So my 5 year old laptop suddenly stopped working. It starts up normally, but after it has loaded the desktop, I can barely open even task manager or windows menu.
Basically the computer works really, really slow and the light indicating that the hard drive is being accessed is constantly lit.

There's no new programs or updates installed. The problem occurred while playing: the computer pretty much froze, but not entirely. I had to switch the computer off with power button. The computer was running quite warm, but no warmer than on usual gaming session.
Booting the computer in safe mode doesn't help.

This leads me to thinking that most likely my hard drive has come to it's end. Or maybe it could be the processor? What I'm hoping, but fearing is not the case, is that no hardware is broken and I can still somehow fix my old buddy.

I would get some cans of compressed air, and blow all the dust out of the laptop.
Too much heat will grind electronics to a halt, over time.

Thanks for input, I'll try cleaning it when I got time.

Any other opinions?

It could also be the thermal compound...and yes the HDD.

Maybe a Speccy screenshot would help.



Get SPECCY here: http://www.piriform.com/speccy/download
...get the FREE version from the: Piriform Link
...Speccy is a really nice system hardware/temperature, information Utility.
...simply install it...and run the program...then post a screen shot of the main page of the program, when posting a problem/question on these forums.





/e It could be an infection, that could also make the HDD LED stay on a lot.

This post was edited by Ghot on Dec 27 2017 05:37am

Thanks for the tip, right now my computer can't run a browser though, so I can't download it...

I'm quite sure it's not an infection though. If it is, I guess I could try using a restore point, since I can't really run any programs?

I might try borrowing a HDD from a friend to see if that's faulty...