Is It Time To Trash My 12 year old laptop That Is Possibly Faulty ?

mike888 · 23 Jun 2023

I have four Fujitsu AH530 laptops originally purchased as "preloved". (Windows 10)
One of them for the past year or so has been slow but runs programmes reasonably ok . However for the past month or so it has been acting oddly. As an example if I boot it from cold I get as far as the desktop image and then the display goes blank. The standby/on/off light remains lit but everything is unresponsive. If I hold down the on/off button for a few seconds it turns the lights out and if I press the button again to boot up, everything is fine. The above does not happen on every occasion.

On another occasion plugging a USB keyboard in, made the display go off as above and on another occasion I could be writing an email and the same thing happens. I have now lost patience with it. I have tried various things.:
Memory test with windows own tool for the purpose.
checkdisk
system file checker

and some others tests that I can't think of . Is it time to let it go. I could use the RAM in one of my other machines as they can accept 8GB but curently only have 4GB. Then there is the questiion does the slow computer have a virus, there have been no indications ever of this but would the RAM be safe to use in another machine ?

Megahertz · 23 Jun 2023

Please edit your profile with ALL your hardware specs. It will help us to help you
System Specs - Fill in at Ten Forums

Is your Win 10 32 or 64 bits?
Do it has a HDD or a SSD?

User2468 · 24 Jun 2023

Since it's "preloved" I'd just do an in placed repair install and call it a day.

Repair Install Windows 10 with an In-place Upgrade

Bastet · 25 Jun 2023

Does the problem device use a HDD or SSD?
Have you scanned for malware?
Have you run Sfc & dism commands to clean up?
Have you clean installed Windows?

Paul Black · 25 Jun 2023

Hello @mike888,

Bastet said:

Have you scanned for malware?
Have you run Sfc & dism commands to clean up?

In addition to the above, this might be worth trying for diagnostic purposes . . .

> Perform a Clean Boot in Windows 10 to Troubleshoot Software Conflicts

I hope this helps.

mike888 · 25 Jun 2023

Sorry to have been so long in replying but I have had health issues, and worrying about forthcoming maintenance work being made to every resident in the street and I know I will fail on some points ! But to get back to the subject
I got so fed up with the laptop I wiped the hard drive (running through with zeros) which was a HDD running Windows 10 64 bit.

In the "old" days with Windows 7 I would clone a working drive to the dodgy one to see if that helped.

As I said before I labelled it somewhile ago as being slow . I suppose i could do a clone which would be faster than reinstalling Windows and I have a few spare Windows 10 keys if this later proved to be an issue.

Forgot to say before wiping I scanned for malware using several utilities but nothing found and I had also done the system file checker command.

Megahertz · 25 Jun 2023

Maybe it's time for a SSD. If you have a ODD (CD-DVD) you can install a small SSD and replace the ODD with a caddy to hold the HDD. It's a way to have the speed of a SSD and the space of a HDD for less than US$30.
There is nothing like a Clean install.
And don't worrier about the key. As it once had win 10 on it it has acquired a "Digital License". Just install same version (Home or Pro) and skip entering a key. It will activate.

dalchina · 25 Jun 2023

However for the past month or so it has been acting oddly.

- boot-related issues you say..
- CMOS battery? (Old laptop...)

Is It Time To Trash My 12 year old laptop That Is Possibly Faulty ?-1.jpg

Have you actually checked the disk e.g. with Crystal Diskinfo/Hard Disk Sentinel?

Steve C · 26 Jun 2023

I have a 9 year old Dell laptop having similar issues. You could try removing the main battery for a few minutes which provides a hard reset. In my case I'm going to check all the internal connections including the GPU cable at both ends which has given me problems before with an intermittent connection. If all that is OK I'll then do a clean install of Windows 10.