Mayday Mayday! (Random freezes)

Hi, as i was not sure about what the problem with my laptop truly is i've created a thread on the software forum.
The many hours around this and experiences i made so far make me now belive it could be hardware related.

As i dont want to re-thread i'll just leave the link to the previous one:
http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?p=1842771#post1842771

best regards, Jota

 

If it doesn't happen in safe mode I would automatically assume a video card related problem and focus my energy there.

Update windows, uninstall your video driver from control panel then download the latest version from the laptops manufacturers website and reinstall.

Clean out the laptop with a canned air or a compressor, check all fans are spinning.

Download speedfan and post your temps-

http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/speedfan.html

Then download passmark and run the video card test, compare your score with the online charts to check your running at full performance, alternatively download the latest 3Dmark your laptop will run and run it, compare your score with online charts.

http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/passmark_burnintest_standard.html

Monitor your temps with speedfan while running the stress tests.

 

thanks a lot for the hints. will do.

the is prety clean, i do it once every 4-5 months, altough with a brush cause it's impossible to open this fan model. It does get all back tough, say 5-10% dirt.

I am gona monitor the temps although they aint getting much high as it can block after 30 seconds and up.

As for drivers and windows, now i am testing on a new HD(solo windows) and getting all drivers up to date.


Question: Could it be power suplly related? Not excluding video like you said.

Thank you very much indeed! Best reagards, Jota

 

Unlikely because it's a laptop they have built in battery backup and do all their power conversions internally instead of inside the psu, you can check your power supply with a multimeter to see if it's putting out roughly the right voltage but you can't do a load test.

Basically if the light comes on when the psu is connected and the battery charges it should be assumed as good for troubleshooting purposes.

Why do you suspect power supply? A common mistake when troubleshooting laptops is to assume power supply is bad because the errors don't happen or happen less when running on only battery but this is due to the power saving features under clocking the laptop to save power often by more than 50%, less stress, less stress related errors.

 

hi,

i see your point, the thing is that allthough i got the batery pluged-in, it aint charging (lots of use n abuse). so it's only purpose is serving as a "batery for the bios". Doesnt provide 10 seconds of batery sustain when laptop depending exclusively on it.

i did test for amps and voltage with a multimeter, values as expected (amp spike, not load). checked voltage for +10 minutes all regular. This question was brought to me when i was surfing/reading about this. Some cases even refered to "power mode" problems (performance or saving mode).

hadnt got a chance to follow your previous post, i am on a diferent time zone xD
hopefully tomorow i will have a post about sucess.

cya then

 

I would assume the power supply is good and the battery is bad and move on.

BTW when you say freeze does the whole screen freeze including mouse and does it stay like that until a restart or does it restart automatically?

 

Just read your earlier thread in more detail, it's the same problem and you were receiving advice as early as yesterday so you shouldn't really have two threads.

Since the freeze is random without any error codes or other clues the only way to home in on the problem is to test and rule each major component out which can take quite a bit of work.

Answer my question on the freeze though we'll go from there.

 

The freeze is the the screen imagem at the time, all locked including mouse and keyboard, sound like "Tttttrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr" on speakers (with the volume set at the time) and no other option but to manualy re-boot.

Hard drive is excluded since i tested with a brand new one.
Power hardware was also tested no problems there.
Temperatures measured and on normal range (33C HDD, 40C cores) max=(39C HDD, 50C cores)


Re-installed and tried diferent versions of drivers and somewhat/somehow it is running for +5hours. Last drivers i messed with were power management and CD/DVD.
will get back after another while to post good news i hope.

thanks a bunch, best regards J0TA.

 

still running under stress at this time.
Never lasted this long when the freezes started to appear

Seams it got solved. Hope i will be able to help out to resolve other questions like you did with me. Thumbs up, thanks up.

 

The point of the stress tests is to find a problem they don't fix anything they rule out major components, ideally the computer will crash as it has done and then you can home in on the problem.

If you've run the video stress test for a couple of hours and the computer hasn't crashed you can be pretty sure the problem isn't with the video chip, this also partially rules out the cpu due to it being a laptop.

Run these two tests next, the first will test the memory, the second will test the cpu-

http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/memtest86.html

http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/intelburntest.html

Keep any eye on your temps during the intel burn test.