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Dead Laptop!


AndyB01

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Think I'm going to be offline for a bit - after a rebuild (that was going well) and a routine re-start, laptop is now in an endless cycle of blue screens. ☹️

I suspect the SSD has died (just three years old) but could be anything. I'll get it to a local repairer I know next week - see if he can salvage anything.

Don't fancy shelling out for a new machine at the moment. Ah well, could be a lot worse than a busted laptop...

Stay safe

Andy

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Don't toss out a perfectly good laptop. This is super easy to fix with minimal tech skills. 

If it's the SSD drive. Just open the back and swap out for a new one. Go to here  https://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/software-download/windows10

Use the tool to create a USB flash drive on a different computer  and use it to install Windows on the laptop. It should automatically start the install when you turn the laptop on with the blank SSD drive and the usb plugged in.   When it askes for a License say you don't have one. This is important. Then MS will use the original license that came with the laptop even if that was W7 still. I just did this a few weeks ago. 

 

Regarding the old drive and the data, if you order one of these- https://www.amazon.ca/CableCreation-22pin-Power-Adapter-Driver/dp/B01ESJS36Q/ref=asc_df_B01ESJS36Q/?tag=googleshopc0c-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=335024094888&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=14340770628949613721&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1001901&hvtargid=pla-611589196453&psc=1

You might get lucky and the data on the disk is still retrievable.  I sure hope you have back ups of your important stuff. 

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Thanks John, I don't plan on giving up on it just yet. I know a bloke who is far better than me at this stuff and very reasonable - so will ask him to take a look. I have the original OS on a bootable USB stick and everything is backed up on an offline hard disk and an online cloud backup service - so zero risk of data loss hopefully.

Might be a chance to put a bigger SSD in anyway as the current one is only 500Gb.

Thanks all for the support, much appreciated. I'll post the outcome when I know more.

Andy

 

 

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As an IT consultant, I can tell you that there could be several causes for that condition, most of which are pretty simple.  You should be given the option to go back to the last saved state that worked too.  Hopefully, your friend will have a bootable tech thumb-drive that will allow him to confirm whether it's SSD-related or just a Windows Update issue (something I see a lot - I've got an entire folder dedicated to a few dozen update errors and what to do to fix them).

That said, if it DOES require going into the laptop, having someone who's done it before can help (there are also videos on YouTube that show exactly how to get in).  Laptops can be very annoying in that manufacturers tend to hide some of the access screws under labels and rubber feet (again, check YouTube for your exact model!).  Be very careful to know where the screws go back to as well!  Some laptops have different sized screws for different locations - make sure you note this on paper so you can reassemble things correctly if you do it yourself.

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Cheers Craig, I've had the lid off as I thought it might be a badly seated memory module (it wasn't). The option to revert to last good state is there under recovery options but only using the DefaultUser(0) account (which is a temp account) and of course it wants a password (but there isn't one) so that's effectively a no can do. 

It's an odd one as I had just installed a minor update for a VST, did a restart and that was it - game over.

I'll get to the bottom of it eventually, all good with a bootable USB - I have that.

Andy

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This is what bothers me about the idea of SSD's. For all the talk of superior speed, no moving parts=more reliable  from what I read (never had one) like USB sticks or memory cards they work perfectly exactly until they don't. No warning, That's it. Gone. In my admittedly very limited  experience regular HD's at least give you some kind of clue that they are on the way out. Is that a misconception on my part ?

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58 minutes ago, Notes_Norton said:

I make backup disk clones. Because there are only two kinds of computer users, those who have had a HD crash, and those who haven't had a HD crash YET.

I hear you there. Anything important to me is obviously backed up, but I don't bother with my www lappy for example because if I did I'd spend my whole life making copies of the HD.

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7 hours ago, paulo said:

I hear you there. Anything important to me is obviously backed up, but I don't bother with my www lappy for example because if I did I'd spend my whole life making copies of that folder.

Fyxed fer yew paulo.

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I back up my data every day - Microsoft's Sync Toy utility makes it quick and easy.

I backup by making HD clones at least twice a week plus another backup  either before Microsoft installs an update, when I add any app to my HD, or if I've done a lot of critical work.

This has saved me a few times. Example: I bought a guitar pedal, and it came with a free Cubase LE CD-ROM. I hadn't tried Cubase in years, so I thought I'd give it a go. I made a clone and started the Cubase install. It quit in the middle of the installation. I rebooted the computer, and it wouldn't complete the reboot asking me if I want to finish the installation. I said YES, and it locked up in the same place. I booted in the Safe Mode and tried to uninstall Cubase, but the next time I restarted I got the same message. So I did a complete restore from the clone, trashed the CD-ROM, and went about my business as if nothing happened but that little adventure.

In addition to my normal backups, on a second external drive that gets removed from the system, I make a disk clone once per month and store many months of clones. That way if I get a virus or ransomware I can go back to a pre-infected state.

Computers are replaceable, data is often not.

Insights and incites by Notes

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Well it's back from the repair shop - full hardware diagnostics and a verdict of no (hardware) fault found??

Guy in the shop reckons the recovery image of Windows was somehow corrupted and not doing a clean install. So he binned off the entire thing, cleansed the disk and has reinstalled a fresh vanilla version of Windows. So I am slowly starting to rebuild all those VSTs and apps but so far (fingers crossed) it does seem better.

Time will tell I guess...

Thanks to everyone for suggestions, support and advice. Much appreciated as always.

Andy

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sorry to hear. My XPS 9350 fully loaded just blew its second mobo. First replacement cost me $700. Just paid $80 to find out it needs another. Seems such a waste this gorgeous sexy piece of hardware. Years of laptops and this is the first time it has happened. I can only suspect its because they are so thin (I just read.)  Just bought a used Thinkpad. (this is not my main DAW -I use desktop.)

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On 2/14/2021 at 3:52 PM, paulo said:

This is what bothers me about the idea of SSD's. For all the talk of superior speed, no moving parts=more reliable  from what I read (never had one) like USB sticks or memory cards they work perfectly exactly until they don't. No warning, That's it. Gone. In my admittedly very limited  experience regular HD's at least give you some kind of clue that they are on the way out. Is that a misconception on my part ?

Like batteries, flash memory has a limit of cycles. It's estimated that a SSD lasts 25% less than a mechanical hard drive. A HDD lasts about 10 years, although there have been examples of drives lasting twice that. If you're writing large files to that drive constantly, that will greatly reduce its lifespan.

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2 hours ago, Bruno de Souza Lino said:

Like batteries, flash memory has a limit of cycles. It's estimated that a SSD lasts 25% less than a mechanical hard drive. A HDD lasts about 10 years, although there have been examples of drives lasting twice that. If you're writing large files to that drive constantly, that will greatly reduce its lifespan.

I make every effort to replace HDDs after 5 years (to be safe). So I guess 4 years for an SSD would be about right. That means next year my DAW SSD should be be replaced.

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