My Thinkpad laptop appears to be dying. It has exhibited strange behavior for the last few weeks, though I've added no new software or hardware.
Several days ago, it froze during shutdown and I powered the machine off to turn it off. The next day, when I powered up again, the Windows XP splash screen appeared and then the screen went dark, no blinking cursor or anything. I powered down again, booted into Safe Mode, then performed a System Restore to a week earlier and was able to start Windows in normal mode. This happened twice. When it happened the third time, however, Windows announced that it could not perform a System Restore because the 80Gb hard drive was full, and Explorer showed that there were only 127Mb free on the hard drive (there should have been 34Gb). I booted into Safe Mode again without running System Restore, and ran a full system scan with Norton Antivirus. The system was clean, and after the scan the hard drive suddenly showed 34Gb free again. System Restore, however, now showed no restore points available when there had been at least six in the past two weeks.
I've run tests using PC Doctor (IBM's diagnostic utility) and there appear to be no problems with the hard drive, the CPU, or the RAM. I currently have Windows in Safe Mode and am wondering if any of you experts out there have any suggestions about what might be going on with my laptop. Any suggestions would be welcome.
I should mention that I haven't been able to locate my Windows XP CD, though I haven't yet done a thorough search of my apartment....
Several days ago, it froze during shutdown and I powered the machine off to turn it off. The next day, when I powered up again, the Windows XP splash screen appeared and then the screen went dark, no blinking cursor or anything. I powered down again, booted into Safe Mode, then performed a System Restore to a week earlier and was able to start Windows in normal mode. This happened twice. When it happened the third time, however, Windows announced that it could not perform a System Restore because the 80Gb hard drive was full, and Explorer showed that there were only 127Mb free on the hard drive (there should have been 34Gb). I booted into Safe Mode again without running System Restore, and ran a full system scan with Norton Antivirus. The system was clean, and after the scan the hard drive suddenly showed 34Gb free again. System Restore, however, now showed no restore points available when there had been at least six in the past two weeks.
I've run tests using PC Doctor (IBM's diagnostic utility) and there appear to be no problems with the hard drive, the CPU, or the RAM. I currently have Windows in Safe Mode and am wondering if any of you experts out there have any suggestions about what might be going on with my laptop. Any suggestions would be welcome.
I should mention that I haven't been able to locate my Windows XP CD, though I haven't yet done a thorough search of my apartment....
