Expert: Chris Morrison Date: 6/21/2008 Subject: Drive Stability
Question I'm having trouble understanding what's going on here... I own a Toshiba Protege M400 laptop and I carry it around with me very often for school and work so it gets beat up some times. Now I think it all that traveling has finally taken its toll on my notebook.
When I boot my computer, most of the time it will only "turn on" with the fan full blast, no video, the wifi led off and the hard drive led not showing any activity... which is exactly what happens when the computer is booted without the hard drive.
After holding the power button to restart the machine 5-10 times, the computer finally starts, all leds show activity and windows starts normally.
Also, every now and then when I leave my laptop on for a very long time (24hrs), it reverts to the loud fan/no video state.
I have tried a few things hoping it would resolve this issue.
1) I removed the hard drive, blew out the small amount of dust that was in the compartment and put the drive back in.
2) I wiped the entire drive, put linux on it to see if it might have been a corrupt OS causing this problem
3) Wiped it again to put windows back on it.
... and the problem relentlessly keeps coming back!
The warranty has expired, so that's not an option.
Now I want to sell this laptop but can't except for parts.
I'm hoping replacing the drive with a new one will fix this problem but I'd like a second opinion.
What do you think?
Thank you very much,
JP
Answer Purchase some canned air from an office supply store.
Remove the panel above the keyboard. The might be a screw on the under side for each side of it. Then you'll have to use a small flathead screwdriver to pop the tabs off at the top of the keyboard. Lay the monitor flat on its back and take off the pannel. Remove the keyboard. Use the canned air to blow everything out. If you can see the fans get them really good. Blow out all the vents. Pay attention to where the dust comes out when cleaning as you want to get at that spot really well.
I think the problem is only a dust builup though. Dust buildup in the fans and/or system board can cause all sorts of problems. That could be why the system fans are running full throttle and not booting.
