I'm studying abroad in China and my laptop has a really weird problem, so I apologize in advance but this is a bit long.
I moved in with a host family last week, and 5 minutes after getting the internet to work and beginning to Skype chat people (without video) my computer (Gateway laptop model MT3423 I think, Vista Premium, Dual Core AMD Turion, ~2 years old in good condition) froze and hasn't been the same since. Now, booting brings me to the recovery screen (of course - Normal Mode, Safe Mode with Networking, etc.), but no Safe Mode works - I can get to the login screen but after signing in the Welcome screen with the loading circle stays up indefinitely. Normal Mode works though, but it has major issues. After successfully signing in programs begin to load but it quickly slows down to a crawl, and takes about a minute to close the two program warning boxes that pop up (just the usual 'this program is unregistered' sort of thing). After this, Windows Calendar inexplicably loads, again painfully slow, and if the computer hasn't crashed by this point then it does shortly thereafter. And the crash varies - a few times it started with a "Server Busy - this action cannot be completed" error message but it usually says euphemistically "Microsoft Windows - this application is not responding."
I've tried several things but I haven't had any success. During this loading window, I've tried running msconfig and unchecking nonessential programs, but even after clicking Save Changes and Restart the changes are not saved, and it'll still proceed to crash and load the programs again next boot. I've tried loading the control panel, but it becomes unresponsive after I try to click anything in it. I tried opening accessories under the Start Menu and it bugged out, and instead of showing the folder icon it showed a searching icon and wouldn't open. The Command Prompt loaded but was too slow to execute anything. I also tried opening Task Manager, even through Ctrl+Alt+Delete, and after a few minutes it successfully loaded once but didn't show anything unusual and then crashed.
I'm not sure what the problem is - the only things I can think of are that I had just setup 3 identical automatic broadband internet connections as I was troubleshooting the connection, the room was really hot (about 90 degrees F), and I had an SD memory stick in when I booted up the last few times before this. Also, I installed a Logitech Quickcam a few weeks before (whose software loads in the tray automatically) and one of the 2 popups that load is new, bugging me about registering EarthDesk. It seem to me like any of this should cause my problem, but it seems to me that it's a software problem, in part because I don't have any real evidence of hardware failure (although it does get really hot, but the fan is still working) and because while Windows will be crashing and I can't use the Start Menu, I can still hover over programs in the tray and have their name popup (but the battery status and volume control won't).
Anyone have any advice/input? I'm going to try to get a copy of the recovery CD, but that'll take at least a week and there are no authorized Gateway repair centers in China, not to mention the language barrier and risk involved, especially if I don't know what's wrong... Thanks a lot everyone!
I moved in with a host family last week, and 5 minutes after getting the internet to work and beginning to Skype chat people (without video) my computer (Gateway laptop model MT3423 I think, Vista Premium, Dual Core AMD Turion, ~2 years old in good condition) froze and hasn't been the same since. Now, booting brings me to the recovery screen (of course - Normal Mode, Safe Mode with Networking, etc.), but no Safe Mode works - I can get to the login screen but after signing in the Welcome screen with the loading circle stays up indefinitely. Normal Mode works though, but it has major issues. After successfully signing in programs begin to load but it quickly slows down to a crawl, and takes about a minute to close the two program warning boxes that pop up (just the usual 'this program is unregistered' sort of thing). After this, Windows Calendar inexplicably loads, again painfully slow, and if the computer hasn't crashed by this point then it does shortly thereafter. And the crash varies - a few times it started with a "Server Busy - this action cannot be completed" error message but it usually says euphemistically "Microsoft Windows - this application is not responding."
I've tried several things but I haven't had any success. During this loading window, I've tried running msconfig and unchecking nonessential programs, but even after clicking Save Changes and Restart the changes are not saved, and it'll still proceed to crash and load the programs again next boot. I've tried loading the control panel, but it becomes unresponsive after I try to click anything in it. I tried opening accessories under the Start Menu and it bugged out, and instead of showing the folder icon it showed a searching icon and wouldn't open. The Command Prompt loaded but was too slow to execute anything. I also tried opening Task Manager, even through Ctrl+Alt+Delete, and after a few minutes it successfully loaded once but didn't show anything unusual and then crashed.
I'm not sure what the problem is - the only things I can think of are that I had just setup 3 identical automatic broadband internet connections as I was troubleshooting the connection, the room was really hot (about 90 degrees F), and I had an SD memory stick in when I booted up the last few times before this. Also, I installed a Logitech Quickcam a few weeks before (whose software loads in the tray automatically) and one of the 2 popups that load is new, bugging me about registering EarthDesk. It seem to me like any of this should cause my problem, but it seems to me that it's a software problem, in part because I don't have any real evidence of hardware failure (although it does get really hot, but the fan is still working) and because while Windows will be crashing and I can't use the Start Menu, I can still hover over programs in the tray and have their name popup (but the battery status and volume control won't).
Anyone have any advice/input? I'm going to try to get a copy of the recovery CD, but that'll take at least a week and there are no authorized Gateway repair centers in China, not to mention the language barrier and risk involved, especially if I don't know what's wrong... Thanks a lot everyone!