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Dell 2600 Dies Trying Long Processes

Locked

I have a repeat return- a Dell 2600 Inspiron- owner complained of bad 20gb Hitachi harddrive. I checked out the computer and decided it needed reformatting and reinstall of software. Everything worked fine until several day’s use on the net and ran antivirus check. (AVG free) Displayed a message something bad happened during check. Everything was messed up- wouldn’t boot- had to reformat again and reload… worked fine until trying to download an update on Zonealarm- computer locked up 19 minutes into download (dialup connection) now will have to reformat again because it wouldn’t get past XP splash screen.
Any ideas?

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Sounds like

In reply to Dell 2600 Dies Trying Long Processes

You have a heat related failure of the hard drive chip on the mother board. I’ve experienced this on other dell laptops, and at first it doaes manifest itself as a hard drive failure and will be temporarily cured with a new hard drive. It will continue to exhibit faults when trying to format the new drive, sometimes completing it, but failing to boot from it. These mother boards are difficult to repair and not for any but a skilled service tech to attempt. They are multi layered and easy to damage beyond repair. A hard drive diagnostic will run a lengthy test that will cause a lockup that will require a re-boot, and a failure to restart.

Thanks

In reply to Sounds like

Thank you for your reply; I’ll see what I can do about it.

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