Real problematic laptop

[GreenMint]

Hey guys, taking a look at a laptop for a friend, he said it was BSOD'ing on Windows loading, fair enough i think either format or repair, alas no..

Windows XP in Safe mode: Shuts down
Windows XP in Normal boot: bsod - restart
Windows XP in last settings that worked: bsod - restart
Booting from XP cd to reinstall - 10 times done, 9 times it shut off within 30 secs of being inside windows install, the other time it whirred for 10 mins then said corrupted file (tested cd on my other lappy and it ran flawlessly)
Ubuntu boot disk: ran to ubuntu install menu but then went very slow and eventually hung
Knoppix bootable OS cd..worked flawlessly.

Its a Toshiba Equium A60, but i'm not sure at all as to what is causing all these errors, if there was some major component error, then surely knoppix wouldn't have a: ran or b: been able to access ot hdd?

anyone?

 

[steve258]

Sounds like a RAM fault. Did your mate recently upgrade his memory?? If he has 2 memory modules then try romoving 1 and see if it work.

I had the same problem with my laptop before after adding an additional memory module; windows would freeze / crash / bsod randomly but all was fine after i removed one of the modules.

 

[GreenMint]

Sounds like a RAM fault. Did your mate recently upgrade his memory?? If he has 2 memory modules then try romoving 1 and see if it work.

I had the same problem with my laptop before after adding an additional memory module; windows would freeze / crash / bsod randomly but all was fine after i removed one of the modules.

Sadly not, i checked the extra ram slot and nothing, the only thing he as ever added to the Laptop is a bt wireless card.

Gonna try and see if i can find an installer version of knoppox and see how that goes, not holding out much hope, but still!