Gateway Laptop Reboot Loop

[TomH03]

Hello,

My old Gateway laptop is stuck in a reboot loop. I leave it on overnight and when I returned in the morning it had shut down and the loop started when I turned it on. It will turn on and go to a screen offering the options of Start Normally, Start with Last Known Good Config, or start in Safe Mode with three options. Choosing any of these options will cause it to restart and go back to that screen. I decided to try a recovery with the factory disc but when I choose recovery it shows a blue screen with an error message. I don't no if I should show the whole screen but this is the technical error:

Stop: 0x0000007E (0xC0000005, 0x804EBFF5, 0xF79FE3BC, 0xF79FE0BC).

Any ideas for a fix?

Edit: Forgot to add that I google'd the problem and some of the results said it may be driver related and going to default settings in Bios might help so I disconnected all external devices and reset the settings but it didn't have any effect.

I also forgot to add specs just in case. It's a Gateway Mx6442 and a link to the full specs.

 

[Guest]

If there are two memory modules in the computer try removing one and see if the computer will boot. If not, remove the other and replace the first and try again.

 

[TomH03]

If there are two memory modules in the computer try removing one and see if the computer will boot. If not, remove the other and replace the first and try again.

Thanks for the reply fihart. I did as you said and took the back off the laptop. There were two 512mb ram sticks so I tried each one separately and one of them seems to be the cause because it will boot with just the other stick in. Is there any way to fix it or should I just buy another stick?

 

[Guest]

Probably buy another stick -- I'd take the opportunity to buy a bigger one -- go to Kingston or Crucial memory websites and use their database for which module you need -- and whether you can mix sticks of different capacity.

 

[TomH03]

Probably buy another stick -- I'd take the opportunity to buy a bigger one -- go to Kingston or Crucial memory websites and use their database for which module you need -- and whether you can mix sticks of different capacity.

Alright, my concern is the age of the laptop. I've had it for a little over 5 years now so is this first of many problems? I only need it for portability as I just built a desktop for any heavy duty work.

 

[Guest]

Most laptops the problems are physical -- hinges breaking out of the plastic casing, keyboard, mouse pad, CD drive drawer.

So long as you don't block the cooling vents they should last as long as a desktop -- in fact most laptops are kept in use longer because they cost more to replace. Of course the latter situation has changed -- so you might weigh up the balance of spending on new memory for an old machine and picking a new laptop for, what, four or five times the outlay ?

 

[TomH03]

Most laptops the problems are physical -- hinges breaking out of the plastic casing, keyboard, mouse pad, CD drive drawer.

So long as you don't block the cooling vents they should last as long as a desktop -- in fact most laptops are kept in use longer because they cost more to replace. Of course the latter situation has changed -- so you might weigh up the balance of spending on new memory for an old machine and picking a new laptop for, what, four or five times the outlay ?

Thanks again fihart, I'll definitely look at getting more memory if the laptop is too slow at its current state.

 

[TomH03]

Best answer selected by TomH03.