Hi all, I am getting a litle desperate, as I suppose everyone is with a computer problem. I have a Gateway Solo 5300 laptop, running WinMe. It keeps freezing randomly, even with no programs running, and sometimes during startup. There is always a very distinct click before it freezes, then the hard drive light goes on, without blinking, and stays on, and the computer freezes. Often you only get a couple of minutes operation before this happens. Even when it is operating 'normally', some strange things seem to happen. First, the computer seems to 'think' continuously for long long periods of time (I mean it makes a sound like it is thinking, even when no programs are running, and it can last for half an hour or more). Second, every so often I get a series of clicks in a row - a little bit like maybe the computer is trying to read a drive (not the a: drive though, for certain), and keeps trying to do it again and again. Any ideas, anyone? I'd love some help ... Andrew

hello andrew; use your windows me floppy startup disk, put the floppy disk in the floppy drive restart the computer when it loads in msdos make sure c:\ is showing if a:\ is showing type c:\ it will change straight away, then type in scandisk let it do the full hard disk scan. if that does not fix the problem stay in msdos and type scanreg/fix best wishes coly zenno

Thanks for your help, man. I am running sandisk again now, though I have done that before and I am not sure it will help (fingers crossed). I typed in scanreg/fix, and it said it was going to rebuild the registry. That freaked me out a little, to be honest. Can I lose data that way? What are the risks? Thanks again, Andrew

No, you won't lose data but I doubt very much if that will help you.....the "click" gives it away, for me anyway. Sounds like your hard drive is on the way out, so back up everything you can RIGHT NOW. Then when scandisk is running, make sure it is set to do the thorough scan so it checks the surface. Now, even if it says the surface is OK, the hard drive might still be going because that loud click usually means the mechanism inside is jamming.