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  • Blue bar of death

    My laptop has been running Startup Repair for 2 1/2 hours now. Has anyone else experienced this? I read in a forum soneone had let it go for 3 1/2 DAYS. *sigh*
    "Is it hot in here to you? It's very warm, isn't it?"--Nero, probably

  • #2
    Must have missed this in the early am hours, FL. How did it turn out?

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    • #3
      I tried to do a factory reset and now it says "no bootable device". I give up. I didn't pay for it, so I'm not likely to sink $ into it. I am getting a new charger for my tablet tomorrow and I will just use that.
      "Is it hot in here to you? It's very warm, isn't it?"--Nero, probably

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      • #4
        I'll second that. Or if not dead, then boogered completely up in need a re-install of an OS.
        But the paint on me is beginning to dry
        And it's not what I wanted to be
        The weight on me
        Is Hanging on to a weary angel - Sister Hazel

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        • #5
          Don't give up! There are kids down in Illinois who would kill for a laptop!

          First step would be to see if the BIOS recognizes a hard drive. If so, we can look toward a reinstall. If not, I'm assuming you won't want to replace the hard drive in a freebie. (Pedantic Pre-emption: yes, I'm aware that there are instances where the bios won't see a perfectly good drive. Low order in a laptop, especially spontaneously, and we'll rule out one here pretty quickly.)

          If you know how to access the bios, look in there and see if your hard drive is listed. Also check to see if the date and time are correct. Don't change any settings, and choose the "Exit Without Saving Changes" or equivalent and shoot us an update when you like.

          Couple of starter questions:
          What's the make and model of your lappy?
          What kind of software (ie., CDs/DVDs) came with it?
          Battery good last time it worked?
          Does it have USB and/or an optical drive?

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          • #6
            Toshiba Satellite, no discs that I know of (but stepmom isn't computer-savvy, either), battery is ok--she's had to replace it or the charger, or something; I don't know, has USB, don't know what an optical drive is.
            "Is it hot in here to you? It's very warm, isn't it?"--Nero, probably

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            • #7
              Quoth Food Lady View Post
              don't know what an optical drive is.
              Laser reading drive like CD, DVD, or Blu-ray.
              I AM the evil bastard!
              A+ Certified IT Technician

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              • #8
                CD, yeah. I don't know if it does DVDs; I hadn't thought about that.
                "Is it hot in here to you? It's very warm, isn't it?"--Nero, probably

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                • #9
                  Quoth Food Lady View Post
                  don't know what an optical drive is.
                  Quoth lordlundar View Post
                  Laser reading drive like CD, DVD, or Blu-ray.
                  Quoth Food Lady View Post
                  CD, yeah. I don't know if it does DVDs; I hadn't thought about that.
                  The "non-exotic" types of optical drive you're likely to find in a laptop:

                  CD read-only
                  CD burner (might be "write once", but most can also handle rewritable disks)
                  DVD read-only (also reads CDs)
                  CD/DVD combo (read-only DVD, reads and writes CDs
                  DVD burner (might be "write-once", might handle "+" rewritables, might handle "-" rewritables, might handle both kinds of rewritables)

                  Blu-ray: substitute BR for DVD in any of the above.
                  Any fool can piss on the floor. It takes a talented SC to shit on the ceiling.

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                  • #10
                    Well, some good news anyway: I downloaded a word program and youtube to my tablet, so I can use it for a while. I'm not even sure I need the laptop at this point. I'll hold onto it for a while. ETA: I just accidentally dropped the tablet and the dipole of the charger broke off in it. Well, it had a good 2-year run. I guess I have to pay to fix the laptop now; it'll probably be cheaper than buying something new. I don't know. Any advice?
                    Last edited by Food Lady; 03-11-2014, 11:04 AM.
                    "Is it hot in here to you? It's very warm, isn't it?"--Nero, probably

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                    • #11
                      Quoth Food Lady View Post
                      Well, some good news anyway: I downloaded a word program and youtube to my tablet, so I can use it for a while. I'm not even sure I need the laptop at this point. I'll hold onto it for a while. ETA: I just accidentally dropped the tablet and the dipole of the charger broke off in it. Well, it had a good 2-year run. I guess I have to pay to fix the laptop now; it'll probably be cheaper than buying something new. I don't know. Any advice?
                      I used my Kindle Fire as a temporary bridge between laptops, because I didn't know what I wanted. I finally decided to go for a Chromebook, since I really didn't need it for much more than web surfing (and we have a desktop for the things I can't do, like I don't think I can do iTunes on a Chromebook, or use it to load an MP3 player) Mine was $350, but there are less expensive models. I got an HP Chromebook 14 with 4G; I wanted the larger screen and more SDRAM since I normally have a billion tabs open in my browser I can go through Google Docs for work processing and spreadsheets, etc. I've had it since November, and have been pretty happy with it, aside from the iTunes thing. I only use iTunes to get podcasts.
                      Smile, or I'll smack you silly!
                      At what age does a vampire become a crazy old bat? :[

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                      • #12
                        Thank you. I was actually looking them up online (on my tiny phone ) last night. I think my job has one. That way it would be like a tablet that doesn't fall over.
                        "Is it hot in here to you? It's very warm, isn't it?"--Nero, probably

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                        • #13
                          I love my Chromebook. ~ US$300, slapped Crouton on it, rocks as a 'round the house' machine.

                          FL - have you given up on the laptop? If not, let us know and I'm sure we can walk you through a few things to try. And if you can put up with some sort of kludge, a local electronics/tv repair shop might be able to fix your tablet. (If the broken charger assembly is all that's wrong with it.)

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                          • #14
                            Quoth sms001 View Post
                            I love my Chromebook. ~ US$300, slapped Crouton on it, rocks as a 'round the house' machine.
                            Interesting. I rejected the idea of a Chromebook because Chrome OS was so limited. (Google Cloud Print can go fuck itself, let me plug the damn thing in, dammit)

                            Still, the cheapest Chromebook's only got a 50-100$ price advantage over a traditional laptop with better hardware and a more capable OS already installed. >.>
                            Supporting the idiots charged with protecting your personal information.

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                            • #15
                              Quoth otakuneko View Post
                              Chrome OS was so limited.... only got a 50-100$ price advantage
                              Took about forty-five minutes to get a unity desk up and running (Only used chromeos for about a day just to see what it was like.) and was on my network shares and printing. Well worth fifty bucks for me.

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