Plastic Nev

Good thinking Spantonpctech, but if no disk or if one cannot be borrowed from elsewhere, then the recovery disks are all that is left. These will reformat and reinstall, taking the computer back to original factory settings. So to rescue any data before that is done the hard drive should be removed and then via either an adapter or full enclosure, connected to another computer. The data required can then be accessed in just the same way that it would be if it were a flash or thumb drive. Nev.

Hi, Follow Kens advice as quoted below> Once you have changed the boot order to start at the CDROM, put in the disks you have, it should then run through the restore back to factory condition from there. Nev.

Thanks also from Me Janeygee, you are quite correct, indeed wherever possible we encourage folks to give us feedback when the problem is solved. Whether from our help or as in your case outside help, as it does indeed help others coming along afterwards. (Also serves as a reminder to us for the next time, too:D) Nev.

Hi David, welcome to you from me too. Nev.

Hi Naomi, the "Last known good configuration" is actually now the last resort to try. Similar to an ordinary restore and should not affect data, but is a little more powerful if you like. If that fails, and considering you have no disks, it may be the next step is the hard drive out, into an adapter or enclosure (Caddy) and connect to a working computer. Files and data should be retrievable providing the drive is actually working and OK. The working computer can also be used to run a check of the disk using chckdisk.

Hi and welcome to FPCH, Ezzo. If you can tell us the exact model of your laptop, we may be able to find the correct download for you. You may also find them actually on the Samsung site, have you looked there? Did you get any disks with the laptop, or was the recovery done using a DVD you burned from the computer when you bought it? Nev.

Kens suggestion is about the only way I can see to solve the problem, be sure to make note of polarity, as in positive and negative wires going to the same when connected, usually one has a white stripe down the length of it. The type of plug you describe I have actually got one here, but unfortunately, it is the charger lead for a now old DV digital tape type video camera I have. Much lower voltage and power capabilities, so useless for you unfortunately. Nev.

Sorry, I wasn't clear enough, I meant it must be a Microsoft issued and labelled as such, full operating system disk, usually a DVD with Vista, definitely not the disk you have at the moment. If you were building a computer yourself by buying the parts, you would also have to buy the operating system DVD disk, it is that sort of disk I meant. The disk you have, will completely reinstall your Vista operating system, and wipe the hard drive while doing so, therefore losing all your data, I am not sure if a repair can be carried out using that disk as things are a bit different to the old XP system. (and different again in W7) , I didn't know some manufacturers still sent them. The more usual one these days is to create your own system reinstall disk from a partition on the hard drive when you first start up the computer. Because I am not sure if a repair can be carried out using that disk you have, I will ask for someone else who may know. Nev.

It is when you look at the bits left over and see that one of them is the very important bit, the washer that should have gone in first before anything else, meaning take it all to bits again to put that one in. Been there and done it with a car gear box many years ago now. Nev.

OK Richard, that is just about OK at 570 watts then, could do with being a bit bigger perhaps, but just thought I had better ask just in case. Nev.

Hi, is this what you are looking for? Check the plug in the picture, is it the same type and size? http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/4-/27486813/Slamtech-Laptop-Charger-For-Advent-Altro-20V-3-5A/Product.html?_%24ja=tsid:11518|cat:27486813|prd:27486813

Hi again Richard, that is good news and proves no damage has been done to the motherboard. However a small thing niggles me as we haven't yet discussed power supplies. The card that is now away for repair, is it the Asus AMD Radeaon HD 6770 1024MB GDDR5 as in that link you provided? From what I can find, it requires 400Watts, with a recommended system supply of 600Watts, is your power supply big enough to handle it? If your power supply is below the minimum 400 watts, you may see overheating with an eventual loss of the power supply and possibly another dead card. Nev.

To try a full Vista repair you need a copy of the Vista system you have, Vista Home, Vista Professional ETC, If you have a friend who already has one you can borrow, that will work, but otherwise you will have to buy one. Let us know if either is possible and the repair can be described. Providing the repair is carried out as per instructions, documents and data should still be OK. All a repair does is to actually re-install the operating system without doing a reformat of the drive. The disk you use to perform a repair, (Also is the same as an upgrade and sometimes called that) must be the same version or higher, such as service pack 2 pre installed on the disk. Have a look at this tutorial, to see what you need to do. http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/88236-repair-install-vista.html Nev.

From the photo, nice and neat heat shrink insulated joints, just as they should be, well done. Nev.

OK, thanks, so long is it appears to be doing something, let it continue to run. Now I know you had a power failure during a search run, no wonder there is a lot of damage, it will take time to repair. if at the end of the run, it still isn't right, there may only be the option of running a Windows repair using a full copy of Windows Vista, not any form of rescue disk, or even a full reinstall of Vista, though that will delete everything on the drive. Nev.

We are interested, what is the result from the scan now please? Nev.

Hi, if you do suspect a capacitor, it may be worth while making sure by removing the just the fan to check. A bulging top, or a dried out chemical looking mess underneath are sure signs, and if it has gone, they can damage other components associated with the circuit the capacitor was there for. A small mirror or piece of mirror might help to see better too. As a side issue, a friend emigrated to Sweden, now a good long time since, so if Dad came from the UK, and is called Ian, give him a kick from me. :D Nev.

To save Starbuck asking, which one of the two are you seeing now? It could be important to know. Nev.

If I can add a bit to the excellent advice so far, have a look at the existing 4GB you have and check what speed it is and the make. If you can match the new one with it, that is the best. However if the existing is one of the slower type, say the 800, then if you can afford it, buy two of at least the 1066 or better the 1333. Always best to match RAM in pairs you see, especially in speeds, if one is slower, that means the other will only run at that slower speed. Nev.

Hi and a welcome from me too. As a further addition to Armageddon's good advice, if you can afford it, why not fit a new and bigger drive? Then just follow up what Armageddon said. The old 80GB drive can then be fitted to an enclosure and used as an external drive. Nev.

I bet this hurt the wallet a little. Wife by text to husband at work ............ "Windows at home frozen - what should I do?" Husband - "spray some de-icer or pour hot water on them" Wife a few minutes later - "Done that - now computer won't work at all"! Nev.

I know you are having the Avast issue looked at elsewhere so best not to do more until that is sorted one way or the other. However for information only, I did see that the Mozilla Firefox people had found a problem with McAffee site advisor causing a problem with memory leakage. McAfee have since altered their software to prevent that. Nev.

Hi and welcome Chris, also not too far away from me in Blackburn. You got some good cheese makers over there too. Nev.

Yep, that is where the firefox add ons start from, though you should also have most firefox sites in bookmarks as well. Malwarebytes is free and well worth installing for that extra protection, we don't normally recommend anything here unless it is free Ha ha.:D Have a look here, if you decide to go for it click the white "Download now" button, usually sends you to C.Net, a mirror site for the actual download, that is normal. http://www.malwarebytes.org/ nev.

The normal antivirus and firewall of Norton is on all the time and giving you that protection whatever browser you are using, even though the bar isn't there on Firefox, you are still under the protection Norton gives, so don't worry about that. There may even be an add on that will put Norton on, but haven't looked myself. I must ask, do you have any other security software installed such as general anti spyware things? Malwarebytes is one we always recommend and is a scan on demand type, it is the sort of thing you open say once a week and run a scan to check all is OK. It is very good and quite a lot of the things ordinary antivirus programs might miss will be caught by it. Nev.