On Wed, 19 Sep 2018 16:40:28 +0100, "Java Jive"
wrote in article ...

On 19/09/2018 16:00, John Jones wrote:
When I left on holiday 2 weeks ago my laptop (samsung bought 2011
running windows 7 home premium 64 bit) worked perfectly.
When I booted today it got as far as the desktop screen and then silence
fell.
I rebooted and everything seemed ok again. Until returning after lunch
it woke up, thought about life, went unresponsive, and then gave me the
black screen of death.
I am obviously somewhat perturbed, although by posting this clearly it
is ok at present.
I guess this is a FAQ, but how can I track down any issues, and is it
time to buy a new computer?

Sounds like dodgy hard disk or memory, most probably the former.
Although much of this relates to desktops, you could try working through
the laptop relevant sections of this to see what you can find out about
the problem ...

http://www.macfh.co.uk/JavaJive/PCHa...dwareFaults.ht

Thanks to all respondents.
I will try Vanguard's suggestions, but suspect there is a hardware
problem in the machine, maybe the cmos battery as suggested, maybe the
disk - I now remember I got a windows warning pop-up saying it was about
to fail some months ago, but chkdsk says it's perfect.
My only other suspect is skype, which on the second boot insisted on
installing a large update, and when run consumed 165Mb of RAM, and the
black screen followed shortly upon that.
Maybe it's time to (a) get a new computer and (b) have a professional
look the old machine over, maybe replacing the cmos battery and disk,
and cleaning the inside.
Trouble is I would be lost without excel with VBA and am not keen to
move to W10.
Many thanks
JJ