Inspiron 5160 boot up problem the other day--anything to worry about?

Question

A day or 2 ago my computer seemed to freeze on the screen before the welcome screen--I forget what it says but something about that it is loading. It just seemed to stay there for a minute or more. I finally hit ctrl, alt del, and that got it to move on to the welcome screen and finish booting. But it apparently didn't load everything so I kept getting error messages that stuff wasn't available. I couldn't print, etc. I was rushing to try to do something but after that I did restart and then it seemed to boot normally. I then used my external hard drive to run Retrospect Express HD backup--just in case. I'm wondering why it would do that hang on boot up and whether this might indicate something is going wrong? Tech support replaced the motherboard a few months ago because there was an intermittent connection via the ethernet port which was affected by pressing on the connector. So it was probably a problem with the connector having come loose and they said it was connected to the mother board. So they ordered the part and sent a contract tech out to install it. He also installed the replacement CD/DVD drive that had been sent because the tray didn't alway open properly. He also put in a CD and upgraded the BIOS to I think its A09. It was A07. But he didn't know what he was doing on that and after he left I couldn't cononect at all. I had to call Dell twice to get it working right. He didn't set it so that it could boot from the CD or another place--something like that and I forget what the other problem was. Ever since though I've noticed that sometimes the fan will be cycling like its going in surges. And sometimes it will be running which I guess means that the computer is doing something in the background, even when I'm not doing anything in particular. Although right now it is very quiet. And another thing I wonder if Windows changed something when I did the last updates since now, although I have Firefox set as the default, sometimes an IE window will appear for some reason so I wonder if it is trying to run both or something. I also try to use the CA firewall cache cleaner very frequently which usually will clear out about 10-15 MB almost every day. And I have defragmented the HD recently. Also I have lots of free HD space--I think it shows about 70% free. ======================================================= Inspiron 5160, 2.8 gHz with hyper threading, WinXP Home SP2 (with recent updates), 1 GB RAM, CA Internet Security, Adaware, CD/RW DVD combo drive 60 GB, 4200, Hitachi warranty replacement HD. Firefox browser.

ejn63 · Answer

A thorough run of the Dell diagnostics, including the extended test on the hard drive,is in order. F12 at powerup.

KathiMR · Answer

Thanks. I seem to remember using that when it malfunctioned before--I think when the HD was failing. Also, just in case, since I previously had the HD fail within about the 1st 6-8 mo of owning this and I hadn't backed everything up (I wasn't yet used to XP and the way that it stores the data in a different place than the program folder so had backed up my email program--not the data, etc. And I also have learned the hard way that some things that we may use to back things up really aren't the best when there is a failure. So, is the type of back up that Retrospect Express does to my external HD with various restore points, the type of back up that would allow me to easily restore stuff in the event of a failure? I remember previously Dell just sent me a new blank HD which I had to install and then they walked me through re-installing XP on the phone and then there was all the rest of the stuff to install. I don't want to have to go through that again--particularly since there are a lot of programs installed in support of something else and I'm not even sure what they all are any more. Thanks. I'll probably see about running those diagnostics tomorrow if I have time--its a little late now to get started on it.

KathiMR · Answer

Thanks again. I ran the express tests and then most of the specific tests that could have anything to do with what I experienced and it passed all of them. So does that mean that everything should be ok? Also, are the kinds of backups that have various restore points going to be useful and really enable me to recover what was on my computer easily in the case of failure? I learned the hard way previously that what I had been using wasn't a reliable method. Anything else I should check? I use my firewall's clean cache function regularly. Also I defragment the HD periodically.

Message Edited by KathiMR on 01-28-2008 11:36 PM

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