laptop repair

I am having issues with my laptop. First absolutely no chance of having a virus. Its been checked with no less than three anti virus programs.

Here's the problem;

Less than 2 yrs old. Started hearing a loud fan starting and stopping infrequent.
Now I turn it on it boots very slow. If I am lucky enough to open a web browser it just locks up. I can click on icons and they open up from being minimized but they will not shut down and show not responding. I also cannot open up the task manager. I only mentioned the loud fan because I am leaning toward a faulty fan. Anyone have any expertise they can lend or had a similar advise. I can't get the computer to boot long enough to check the heat to see if the processor is too hot. Also, anyone recommend a shop I can take it in to have repaired if not too costly. I know these buggers can run up a repair tab real quick.
Any advise greatly appreciated.

Fisrt shoot the fan with compressed air. Chances are it is full of dust. That worked for me.

My son had a problem similar to what you describe. Turned out it was full of dust.

i had the loud fan issue, but nothing was wrong with the computer like "task manager missing", or slow reboot. I changed the fan but it's still loud, it's like an airplane taking off. i think my computer is just old. 6 years old actually.

Take is to computercare.ca, they are off of Canotek.
I had similar issue with mine, but mine wasn't locking up.
$149 got me a new heat pad and fan for the processor.
If yours is locking up the processor could be fried or on its way to being fried.
computercare.ca is one of the only laptop repair places in town. Good luck.

<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2" width="100%"><tbody><tr><td valign="top">Computer Care Center
1172 Rainbow St
Canotek Business Park
Ottawa, Ontario
K1J 6X7 Canada
Phone: (613) 742-7233
Fax: (613) 742-5008 </td> <td valign="top">Store Hours:
Monday - Thursday: 10am - 7pm
Friday: 10am - 8pm
Saturday: 10am - 5pm
Sunday: Closed</td></tr></tbody></table>

PC's are wonderful when they work but a pain when they don't.

There could be a few different scenarios at work here.

1) Could be overheating due to a failing fan or extreme dust in the fan like others have said. Overheating can cause the unit to lock up. You can use pressurized air or simply q-tips to clean caked dust off the fan.
Note: sometimes there are supplemental fans on a motherboard for things like video or other chips and it could be one of these acting up.

2) Could be a bad memory module, causing the device to lock up, does it pass any boot up/memory tests ?

3) Could be a faulty hard drive acting up, sounding like a fan. The hard drives wind up and if faulty may sound rather loud. Not sure though if it was the hard drive why the machine would not get you into at least the setup screen.

4) Could be a failing video card or failing video memory on the motherboard.

Fans are mechanical and can seize up, dry out, maybe a little lubrication on the center (where it turns) might loosen it up.

Does it beep at all?

Usually with a desktop PC , you can try to isolate the issue by unplugging all unnecessary things like cd rom, hard drives, extra memory modules, etc and see if it still doesn't boot. This is a little harder with a laptop because of restricted space but coudl still be attempted.

if you take it somewhere, I would ask how much for an evaluation and if you decide to go ahead with the fix will they give you any credit for that towards the repair.

Previoulsy stated $149 for a new heat pad and fan seems rather steep unless it took a long time to diagnose the problem or the parts were expensive.

Also, ask for any warranty with repairs, especially if you are paying that much.

PS. Re-reading your post, instead of letting the unit boot into windows, go into setup, usually by pressing the "del" key or "delete" key during startup
There is usually a hardware monitor screen that should give you the fan speed and cpu temp. If you can get into this, let it run for about 20 - 30 mins or more and if the fan speed and temp do not act up, then it is probably not your cpu fan and so it may be memory or your hard drive

Of course I am not an expert in this, just some thoughts for consideration.
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Dude, $149 is not steep.
I am a computer system technician. Try and find a shop in the Ottawa that even works on laptops and then talk to me about price.
You get what you pay for.
Do you really want some kid working in the back of some crappy computer shop with no experience to work on your laptop so you can save a few dollars??

Well, depending on the age and power of the PC and with some laptops today for around $500 (or less), we'll leave the opinion of the repair price to the individual, let's not hijack the thread over that.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Slicer&Dicer

Well, depending on the age and power of the PC and with some laptops today for around $500 (or less), we'll leave the opinion of the repair price to the individual, let's not hijack the thread over that.

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I have come to the conclusion that laptops should be considered disposable.