It is driving me Nuts!

I am typing this on my laptop computer. That is the good news.. What is driving me nuts is that I am having trouble with this laptop. It does not boot a lot of the time. A very lot of the time. It is trying my patience. I do mean trying.

Camping a couple of weeks ago, the laptop refused to boot. I pushed the power button probably a dozen times to no avail. All that happened was that the power light lit, and the caps lock lit flashed. I probably punched that button a dozen or more times. Suddenly the laptop started. It worked fine, but I inadvertently (OK, unthinkingly!) just pushed the power button rather than let windows shut down properly. Yep, you guessed it the laptop would not reboot the next time I wanted to use it. Logically, it would seem that not shutting down properly was the problem.

Eventually after punching the power button more times than I want to admit this **** thing stated again. OK good, now let up go through the proper procedures for shut down. Now let us try to reboot. It works! Well, I figured that out didn't I?

Not quite! I used this computer for several hours, and shut it down properly several times. It rebooted each time, every time. I packed it away...for use when we were not at home, sometime.

Andrew (son) showed up Sunday with his new HP touchsmart laptop and showed that off. He asked was my laptop working now. Sure says I wanna see?

Well, it would not reboot. I punched that power button (20 times, a hundred times, a lotta times). For no apparent reason one time it rebooted. I used it for awhile and then it froze, while sending gmail. I held down the power button and then tried to reboot. It would NOT! However, the improper shut down procedure idea is still in play here.

Same scenario, many attempts, many failures, but after much anguish and a few improper words, it did reboot. I shut it down properly. Windows shut down and the laptop powered off.

Now it will power back up right? No that is wrong, it didn't

I have a friend who fixes computers. He suggested that I remove the battery and try running the computer only on AC. His thinking was that the battery was 'too dead to recharge' or 'shorted out'. I did as suggested. The laptop booted immediately, the first attempt. OK then logically that would seem to be the problem. I powered down properly and rebooted several times. I had successful reboots every and each time. So I ordered a new battery.

Then while I was using the laptop, showing Lori just how well it worked now, it froze! Would not do anything at all. Control-Alt-Del did not even work! So I unplugged the computer and tried to reboot. That's right it didn't. I tried and my patience was tried until I was nearly a patient myself. In biblical times I could have blamed the problem on God saying he was checking on my patience. It is doubtful that was what is happening, although the effect is the same.

I called my computer buddy again. He still leans toward there being a power supply problem, but he cannot really help me. He repairs PC's and almost never works on laptops. I called another computer tech and he will look at this laptop tomorrow at 9,

I did get the laptop to reboot just before he called. I was removing a security program that locks the laptop until the proper fingerprint is swiped. Last April a warning suddenly appeared on the laptop informing me of that feature on this laptop. I have not found a fingerprint scanner anywhere. That not withstanding and the fact that the computer locks, along with the fact that I have another security program working, made me decide to remove that program.

The result? Who knows? This computer has rebooted properly every time since. My feelings all along have been that there is a virus working or a program not working that should be. My anti-virus has not found a virus and the definitions are up to date. Of course there could still be a virus lurking around somewhere.

I would almost bet that when the computer guy gets here tomorrow this (nice words here!) computer will boot each and every time!

See why I am going Nuts!