Are we not supposed to transport laptops while they are on?

I put my new laptop (msi gx640) in hybernation mode, then put it in my backpack and when i opened it at school, i got an error saying windows wasnt correctly turned off. now windows (windows 7 64 bit) doesnt start

 

Most laptops will either hibernate or go to sleep when the lid is closed at which point it is safe to transport them. If this doesn't happen and your computer has a hard drive, then no, you should not transport it or at least take care not to shake it too much. Hard drives don't like acceleration and they like it a lot less when they're on than when they're off. With an SSD, it probably doesn't matter although you should still be careful if you close the screen and it's not off/asleep/hibernating because it might overheat.

EDIT: What I meant to say was that you should be fine as long as it did not wake up. And what do you mean it will not start? At which point does it get stuck?

 

Sleep is not safe for transport unless its S3 sleep.

S2 or S1 sleep can fry your laptop to death.

Hibernate is safe.

Google around, there are more than enough stories of people that nuked there laptop well into 100+ degree temps causing thermal shutdown by putting a laptop in sleep and then bagging it.

The results varies from big scares to instant laptop death.

 

I get an error that says windows couldnt start and then 2 options:

- Run Startup Repair (which is running right now and taking forever, although it says "several minutes)

-start windows in normal mode, which then does some file updates (like 120k files) then the screen goes black and i get bored and turn it off...

At first I transported it in my backpack and my back felt really warm.. when I got to my place it was VERY hot, but still worked thank god.

That was stupid of me but its my first laptop so I had no idea that would be bad

If it turns on then I can assume it didnt burn to death right?

 

yep you can assume that

does not mean no damage was done or the life of something was not shortened, but if it still works just go with it as being paranoid about possible damage is not going to fix anything.

 

it was only in my bag for like 40 mins, its not like i took it on a pilgrimage

but what now...? start up repair has been running for about 20 mins.. all it says is "attempting repairs"

 

Sounds like your MSI power management software is buggy - was this the latest version installed?

Could also be other programs/hardware that caused the power management driver to error out.

With my U30Jc, I upgraded all the drivers on Day 2 of testing it - the sleep/hibernate issue was much like yours - when I reinstalled the O/S but didn't upgrade to the buggy newer power management software (Power4Gear, in my case) the computer has been rock stable ever since - even though I've now upgraded to a much newer P4G version.

As Althernai said, make sure that the computer is really off (and not 'almost' there) before putting it in an enclosed space like a backpack.

What specific error messages does it show?

I would remove the power plug, remove the battery, press the power buttons with no power connected a few times, let the machine sit there for at least 30 minutes and then keep hitting F8 after the BIOS loads.

When the Windows Boot option screen comes up: choose 'last known good configuration'.


To me, it sounds like you've really overheated your system (how long does it take you to get to school?) - the above might get it to boot, but I would be selling this system off pronto (if you need/depend on it for your livelihood).

It may also be that it totally drained the battery too - have you tried with the power cord plugged in?

Edit: Just saw the rest of the replies (ignore the irrelevent parts above).

Good luck.

 

no way? i cant even return it? how do i know for sure if its really that bad?

 

Take something that has a potential heat output of like 200F and relies on fresh cool air to keep it cool, now jam it into a bag and cut off every source of cooling it has.

40 minutes is more than enough time to make something thermally shut down if it was in full on mode. Even if it was just in a S1 or S2 sleep and slowly building up heat in 40 minutes I think that would be more than enough to get to danger zone.

Stuff like your CPU & GPU are pretty resilient to heat, they will shut themselves off or throttle due to heat in normal situations.

If heat damage happened its probably something like the hard drive that would go first, and that would also explain the system working but yet not running properly. As you cant boot/post with no CPU/GPU but if you had a dead hdd it could very well boot and just never get into windows or run correctly.

 

ok heres more info..
after I took it out the bag and it was very hot, I opened the window and let it sit there. Later on it worked fine. Second time I transported it, I must have correctly put it in hibernation mode as opposed to last time because when I took it out the bag it wasnt hot at all or even warm, the battery was just low (after about 40 mins too), but when I turned it on it said windows wasnt turned off correctly

obviously then its not an overheating problem?....

 

Oh, you'll know by random errors happening for no reason.

What I would do to check it out is this (at the minimum):


1) Re-install the O/S - this will rule out any essential files being corrupted and giving miscellaneous errors that will be hard/impossible to track down otherwise.

2) Check the RAM for errors.

Reboot, after the BIOS loads keep hitting F8 until the Windows Boot menu appears and then press the ESC key. This will take you into Diagnostics - use the TAB key to select Check Memory and when it finishes, it will reboot into Windows and let you know if any errors were detected.

3) Run a full Chkdsk on your disk(s) and partitions.

Right click on a drive in explorer, select properties, tools, error checking and check off both boxes. Make sure you do this for all drives/partitions you have available and then reboot. Do not touch the computer until it finishes checking the drives fully.

4) With the above tests done, I would feel a little better about installing my own apps/data and fully updating Windows via Windows Update.


Still... I would sell this particular system, myself.

Best of luck to you.

 

Yeah sounds like you may just have a laptop that does not like to wake from hybernate, or it did overheat and actually shut itself off.

If its the first issue just fixing drivers and updating all your stuff on your laptop and OS may fix it.

If its the second.... just keep an eye on it and see if it happens again (heats up in the bag)

 

I am doing system restore right now, hopefully it works afterwards. And I should blame the store I bought it from because it had no freaking manual so I had no idea how to properly go to hibernation mode or even restart/turn it off. And why is everyone telling me to sell it? Isnt there a way to make sure its not a useless piece of junk right now or if it just needs some reinstallings? and cant I just get a refund? (incase it still doesnt work, if it does I wanna make sure its not that bad first)

edit: oh damn:

System Restore did not complete successfully. Your computer's system files and settings were not changed.

Details:
An unspecified error occurred during System Restore. (ox800700b7)


EDIT AGAIN
this is so weird.. at first it said system restore wasnt successful, so I click cancel and laptops restarts.. now windows successfully starts and tells me system restore was successful..

 

Do yourself a favor and backup all up all your files. You may want to do a clean install to make sure you have a clean system. Why not just shut down your computer and restart?

 

lol i luckily i dont even have any files to backup
, but how am I supposed to reinstall windows when it came with the laptop?.. Are you referring to making a recovery dvd? but wouldnt that be a bit pointless as id just be recovering it to the same state it was in before?

I might be returning this thing eitherways because the DVD rom is loud as hell

 

Reinstall from a Windows disk. Unfortunately many laptops these days don't come with one. You can download and burn one though.

That's just the way they are.

 

nope trust me this isnt normal, it was loud enough for people in other rooms to hear it

and to tilleroftheearth: would you still recommend selling it even if its working now?

 

I think you may have missed my post #11 above?

To re-install Windows on most notebooks today, either press F10, ALT F10 or F11 while it is rebooting (preferably from a cold boot).

Glad to see it's working now - still need to check it though.

Edit: And the point of a re-install is to ensure that system files on the installed O/S are not corrupted. (Hopefully, files that are just 'stored' and not in use while you toasted the system won't be affected, on the usually hidden 'restore' partition).

 

The Windows 7 splash screen when windows is starting up kinda flashes/distorts real quick before I am taken to the welcome screen, do you think that means some files might be corrupt?

And if I run all these tests, would that insure that no damage to other parts besides the HDD/RAM was done due to it overheating that one time? I have a feeling it wouldnt, since you still recommened me selling it after listing those steps

thanks

 

To do/run those tests is the minimum I would do...

No guarantee that other parts weren't affected, to do that I would download IntelBurnTest, put the notebook on a good cooler (like a Zalman) and run IntelBurn for at least 15 minutes, but not longer than 30 minutes.

If it can pass that test on a new Windows reinstall, (along with the 'smell test' - no burnt, crispy smelling electronices while it is running), then it is probably safe to continue using it. No 'normal' use will make it work that hard again.

I didn't recommend that you sell it - I said I would (I depend on my computers for my livelihood, after all).

 

Well theres no way for me to reinstall windows sadly, when I press F11 (f8 doesnt do anything) i am just taken to a BOOT menu and from there I can go to BIOS settings.

And what about the GPU? How do I check if thats not damaged?

And I still dont get what you're getting at with livelihood, a lil vague

 

You don't search very well...

See:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/msi/505061-msi-gx640-broken-recovery-disk.html


Try F3 on your MSI system and see if it can reload Windows for you.

(Livelyhood: what we do to put food on our tables, a roof over our heads and some cash in our pockets. When you depend on tools like computers to earn your livelyhood, then your number one concern should be that you can depend on those tools).

 

F3 wouldnt work for me because sadly I didnt backup the system when I first used the laptop : (

and I know what livelyhood means lol, what I didnt understand was whether you were saying that I can no longer depend on it after the overheating/not booting up incident, which is my current concern right now as on Page 1 someone said that some of the components might have had their life shortened. Are we talking shortened from 5 to 4 years or what exactly

 

Nobody knows. It could be that it wasn't shortened at all and it could be that it'll only last less than a year. It's impossible to predict the effect of heating a laptop up to the point where the entire thing overheats (the CPU and GPU can usually handle it, the rest of the machine not so much). My guess is that it should be fine, but this is not guaranteed.

Some advice: in the future, just turn it off before you put it in your backpack. The sleep/hibernate function is clearly doing something it should not be doing.

 

Can't you tell by busting the laptop open and taking a look at the CPU/GPU?

Also that Chkdsk test... whats the point of a test if I dont get any results? It took like an hour to check my OS Drive and then it restarted and windows booted up...

And I think Ill just never use sleep or hibernate ever again, even though im pretty sure I didnt even use them that one time, all I just was press the power button and the screen went black so I was like "oh cool stuff". Windows takes less than a minute to boot up anyways

 

On a laptop, I would make sure wake timers are 100% disabled from within Windows. I'm lucky I wasn't transporting my old laptop the one time Vista decided to wake itself up for a defrag while the lid was shut and I thought it was asleep. Also lucky the heat from the HDD didn't damage anything.

 

You never know

 

No. The CPU is pretty heat resistant; you usually have to go a good deal out of your way to fry one. The GPU is less so, but it's still pretty durable. The problem is that when you trap the heat in a closed laptop and on top of that it's in a closed bag, you run the chance of overheating the other parts, most notably the hard drive.

 

And I never will, since I sold the laptop for other reasons (mostly the reason in the second line of my sig).

 

You don't need to back up the system for F3 to work. You back up the system so that you can still do a restore if the HDD crashes (what you're actually doing is backing up the 'hidden' restore partition).

Did you fully shut down the system (I'd leave it at least a minute 'off')?

If you just did a reboot, you may not be given the chance to go into System Recovery mode.

As mentioned, can't say how much it was shortened by - for all we know this system could still be functioning perfectly into the next decade.

Don't give up on hibernate and/or sleep modes just yet! Just make sure you have it fully working on your system and have the latest utilities / apps installed from MSI so that they don't glitch on you again.

Especially make sure the system has fully powered down before putting it in your backpack again.

Good luck.

 

Honestly I think no damage has been done now, OS Recovery appears to be working.

What bothers me though is why didnt my laptop automatically shut down when it got really hot that time?

edit: Recovery is done but when Windows 7 is booting up the splash screen (windows logo and the text "windows is starting") doesnt fade out but rather flashes in a weird way.. does that have something to do with the GPU?

 

It's possible that the solder could have packed up a bit when it got hot, badly connected GPU's generally show screwy things like what you mentioned.

 

Weird though that that screwy thing is always the exact same thing? And is it possible to safely reconnect the GPU or is it a lot of work?

 

You have to take off the heatsink and give it a few minutes with a hot air gun to melt the solder again. It's risky and not something you'd want to try unless you're sure it's the connection that's the problem.

 

Just a clarification:

From what you have posted...
You didn't do an O/S recovery, you did a 'repair'. That would not have fixed any corrupted video driver files.

If you didn't get to the screen where it welcomes you, asks for your name, the name of your computer and the wireless key, then you did not perform a 'recovery'.

 

From what i am reading, the second time you put it in your bag and it wasn't warm when you took it out and the battery was low means you didnt turn it off properly a second time and it simply shut down due to a low battery.

 

let me clarify the last 30ish posts....

YOU NEED TO REINSTALL WINDOWS!!!


wth the size function doesn't work??

 

Read through the GX640 owners lounge. The hibernation problem has been documented and can be fixed with updating the vBIOS.

As for thermal damage. the 5850 has a hardware safety switch that shuts off the computer at 108C. However if you left it in the bag at that temp with no way to cool off afterwards it may be damaged.

Do a full restore for now, then see if Windows acts funny.

If you're not comfortable with the repair process take it to a technical person.

 

I do not see how overheating results in a need to install windows.

Its ether a hibernation issue like I mentioned and Bearclaw just reinforced, or a hardware failure that installing the OS again will not fix.

 

Man, let me just say if MSI has done nothing to improve build quality from the gx630 to the gx640 then this is not a good first notebook.
Its really more fragile than I thought a laptop could be manufactured. I mean the plastic reminds me of something you would see on a 14" toshiba pentium M laptop.
Dude, be careful with that thing. Thats all I can say.

 

Well.. they're gonna send me a new one soon, because thankfully other things were defect.. like the built in microphone and camera

and the build didn't look cheap to me to be honest

 

Maybe I'm just used to clevos, but Im thinking it will definitely be better than the gx630. there is seriously no way a notebook that powerful could be so flimsy.
I should get mine today

 

not sure if sarcastic

 

dont get your hopes up, its the same chassis, with the same problem on the touchpad, keyboard.

some say that the cooling has been redone, which is a great thing

 

The answer to OP question is: We are supposed to transport laptops even when they are on

 

I think you misunderstood me, mobilestationary
I was saying if the chassis is actually the same as the gx630 then I fail to see how anyone from MSI actually got it into production thinking it was a good idea.

but I'm happy to say it is not the same chassis at all. I've just been checking out my new gx640 and although it does look almost identical to the gx630, there have undoubtedly been major revisions to increase the rigidity of the entire case.
I'm quite happy with it.

what I was saying about clevos is that of course my m860tu is a bit more solidly built. I was hoping I hadn't gotten too used to a different standard so to speak.

no sarcasm, just ramblings about build quality

now this statement....

...is a different story...