Got a laptop down... code red!

[chris.warner]

Hello to all, this is my first post here on these forums, but you all come highly recommended. So I figure its worth a try. I'm workin with an IBM Thinkpad I series and it is definitely on a downward spiral. There's a few problems I'd love if you could help with. First off, just a few days ago, the cd-rom drive stopped reading cd's. I've tried uninstallling and reinstalling it. And still, though the computer knows the drive is there, the drive won't read a disc. I've attempted to update the drivers, but I can't find the correct ones to get. But I'll keep working on that. The second problem involves music. When playing music of any kind, the computer plays it fine for a short while, making either through all or part of a song when the sound comes to an abrubpt and noisy stop. This problem is older than the cd problem. I've been experiencing it for years, but have never had the need to get it fixed. Again, I've updated the drivers through IBM.com and it didn't fix the problem. I don't have ANY idea how to fix this one, or the other for that matter, so any help would be greatly appreciated. I hope you all can help! Thanks!

Heres the specs for the laptop:
IBM Thinkpad iSeries
128mb of RAM
Windows ME 4.90.3000
Intel Celeron (don't know the speed)

If you need any other info, just ask. Thanks again!

chris.warner

[MitaDC]

I don't know sounds like you should just get a new laptop. Find a cheap one on ebay that will atleast work. It wouldn't put you back a lot of money and u could get one that is a lot better...... just want to say


WELCOME TO TECHIMO!!!

[imac9556]

Welcome to Techimo.com!

Did you try to remove the battery and disconnect it from the power and let the battery reset? (the CMOS battery)
Is there a CMOS jumper to reset?
good luck

[MitaDC]

It is a laptop. I am not very experienced with laptops but even though I build comps I wouldn't open up a laptop and start playing with the parts. You could try though.......not gonna set u back a lot since it isn't working right anyways.

[Kuasimodem]

Do you have all the latest updates for Windows me? ME has a tendency to be temperamental (or is it just mental) if you don't update & patch the heck out of it. The total downloads of patches and updates is about equal to the original install size

Another possible solution would be to upgrade to either Windows2000 or XP. If you go to XP a RAM upgrade would be in order too, since 128Mb is barely enough to run the OS.

[chris.warner]

Thanks for the input... I don't think that I'll be able to afford a new laptop anytime soon. Even a used one isn't really gonna happen. Just trying to salvage what I can. It works great, when it works. But thanks anyways, I'll keep seeing what I can do.

[John Prophet]

What do your system resources look like? Right click "My computer" click "properties" then "performance" and see where your system resources are...maybe they are running too low and the celeron is struggling to do too much at once.

I have a brand new Dell laptop with xp and 128 m and a celeron and I have some simple games on it and sometimes the sound sort of drops out.

How many icons do you have in the lower right corner of your desktop? If you have a lot then you probably have low resources. Stuff like msn messenger and icq and real player etc etc dontneed to be running ALL the time...so they need to be cut off. Also if you are not online you might cut your antivirus off to free up some memory etc.

Tell us what your resources are at.

JP

[phlatline]

I'd get a new 1, & use that for spare parts. Course that's just me. I hate IBM.

Oh, & welcome to techimo!

[chris.warner]

Thanks for all the input! About the system resources, yes, I have taken all those unimportant programs and closed them, taken them out of startup and such. And thats what confuses me. I'm thinking that adding another 128 of ram might be the solve for some of the slow down problems (obviously) but I can't for the life of me figure out why the CD drive won't read. I almost think it could be broken, but I don't really know what could have caused that. And I'm positive that at this point, the comp couldn't handle xp... so I'd definitely have to invest in ram at the same time. Well, thanks again for the input!

[John Prophet]

well, cd drives do break..or wear out. I just replaced a dudes cdrw in his PC..it just quit working..door quit opening etc. Laptops, being hot and confined, probably are harder on hardware than desktops.

JP