Laptop Crashing - AC Adapter/RAM??? - Read On....

richardyork · - Joined: 22 Jun 2004 Posts: 410 Location: United Kingdom

Hi Everyone,

This is my first post for a while.

Here's my problem, I have a Fujitsu Siemens Amilo D7830 Laptop. If I turn the laptop on using just the battery everything is fine, but when I plug in the AC Adapter I recieve a BSOD and then it crashes. It also will not boot with the AC Adapter plugged in, although it successfully completes POST, then freezes with a good ole black screen and a white flashing cursor.

Googleing some of the BSOD messages, I gathered there was either a RAM problem or Norton AV affecting the RAM. I removed all of the Symantec products and the problem persists.

I have come to the conclusion that this is either faulty RAM or a faulty AC Adapter. Although I becoming more convinced it is a faulty AC Adapter.

I am going to have to wait until Wednesday before I have access to a Multi-Meter to check the AC Adapter.

But is it worth buying a piece of RAM and trying that first????

Any help/information/suggestions are very welcome and thanks for reading!

Regards,
Richard York

P.S.
I've been working on building a new webserver and new website. Keep an eye out for the announcement.......
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TRUSTAbyss · - Joined: 29 Oct 2003 Posts: 3752 Location: USA, GA

You have to find the problem before buying anything. My guess is also the AC
Adapter. It maybe on a Battery Re-call list. Check with the makers.

aprelium · - Joined: 22 Mar 2002 Posts: 6800

richardyork,

To test your RAM and to know if it is faulty or not, we strongly recommend using MemTest86. It is available from http://www.memtest86.com/ and does better than the quick tests of your BIOS.
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richardyork · - Joined: 22 Jun 2004 Posts: 410 Location: United Kingdom

I will try the suggested and report back once completed!

Thankyou

Regards,
Richard York
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richardyork · - Joined: 22 Jun 2004 Posts: 410 Location: United Kingdom

OK so here we go....

Tried memtest86 with the AC Adapter plugged into the laptop and it just about boots into memtest86 then that crashes miserably with errors all over the screen.

Tried memtest86 just using battery power NO AC Adapter plugged into the laptop and it runs fine with no crashes and no errors regarding the RAM!!

This leads me to believe that the AC Adapter is the culprit....

Any further suggestions or remarks would be greatly appreciated :)

Thank You Very Much

Regards,
Richard York
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AbyssUnderground · - Joined: 31 Dec 2004 Posts: 3855

If you can try a friends PSU (of similar rating) and try that it could discover if its the PSU. A laptop I have runs from a 12v battery through the mains port and it crashes onces the battery voltage becomes too low, this could be the issue with your PSU, and it being on its way out.

REMEMBER: Check the voltage AND the current rating on any other PSU you intend to use. The voltage must be similar +/- 1v, no more. The current must be equal or more to the one that yours is. Even if its higher it wont damage the laptop so don't worry.
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richardyork · - Joined: 22 Jun 2004 Posts: 410 Location: United Kingdom

On the current charger it has an output of 20V and 6A but I havn't got access to anything near these figures to test with :(

Ill keep you updated!

Thank You

Regards,
Richard York
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richardyork · - Joined: 22 Jun 2004 Posts: 410 Location: United Kingdom

OK, just a quick update.

I was able to get my hands on another AC Adapter today and a Multi-Meter.

Testing the original AC Adapter with the Multi-Meter found no problems at all and trying another AC Adapter didn't accomplish anything either, the problem persisted.

Iv asked a techie for advice at college and he says it could be the regulator inside the laptop??? but wasn't 100% sure. He'd never come accross such a bizzar problem!

What is the best action to take now? It isn't under warranty anymore and my uncle (the owner of the laptop) has already taken it to two computer shops and they both said they couldn't fix it.

This is a £1200 laptop and I don't really want to tell him the best thing to do is to throw it in the bin :/

Thanks For All Your Help!

Regards,
Richard York
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AbyssUnderground · - Joined: 31 Dec 2004 Posts: 3855

You could try sending it back to the manufacturer but because its out of warranty you'll have to pay for the repairs. See if you can get a quote before they do any work on it.
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topsy · - Joined: 30 Mar 2004 Posts: 13 Location: Sweden

Just in case, check the bios settings and windows energy saving settings to make sure those settings look all right.
My thought being that if the pc tried to use battery and ac adapter at the same time, or insist on using the battery, it probably would manifest itself in this manner.
As the error comes with the start of windows it's more probable settings in windows.