inertia,
You wrote:
[quote]
That’s not instability, that’s VGA. VGA is native to the OS and anything else requires a driver. Because the point of Safe Mode is to boot with no or few drivers, the video driver is one that does not get loaded.
[quote]
I realize this, but safe mode is not particularly useful for many of the things I do, that was my point.
In spite of the long wait for a replacement, I may have to send this thing in anyway because it’s starting to flake out all over the place. The fan is getting really noisy and it won’t run from battery power anymore. I have two battery bays and I’ve double checked both batteries with the builtin self test and by trying them in another computer.
Maybe I’ve just got a lemon!
Joey:
In the event viewer are you filtering out events or are you capturing all events. To confirm, with the event viewer up, click on View and make sure there is a check next to “all events”. Are there ANY messages captured for those times? Even if it doesn’t look like an error, a message may be captured that says something important.
Also, did you try the option where you set up a user account on the local machine and then log on LOCALLY not to the network? This could help you get work done in times when the network is down.
If nothing else works, Joey, make a big stink with the vendor that they MUST order you a replacement machine ASAP so that you can return this one with no down time. They must have somebody who can do it for you. Make it happen. If you have to, quantify how much time your company has lost for your down time and send it to everybody and their brother who has power to help fix it. They could have probably bought a whole computer when they factor in your time lost and the tech support time it has taken to work on it. The squeaky wheel gets the grease.
Aenea: Yea, I’m quite a guru…NOT, but THANKS! 
-Katy
‘In spite of the long wait for a replacement, I may have to send this
thing in anyway because it’s starting to flake out all over the place.
The fan is getting really noisy and it won’t run from battery power
anymore. I have two battery bays and I’ve double checked both
batteries with the builtin self test and by trying them in another
computer.’
You mean after all that work we did you’re going to send it in anyway?
What choice do I have? A laptop computer that won’t work with the batteries is basically just a desktop computer… a desktopcomputer that, in this case, is screaming and making all my neighbors come over and ask, “What the hell is that?”
Of course, it’s going to be weeks (maybe months) before I can get another computer and with my battery mode flaking out, I need to fix my problem more than ever. Before, I could at least boot up the computer out of the dock at work and take it home still alive. Now the only way I’m going to be able to use it at home is if I can get it to boot up without a network…
Any other suggestions?
???
Start from scratch, if you do not want to send the machine in.
First check that the BIOS is up to date, Format the disk, then load NT only with network support from CD if it has BIOS boot, or from floppy, apply service pack. If all goes well (power down and reboot many times to check), then begin to load applications starting with virus checker, one at a time. Reload service pack each time. Good luck.
I once bought a laptop with weird battery issues. So I took the battery out & cleaned the contacts on it & the contacts on the laptop until they were really shiny & the thing worked perfectly forever after.
okatym,
Sorry. No I haven’t tried that yet. I have to wait for one of my sys admins to get some free time. I’ll request this, the first chance I get. Thanks, it sounds like a reasonable idea for most of the time. Occasionally, I need to network my PC to my Mac at home to share large files.
Centerline,
I’m pretty sure that this is what my sys admins tried last time (at least, that’s what they told me).
handy,
Yeah, this was my first thought too and in fact I did try to scrub the contacts, but it’s hard to tell if I’m doing any good. The contacts are mostly hidden inside a protective plastic comb. The contacts are side mounted so should get some natural scrub action when the battery is inserted and removed - actually a pretty smart design. However, on reflection, I don’t think the problem can be the batteries - it seems like it must be the power manager. The reason I think this is that both battery bays became ineffective at the same time.
As far as batteries go, my wife and kids have COMPAQ Presarios 1640s and 1650s. Once in a while, the computer will not boot because it thinks that the battery is completely discharged. It will boot without the battery, but not with the battery. The indicator on the battery itself will show 80% or 100%. It turns out that the battery monitor on the motherboard needs to be reset by booting without the battery, then inserting the battery again, so that the monitor now synchronizes with the actual charge on the battery (usually 100% when the monitor shows 0%). This may or may not help in your case. By the way, I would not completely trust the system guys, you won’t believe how many times we send people in to fix what they are doing in big companies. They generally have a different agenda, looking upon you as a client may not be of the highest priority.