weird laptop problem

I have my friends laptop and he said to take a look at it, Because i have a very high success rate in successfully repairing peoples problems on it xD
But!
My friends laptop is weird.
He has an XPS M1530,
Heres the problem.
He gave me the computer turned off. I turned it on. The blue lights on the power and the play and rewind buttons and such. those blink on. the power is on. YET the screen doesnt show anything untill 3 minutes of it being left on. The BIOS loads up and such. then a NMI error code comes up. i removed the ram and replaced it with mine. I tried it, The laptop still didnt start up normally. i still had to wait what seemed like 3 minutes.
I read up on the error and someone said to reformat. Alright so i took off that vista crap and installed windows 7. Everything completed successfully.
No error codes when i turned the laptop off and on.
Heres the problem though
Whenever i turn off the laptop and leave it off for a period of time. I have to wait the 3 minutes on the black screen untill the bios shows up, Then it freezes when it says “Loading windows”. So i turn off the laptop and turn it back on. Starts up normal. The bios loads as soon as i press the power button.
the computer doesnt freeze for 3 minutes if i restart put it to sleep hibernate. but when i turn it off and leave it off. and turn it back on the laptop freezes..
What could be wrong?
Answer #1
So it makes you wait 3 mins before loading up? Then OS works fine? Try testing the hard drive for errors. Use Hirens BootCD to test HD. If BIOS is acting up perhaps updating could fix it.
Answer #2
So it makes you wait 3 mins before loading up? Then OS works fine? Try testing the hard drive for errors. Use Hirens BootCD to test HD. If BIOS is acting up perhaps updating could fix it.
Yeah When i fully turn off the laptop and leave it off oh lets say for 30 minutes or less, it takes 3 minutes for it to load the bios. and then after it loads the BIOS it goes to “Starting Windows” And the Logo freezes and the computer doesnt go anywhere. So i turn it off by the power swtich and then power it back up right away and it loads fast. But when i turn the laptop off and turn it off right away there is no lag when loading the BIOS. and loads normally.
Answer #3
Well like i said updating BIOS to latest version could help and im also wondering if it has to do with CMOS battery being dead. Did you notice the time on laptop change? If the time changes is cuz the CMOS battery is dead.
Answer #4
Well like i said updating BIOS to latest version could help and im also wondering if it has to do with CMOS battery being dead. Did you notice the time on laptop change? If the time changes is cuz the CMOS battery is dead.
The time was right BIOS update.. hmm.. Isnt that dangerous? It’s an XPS xD I think it should already have the latest ones since its a “higher end” laptops
I am on Hirens BootCD but i dont know what to select to see whats wrong.
Answer #5
I’d go for a BIOS update first too
Just because it’s a “higher end laptop” it doesn’t mean that the BIOS was released perfectly and will never need updating to fix subsequently discovered bugs or problems, etc.
In fact, if anything, it’s probably even more likely to have frequent updates because of the extra hardware involved
As for it being dangerous, these days it’s a lot safer and can even be done from within Windows on most machines. The recovery software for bad updates is much more reliable too. Quite a lot of machines support dual BIOS to help avoid bad situations too.
As long as you follow the instructions you’ll be ok
Has the HDD or memory been changed or “upgraded” at any time?
It could be bad/wrong ram or mayber even a SATAII HDD instead of SATA – some BIOS’s have a hard time with SATAII.
It’s also sounds like a wait state being called because something is being very slow to respond to the BIOS calls. This is often the HDD (usually a sign of imminent HDD failure!)
Try booting the machine with a Live CD in it and the HDD totally removed.
In fact, use Hirens CD if you can, then you could run further diagnostics whilst its up.
FOr example, there’s a tool in it for checking the SMART report from the HDD. That might also give you a clue about the HDD.
Let us know if it behaves the same with no HDD in it and booting from a Live CD instead
Answer #6
well about removing the HDD.. I cannot because the screws cant be unscrewed… it looks like the screwdriver eroded it away.. haahah i’ll try the bios update.. lets hope it fixes it xD
Answer #7
How bout you reset bios to defaults before you go trying to flash it!