Wasn't sure which category to choose, as I am stumped on this one.
Back in May I bought a used laptop (Dell Latitude e6410, 2.4 Ghz i5, 4 MB RAM, running Windows 7 Pro) and it worked fine with light use for a week, didn't show any problems but then my husband used it for work and after chugging away for a few hours, the heatsink gave up the ghost and it overheated, taking the hard drive with it. Shame on me for buying used, but hey, I can't afford a new one right now...
I paid to have Dell fix it (figured I could do it, but I correctly guessed that with a used machine, there could be more problems lurking than just the heatsink...) and they replaced the heatsink and the hard drive, but when it arrived, there was a hole busted in the bottom cover that pushed in enough to prevent me from being able to open it.
So it got sent back to Dell for them to replace the back cover (I wasn't going to take the risk of damaging the components by busting it off!). Got it back and it seemed to work fine at first, but once I installed anything on it (windows updates, adobe acrobat, bitdefender antivirus), it started slowing down (especially in how long it takes to startup) so much it was unbearable.
Dell told me to send it back again, and this time they replaced the motherboard. But response time was no different.
Tried another fresh install of Windows, and after reinstalling, before it has any other software on it (or windows updates) it seems fine, takes about 5 minutes to start up (which is still slow, but better than the 20-30 minutes it had been taking).
But again, as soon as I start installing Windows updates or software on it, it starts slowing down more and more. We're back to 20 minute startup times.
Tried it all again, this time avoiding any Windows Updates. This time it seemed to be doing better. Installed Acrobat, Bitdefender, seemed to be running OK. Sometimes it would be a little slow starting up, and within the first 30 minutes or so after startup, but after it had been running a while, it seemed to work pretty well.
Then I went out of town and it sat for several days. When I started it up next, it was back to 20 minutes and gluey response times.
We have run all sorts of diagnostics on this thing, I have removed one memory unit at a time to see if one is bad, nothing seems to make any difference. This computer works fine as long as I don't do anything with it! But I actually need to use software.
I am stumped as to what could possibly be the problem here, when the hard drive, heatsink and motherboard have all been replaced, I'm working with a fresh install of Windows, the computer does not go any slower with only one memory unit in place, My Dell diagnostics can't find a problem. I would think that overheating would slow it down, but in this case running for a while seems to help it, not hurt it (and I am using it with a cooling pad...).
What could possibly be causing this laptop to keep slowing down and taking so long to start up???
Back in May I bought a used laptop (Dell Latitude e6410, 2.4 Ghz i5, 4 MB RAM, running Windows 7 Pro) and it worked fine with light use for a week, didn't show any problems but then my husband used it for work and after chugging away for a few hours, the heatsink gave up the ghost and it overheated, taking the hard drive with it. Shame on me for buying used, but hey, I can't afford a new one right now...
I paid to have Dell fix it (figured I could do it, but I correctly guessed that with a used machine, there could be more problems lurking than just the heatsink...) and they replaced the heatsink and the hard drive, but when it arrived, there was a hole busted in the bottom cover that pushed in enough to prevent me from being able to open it.
So it got sent back to Dell for them to replace the back cover (I wasn't going to take the risk of damaging the components by busting it off!). Got it back and it seemed to work fine at first, but once I installed anything on it (windows updates, adobe acrobat, bitdefender antivirus), it started slowing down (especially in how long it takes to startup) so much it was unbearable.
Dell told me to send it back again, and this time they replaced the motherboard. But response time was no different.
Tried another fresh install of Windows, and after reinstalling, before it has any other software on it (or windows updates) it seems fine, takes about 5 minutes to start up (which is still slow, but better than the 20-30 minutes it had been taking).
But again, as soon as I start installing Windows updates or software on it, it starts slowing down more and more. We're back to 20 minute startup times.
Tried it all again, this time avoiding any Windows Updates. This time it seemed to be doing better. Installed Acrobat, Bitdefender, seemed to be running OK. Sometimes it would be a little slow starting up, and within the first 30 minutes or so after startup, but after it had been running a while, it seemed to work pretty well.
Then I went out of town and it sat for several days. When I started it up next, it was back to 20 minutes and gluey response times.
We have run all sorts of diagnostics on this thing, I have removed one memory unit at a time to see if one is bad, nothing seems to make any difference. This computer works fine as long as I don't do anything with it! But I actually need to use software.
I am stumped as to what could possibly be the problem here, when the hard drive, heatsink and motherboard have all been replaced, I'm working with a fresh install of Windows, the computer does not go any slower with only one memory unit in place, My Dell diagnostics can't find a problem. I would think that overheating would slow it down, but in this case running for a while seems to help it, not hurt it (and I am using it with a cooling pad...).
What could possibly be causing this laptop to keep slowing down and taking so long to start up???
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