Hardware issues... laptop freezing up

[BurtonSnol3orde]

My laptop began acting strangely yesterday. The audio began freezing and cutting in and out. After that, the whole thing froze up. I couldn't ctrl-alt-del or anything. I eventually held the power button until it shut down. When i tried to restart the computer, it went to the press tab to post or del to edit bios. From there it wouldn't move. I tried pressing both del and tab, but nothing worked. I let it sit for a while and eventually got past that screen, but then it froze at the login of windows. I turned it off and restarted. This time it gave me the option to boot into safe mode. I managed to log all the way in and play a game of hearts while in safe mode. When I restarted from safe mode, it froze up again on the first screen saying "press tab to post..." After a long break this time I logged into windows and was able to open AIM and Firefox. After about 2 min, it froze again and I had to hold the power button to restart. I thought it was an overheating problem so i took the lappy apart and cleaned the fan and heat sink. That seemed to have no effect on the laptop. I've also tried booting with a different hard drive and got the same results. This leads me to believe that it is a hardware malfunction. Can anyone give me something to try in order to get it working again?

 

[Tmagic650]

You can't just swap hard drives unless they both have been setup as boot drives on the same hardware. You might try swapping memory and reinstall Windows

 

[BurtonSnol3orde]

why can't i swap hard drives? Both had working versions of XP on them. I know there would be driver conflicts, but it would still boot up. I still get the same freezing even before post. I'll try new memory tonight... I'll also try running knoppix and checking to see if I get any freezing with that.

Any other suggestions would be wonderful.

 

[Tmagic650]

In ideal conditions the other "spare" hard drive would boot to the Windows loading screen and freeze. Is this what you saw?

 

[BurtonSnol3orde]

Nope, It only went to the "press tab for post, press del for bios"

That screen used to stay on for 1-2 seconds and then it would begin the boot sequence. Now it freezes on that screen with both drives. On occasion I could get it to proceed past that screen but it would freeze at random points in the startup (on both drives) The different drive didn't seem to have an effect on where it woudl freeze. I managed to get to the login screen with both drives. But it would freeze shortly after.

 

[Tmagic650]

Go ahead and swap the memory when you can

 

[BurtonSnol3orde]

Just an update. After work today, I came home and it booted right up. I was able to use it for approx 2 min before it began freezing up. It would work for a while and then freeze for 2-3 seconds. Then it would work for 2-3 seconds, then freeze 2-3 seconds. That lasted for about another minute. Finally, it froze up completely.

 

[Tmagic650]

Is this on the AC adapter? If so try removing the battery and see what happens. A bad battery can cause this even if you are on AC power with the battery installed

 

[BurtonSnol3orde]

Alright, exact same results with new stick of ram. Exact same results on battery power. This is getting pretty ridiculous. Any other tests that I can try?
Thanks for all the comments so far!

 

[Tmagic650]

You might try removing the CD ROM, or network adapters and USB devices

 

[BurtonSnol3orde]

Same results minus the cd-drive, network adapters, and usb devices. It started freezing up at the login screen, but managed to boot up. It worked fine until I started a AV scan and a movie. That managed to get it to freeze up. Please offer more ideas to test.

Thanks,