Hardware testing.

[Doug]

On 09/17/2010 09:21 PM, P Echo wrote:
> I've been asked to triage a laptop running windows xp   I know that my
> problem is off topic, but the question is "on" I think.
>
> /snip/
>
> If it matters, the symptoms are multiple, repeated crashes of things
> like MS Word, especially when trying to cut and paste from MS Excel.
> (WinDUHs not even playing nice with itself)  I assume the normal bloat
> and crap-ware on the system, but want to exclude hardware problems
> first.  It is a Dell Laptop, @ 3 years old.  No model or other yet.
>
> Thanks for any thoughts.
>
> -- Patton
>
>    
Have you done all the usual things, like defrag, etc.?  Have you run
some good anti-virus program(s)?  Windows even has some of its own
security stuff now, but I'm not sure it's available for XP.  Also, I'd get
and run a registry checking/fixing prog, like Registry Mechanic. And
tell the owner of the machine to never run any kind of Outlook or
Internet Explorer.  They're magnets for trouble from the outside.
Only then run your tests.
(You probably knew all this, anyway.)
--doug