Here's a problem :

My dad's laptop was playing up yesterday and wouldn't boot properly. I can manage to get it to boot but if it stops being used it'll shut down again after a few minutes. I've ran a virus scan and found nothing, even during the virus scanner he had to keep working on his excel documents etc for the machine to remain on. When it shuts down it goes to a screen saying 'insert boot cd into atapi cdrom device' and won't do anything until left alone for a while.

Basically, with no keyboard or mouse input it turns itself off.. it's not overheating either.

Any ideas ?

the shutdowns are probably power saving (see control panel)

as for the boot cd... maby theirs a missing file or corrupt .dll somewhere

also check your bios settings.. turn boot from CD off...

check your drivers are all installed...

set the laptop to gointo hibernation/standby rather than turn off so you dont loose work if it does go off

it can be any number of things but most likely its one of the above

if not it may be hardware but im not sure what could cause an error like that

That doesn't explain the reboots and the boot cd request, or the bootup errors.

try a different type of AV?

Tried that Shane, i've used some online ones too.

trouble with laptops is you cant delve into them like PC's.

Wait for mani or sloop to respond tbh.

ok the error reported if you don't keep using the pc constantly is

Kernal_data_page_error

I'll have to go with Maz on this one...

if your power supply or battry it faluty that it will go into stanby, and my not have the files needed to reboot from that mode??

but reading the error, it sound like your HD may have a probble

it does NOT go into standby, 'cause it bsod's if you leave it, plus standby shouldn't occur after like 30 secs of no usage. I think it's the hdd 'cause it bsod's if you try windows explorer or browsing anything except files on the desktop.

Sounds like the hd to me too, are you able to use windows enough to start a scan disk ? or maybe use windows repair, or just install windows over the top without formatting. If it isnt reliable to get your dad's files off you could get an adapter so you can use the 2.5" drive in your desktop PC. You'll stand a better chance of getting files off that way.

I'm running memtest on it at the moment but no errors as of yet. I will try scandisk etc in a bit, but I can't even browse files properly without it hanging so I will have to try a few times to get scandisk to run properly if it does work.

I'll update it more later.. thanks for the help so far.

If you are having problems with explorer, to do a scan you could go;
start > administrative tools > computer management
..and then start the scan disk from there. It will most probably just ask if you want to scan on next boot, which is probably a good thing if windows could die while its doing it.

the best way to start a scandisk which tells u anything useful is go to start > run > cmd then type

chkdsk /r

it will say it cant run do u wish it to run on next boot

when u reboot a disk check with the repair option will run.

from the text u will soon notice if ur hdd has lots of errors.

wouldent it be easier to use the Win key +r then type chkdsk /r

I ran a scan on the hdd using the disks tools and it said there were errors in the 'index' and 'metadata file records'

needs a reinstall then by the sounds

and if it keeps doing it your prolly gonna need a new HDD :/

Also try a system restore

Nope, it runs fine now. I managed to get scandisk to run on a reboot and it ran for like 2 seconds and then flicked back to windows and now it runs fine ?? I have no idea why but..

We'll see how long it lasts.

mabt scan disk repaired the files.... well let us know if it goes tits up again

You may want to try spinrite to help prevent it from happaning again