got a acer aspire 3003lm (off top of my head) that i used to use in the garage for hooking up to hi-fi and for how-to guides
it developed this problem where it would lock up and the HDD would load for a sec then stop then start then stop........... and so on, this would continue for 2-3 mins or until you thumped it so hard the HDD shut off and restarted. The only way this problem was temporarily fixed was to wipe off everything and re-install windows.
anyway going back about 8 months or so ago i re-installed everything, then immediately after reinstalling it proceeded to still do it, so it then ejected itself out of my lap into the wall and then the floor...... quite violently
probably a long shot here but i broke the screen as when you turn it on the screen is really really dark, so much so you cant really see anything, had it in bits and cant see anything visually wrong with where it plugs into the main board ect........... anyone got any ideas or has it killed itself