this post was submitted on 07 Oct 2024
54 points (100.0% liked)

No Stupid Questions

35764 readers
482 users here now

No such thing. Ask away!

!nostupidquestions is a community dedicated to being helpful and answering each others' questions on various topics.

The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:

Rules (interactive)

Rule 1- All posts must be legitimate questions. All post titles must include a question.

All posts must be legitimate questions, and all post titles must include a question. Questions that are joke or trolling questions, memes, song lyrics as title, etc. are not allowed here. See Rule 6 for all exceptions.

Rule 2- Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material.

Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material. You will be warned first, banned second.

Rule 3- Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here.

Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here. Breaking this rule will not get you or your post removed, but it will put you at risk, and possibly in danger.

Rule 4- No self promotion or upvote-farming of any kind.

That's it.

Rule 5- No baiting or sealioning or promoting an agenda.

Questions which, instead of being of an innocuous nature, are specifically intended (based on reports and in the opinion of our crack moderation team) to bait users into ideological wars on charged political topics will be removed and the authors warned - or banned - depending on severity.

Rule 6- Regarding META posts and joke questions.

Provided it is about the community itself, you may post non-question posts using the [META] tag on your post title.

On fridays, you are allowed to post meme and troll questions, on the condition that it's in text format only, and conforms with our other rules. These posts MUST include the [NSQ Friday] tag in their title.

If you post a serious question on friday and are looking only for legitimate answers, then please include the [Serious] tag on your post. Irrelevant replies will then be removed by moderators.

Rule 7- You can't intentionally annoy, mock, or harass other members.

If you intentionally annoy, mock, harass, or discriminate against any individual member, you will be removed.

Likewise, if you are a member, sympathiser or a resemblant of a movement that is known to largely hate, mock, discriminate against, and/or want to take lives of a group of people, and you were provably vocal about your hate, then you will be banned on sight.

Rule 8- All comments should try to stay relevant to their parent content.

Rule 9- Reposts from other platforms are not allowed.

Let everyone have their own content.

Rule 10- Majority of bots aren't allowed to participate here.

Credits

Our breathtaking icon was bestowed upon us by @Cevilia!

The greatest banner of all time: by @TheOneWithTheHair!

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
ja2@lemmy.world
_MoveSwiftly@lemmy.world
Rooki@lemmy.world
Thekingoflorda@lemmy.world
automodbeta@lemmy.world
L3s@lemmy.world
54
Could Linux save my laptop? (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by 2ugly2live@lemmy.world to c/nostupidquestions@lemmy.world
20 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

This past weekend, my laptop decided it's had enough and has given me the blue screen of death. I've put it in recovery mode, tried to reinstall windows, the works, and it refuses. I have no idea why. I was logged on, looking something up, and it went kaput. I wasn't downloading anything, the computer was in it's sleeve prior, not too wet, cold, hot, etc. Battery is fine, the laptop it's self is maybe two years old.

My understanding is that Linux is a kind of system that you download the components to a USB or what not and then install it on your machine. Is that something I could do in this case? Or do I need to take it somewhere?

Edit: it seems I may have to check if it's a hardware problem. The error code is Bad_system_config_info, but it changed to something else at one point but I didn't write that one down. :(

top 20 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] rudyharrelson@lemmy.radio 23 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Could Linux save my laptop?

Depends on the root cause of the BSoD. If it's a hardware issue, then no, installing Linux won't fix an underlying hardware issue. What does the BSoD screen actually say? Any specific error code?

My understanding is that Linux is a kind of system that you download the components to a USB or what not and then install it on your machine. Is that something I could do in this case?

Yep, you could do that, but you'll need a functioning PC to create a USB installer for the Linux OS of your choice. You'll need a blank USB drive and some software to "flash" the Linux OS installer to the USB drive. e.g.: https://linuxmint-installation-guide.readthedocs.io/en/latest/burn.html

[–] 2ugly2live@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

This was the code: Bad_system_config_info

[–] rudyharrelson@lemmy.radio 8 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Gotcha. You mentioned you put the PC into Recovery Mode and tried to reinstall Windows, but it didn't work. What happened that prevented the re-installation of Windows? Did the PC just shutdown during installation, or were you wholly unable to get the Windows installer to run?

If you're still able to boot into Recovery Mode/Safe Mode, try opening up a Command Prompt and running the SFC Scan and DISM commands outlined here: https://www.howtogeek.com/222532/how-to-repair-corrupted-windows-system-files-with-the-sfc-and-dism-commands/

[–] 2ugly2live@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

When I was trying to reinstall, it stopped in the middle and gave me. The blue screen. I can trick it into the recovery ry mode, so I'll give the command a try. Thank you

[–] gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

One of the first hardware things I check when a system starts getting a bit fucky is the memory. Check out memtestx86. Depending on how beefy your system is, you may have to let it run for a day or so, but it will do a rather thorough series of bitwise checks of your entire memory space, and let you know if there are any hardware faults, and indicate which physical module is the problem. If that gives you any hits (and assuming the RAM is swappable/upgradeable), just swap out your memory with some new ones (I generally go with factory-paired modules, unless it’s a system I don’t care much about, but you should absolutely used matched speed and timing on the modules you swap in).

[–] Asidonhopo@lemmy.world 12 points 1 month ago

I mean if you have a usb lying around, putting ubuntu on it and trying is free. Worth a shot, you could get access to the drive too if it works. If that doesn't work you could still bring it into the shop to get worked on.

[–] Mechaguana@programming.dev 9 points 1 month ago

Open that bad boy up, it needs some hardware inspection. Check for water damage, dust accumulation, zapped capacitors, loose screws and parts. Try to get a command prompt going and use the tools like others said.

[–] fuckwit_mcbumcrumble@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 1 month ago

If reinstalling windows didn't fix the issue then you most likely have a hardware issue. You could always make a linux live USB and see if that works. The live USB won't touch your HDD so if the HDD is the problem you won't know until after you've installed linux.

Before you do that download a program like hwinfo and look at your temps. Specifically CPU temp. Somewhere towards the bottom it will tell you stats about your HDD as well and it may include what SMART thinks your HDD's health is.

[–] linearchaos@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago

Try a live USB distro first. If it is your hard drive It will eliminate that as a problem temporarily letting you diagnose.

If the windows reinstall won't run or won't complete, It could be anything from a dead fan to a bad memory controller.

[–] Toes@ani.social 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I have no idea why.

Sounds like HDD failure if its less than 2 years old it should all covered under warranty.

[–] shalafi@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Agreed. SSD is dead, or less likely, the RAM.

[–] SzethFriendOfNimi@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Could even be a loose stick of ram.

[–] undefined@links.hackliberty.org 2 points 1 month ago

If the RAM isn’t soldered in, this would be the first thing I check. I’ve saved countless laptops for family and friends in mere seconds by simply reseating the RAM.

[–] Brkdncr@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

What laptop vendor? Most vendors have a hardware tester that you put on a usb and test for hardware issues.

Same for windows. You can download windows usb creator utility and use it to reinstall windows from scratch.

[–] 2ugly2live@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It's a cheap hp laptop. I was in a pickle when I needed it and I've paid the price. 😭

[–] Brkdncr@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Yeah get on their website and see if you can find the usb tool. Should at least tell you the problem.

It could be something easy like a bad stick of ram that you can just pull out.

[–] 2ugly2live@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

I'll give that a try. Thank you!

[–] grimdeter@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 month ago

I am a complete amateur, so take it with a big grain of salt, but it might be hardware problem, maybe the SSD has gone bad. The best way to test it might be to try install Linux, and use it for few hours from the USB itself in live environment

[–] slazer2au@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

You should look at event viewer to see what is causing the problems. If the problem is overheating, a bad HDD, or bad ram then I doubt Linux would help.

[–] BakedCatboy@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 month ago

First I'll say, if you aren't able to boot a windows installer off of a flash drive (and nothing's wrong with your flash drive and you created it without errors and there isn't a setting in bios preventing you from booting it like disabled USB boot) then it could be a hardware issue that Linux won't fix (it's not clear how you tried to reinstall windows). But if you're able to get to the windows logo or the menu for safe mode then it sounds like it "POSTs" (gets past showing the bios screen) and windows should be reinstallable. In short, I think it's unlikely to be a problem that only Linux can fix if you want to stick with windows.

That said, if you are otherwise interested in trying Linux and create a USB installer, most will allow you to exit the installer or choose to go into a temporary "live desktop" where nothing is saved, so it's a good opportunity to try out how that distro feels to use - just don't save anything important. And if you do end up installing either OS, you can use that "live mode" to use programs to back up any files from your main hard drive to another plugged in drive.