Yesterday, when I switched on my laptop it failed to get going, it seemed to be loking on one drive for the startup, possibly the D drive, and when it couldn't find it, it kept on switching itself off, and having another go, getting stuck every time. It did this for a while, I unplugges everything and it made no difference and then I turned it upside down to see if I needed to change the battery or something - its actually on the mains, but anything was worth trying, anyway I gave it a tap or two, turned it over, and it started up properly. It did this once before recently, but its OK at the moment. I've now backed up everything I think is worthwhile onto a DVD, but I don't want to reset it unless I have to. I used to know how to get it to the blue screen, but have forgotten, so couldn't check to see where it was looking. Any ideas?

My PC did this - I think it was the fan?? Or i think sometimes it searches for a drive that's not there - so you can change the start up thing, by pressing F2 or something??? (I'm no computer whiz)

best to back up anyway.

Thanks for that, I may have dislodged the dust from the fan when I turned it upside down. I know there is some way of making sure it looks for the drives in the right order, and I used to do it quite often when I looked after the school IT system - a while ago now though, so I've forgotten most of what I knew then :$ a job not so much taken up, but thrust upon me I might add. Computers sure know when to suffer problems don't they - who says they are not going to take over the world???:-)

Sounds like a problem either with loose connections in the hard drive, or an issue with the controller for the hard drive (on the motherboard). The most important thing is that you've managed to back it up, I guess it's not still under warranty? In terms of a complete reformat I doubt it'll help, it sounds more like an intermittent contact interruption somewhere which would, if that is the case, require a new hard drive.

If it's under warranty problem solved, take it back and get them to check the controller connection and replace the hard drive. If not, it can be repaired but needs someone who knows what they are doing.

thanks for that, I will persevere with it for a while, and then might just get a new one :-( on the other hand it will probably be faster than the one I have at the moment. :-)