there might be error messages that will help.

    Booting to Safemode generally rules out software/driver problems.
    Since you still have a problem in Safemode then hardware or bios problems becomes more likely.
    But you really need to run a virus scan.
    Try an online scanner like Kaspersky

    http://www.kaspersky.com/virusscanner
     
    joey-t, Jun 18, 2009
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  5. Cin'

    Cin' Anathema

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    I think if you can't sort out the above..you should do a clean install.
    It should help... ;)
    And, then if it doesn't take advantage of XPS TechSupport, etc.:
    Dell Vista Laptop Reformat and Bloatware Removal Guide:
    http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=157838

    Cin ;) :)
     
    Cin', Jun 18, 2009
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  6. Relativity17

    Relativity17 Notebook Evangelist

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    Get your data backed up (yes, before doing anything else). Then boot the OS disk and run chkdsk.

    It sounds like physical trouble to me.
     
    Relativity17, Jun 18, 2009
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  7. scofmonkey79

    scofmonkey79 Newbie

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    Ok guys I will try some of the above and then update later on. Thanks.
     
    scofmonkey79, Jun 18, 2009
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  8. Cin'

    Cin' Anathema

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    Yes, please advise when complete...FYI..I was having some similar problems with my 1530..I did a clean install, and all has been working great since then.

    It also helped, that I updated my Bios on my lappy! ;)


    Cin ;) :)
     
    Cin', Jun 18, 2009
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  9. scofmonkey79

    scofmonkey79 Newbie

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    Well, after attempting for hours to run diagnostics and virus scans I gave up and did a clean install of Vista. Fast forward a few hours and now I have everything working again. Must have picked up a virus or something...
     
    scofmonkey79, Jun 18, 2009
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  10. Cin'

    Cin' Anathema

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    Wasted hours are not fun.... :(

    At least things are working now for you, going forward! ;) :cool:


    Cin ;) :)
     
    Cin', Jun 18, 2009
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