I have an old DV5000 Laptop from the middle of 2006 that has been working randomly and I am trying to narrow down the problem. I will try and keep this short-ish since I could go on in a lot of detail of every little thing, but will try and cover the main things first and let support fine tune from there.
At one point I let my dad use it as a home PC but it was left closed and had a monitor/keyboard/mouse all plugged in. It was left on 24/7 for im not sure how long and it either froze one day or we shut it down to go away for a few days and when returning the issues started. Either way once it had an issue, it always has had one for startups.
Basically it all of a sudden wouldnt turn on one day past a black screen after trying it different times and ways I eventually got it to boot a few times, most of them it would freeze either while loading windows, once logged in, or a few minutes into the desktop etc. I did get in once long enough to pull the files i wanted off of it. This all was a few years ago.
I've researched at random times on potential fixes and one day decided to try and get it working again. Same issues happen it either wont boot, it boots and locks up, or most of the time it actually boots to something, but it will eventually just kill the screen to all black and still have the keyboard lights on and fans running i believe. When i started to try reseating the ram it seemed to have better results (always removed power and battery when doing so). At one point i was able to run it for a few days, if it crashed/froze or had any issues, the only way to get it to boot again would be to reseat the RAM, i believe i ended up swapping slots for the sticks even.
It was working for the most part, but I believe whenever i did a full shutdown it would go back to being stubborn and not working until I reseated the memory, some times it also required me to reseat the HDD or seemed that the extra step was enough to get it working again. Either way I dont recall it ever working well for awhile, shutting down normal, and restarting sometime later and being 100% for that time. At best I could pull off a restart and it worked sometimes, but I dont think a full shutdown ever came back online without messing with the memory.
I recall doing virus scans, maleware, spyware, etc and coming up clean, I also did a BIOS HDD test, the short test passed and i believe the long test claimed to be like 100 minutes, after 180minutes and it still saying 50 or 60% I figured it froze and canceled it. I read somewhere that the BIOS should have a memory test too, but mine does not. It doesnt have a diagnostic tab, just a tools one that had the HDD test only. I have not tried memtest86 or anything to test the memory which i think is the main problem or perhaps a socket.
Also only one time out of many many restarts and attempts to tinker with it did I get a black screen saying
"Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
\WINDOWS\system32\config\SYSTEM
You can attempt to repair this file by starting Windows Setup using the original Setup CD-ROM. Select "r" at the first screen to start repair."
I happened to take a picture with my phone and still have it, I didnt ever do a repair, i dont recall if a reseating of the HDD fixed it or what but it obviously eventually bootted fine. Again that has only happened once. It may have gotten a BSOD every now and then too, but i dont recall for sure. Most of the time it was the random blackout and no chance to easily get it working again right away.
Eventually it seemed to not work even with the memory or HDD reseating. Same deal it would go to a black screen or lock up at various points. I then put it away for awhile again.
Today i pulled it back out to try again. This time I left only 1 stick of RAM in (I dont recall if i tried this before or not) and also left the battery pack out, its been working for me right out the gate, but very slow. I also decided to try a few tools and took screenshots of the info. I did Crystaldiskinfo to see if the HDD was ok and I dont know how to read all the lines, but it does say Good and I can post the screenshot if there is a way to upload here. I also got Core Temp to test the cpu temperature and it was 45C idle and like 61C at full or near full load according to Core Temp. These arent cool by any means, but I know the bottom always felt warm from day one so perhaps its normal for laptops of this era or this one, I know its a safe zone at least.
What all is recommended I do to test and troubleshoot the problem since I know it isnt just going to be working 100% all of a sudden.
1) Can we weigh out the battery as an issue or should i continue to keep it unattached to limit variables?
2) Should I try it with the other stick of RAM in the same slot as the one currently to see if its that 1 stick or try this current stick in the 2nd slot to test the slot randomly?
3) Do i need to try and run Memtest86 or some other program like that? (I've never ran it before so would have to read up) Memory or the socket is still my main guess as failure.
4) Chances of it being the HDD?
5) What other info can I supply to make it easier for you?
Thanks for your help.