I wonder if someone might be able to offer advice on a problem I had recently on my Vostro 1510 (Running XP Pro.).
Weeks ago the laptop decided to lock up solid while I was using it. No BSOD, no motherboard beeps, just the screen locks up as if I took a screenshot and sat there looking at it. Non responsive to commands. I was able to use the laptop for about 20-30 minutes at a time a few times after the first time it locked up, but each time I did it would eventually lock up in the same fashion.
After a few days, the laptop began freezing more quickly; now, it would often freeze as soon as the XP log in screen came up. Sometimes I was able to log in and browse around for 30 seconds or so before it froze but it may as well have been instantaneous. I thought this must be a hardware issue, so to confirm I booted into safe mode sure it would freeze the same way... but it didn't. In safe mode I left the thing running for hours without it freezing. So, I turned off everything in startup and started XP normally. Froze the same way. Having played around with it long enough I figured I'd just format and throw on a fresh copy of XP.
It freezes installing XP.
I formatted, and get as far in the install process as asking for Owner/CD key, and in typing these the laptop will freeze in the same way within a few seconds. For the hell of it I reseated the RAM at this point, no help.
The laptop running fine in safe mode led me to rule out hardware issues, but then how can it lock up installing the OS? It must be hardware after all, I suppose.
Thoughts?
