unresponsive computer

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?
Cheers
JJ

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...areFaults.html

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?
Cheers
JJ

After checking the hdd for viruses using a Linux boot disk I would take
it apart and reseat everything that can possibly be reseated.
If that is not an option for you then it may be time for a new machine.

John Jones wrote:

Samsung - Bought 2011 [no mention of model or type of computer]
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

When I left on holiday 2 weeks ago my laptop 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.

What does "woke up" mean? That you saw your desktop and then there was
a delay before the screen went black?

Did you yet try booting Windows into its safe mode and letting it sit
idle for awhile to check its behavior without all those startup programs
running?

Have you tried changing from whatever power option plan you are using
now to using the high-performance power plan (which does NOT put your
computer into standby or hibernate mode)?

Did you try disabling your screen saver?

Have you tried disconnecting all peripherals (except keyboard and
mouse), booting, and letting your computer sit idle for awhile to check
its behavior upon returning to use?

On 09/19/2018 11:00 AM, 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?
Cheers
JJ

Along with the reseat everything, I'd blow out the dust if you haven't
had it open in a while.

Al

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?
Cheers
JJ

If all else fails, you could always try a System Restore to two or three
weeks ago. But that doesn't explain at all how this could have happened, and
if it's a hardware issue, won't fix anything.

On 9/19/2018 8:00 AM, 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?
Cheers
JJ

I've had weird problems like that when the CMOS battery
was dying.
Had enough juice to let me configure it, but would randomly
fail to boot or lock up.
Replacing the CMOS battery fixed it.

Probably difficult to get at it, but put it on your list
of things to do when you run out of easier things to try.

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

John Jones wrote:
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

There are some HD SMART testing utilities like PassMark Disk Check and
HDDScan and HD Tune that might prove useful. Also, you might consider
uninstalling Skype to see if that was the culprit.