Continuous Freezes

Spiritual · 24 Nov 2010

Hey there, I've got a problem with my Windows 7 Home Premium..
I guess, I should start from the beginning. I have a VAIO VGN-NW150D laptop approximately 1 year old. It was sold with Vista, but Sony was nice enough to send me an upgrade to Win7. I've upgraded it right away, a year ago.

In the beginning of November'10 it started freezing. It mostly happens about 5-10 minutes after Windows boots up. I got a BSOD a couple of times, but mostly the system just didn't respond, and I had to force restart it.
What I did that time: RAM tests (no problems), Hard Drive test (no errors), system restore to an earlier time (kept on freezing), Antimalaware scan (nothing found), Antivirus scan - even made Kaspersky bootable flash for it (nothing found), checked for any hardware conflict (again nothing). After a couple of days of desperation, I've just restored the system to the factory settings (Vista), then updated it to Win7 again..

Till today everything has been working flawlessly (2 weeks), but the system started freezing again in the same manner (no BSOD). I've tryed everything listed above again, did the clean boot, but nothing helps..

I'm really desperate to fix my laptop since it's getting closer and closer to finals at university. Please, help me to figure out this problem, I can't keep on restoring the system to factory settings. Tell me if you need any other information or files I can provide.

Thank you.

Tews · 24 Nov 2010

Please follow these directions..

Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) Posting Instructions

Spiritual · 24 Nov 2010

Sorry for not doing it right away.
Followed the instructions, the zip-file is attached..

Tews · 24 Nov 2010

Unfortunately, there were no .dmp files included... navigate to c:/windows/minidump and zip up any .dmp files and attach them to your next post...

Spiritual · 24 Nov 2010

There is no such folder, and no .dmp files anywhere.. I've searched the whole C drive..

CarlTR6 · 24 Nov 2010

Read the last part of the first post of this tutorial and make sure your system is setup for mini dumps: https://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials...en-forums.html. If you have cleaning program such as Ccleaner, make sure it is NOT set to delete dumps files.

I suggest that you completely uninstall AVG using this removal tool: Tool (64 bit) . AVG is known to cause BSOD's on some Win 7 systems. Download and install Microsoft Security Essentials in its place. Make sure Windows Firewall is turned on.

Spiritual · 24 Nov 2010

CarlTR6, thank you. Turns out, my system wasn't actually set up.
So I've changed that and uninstalled AVG.. We'll see what's gonna happen.

CarlTR6 · 24 Nov 2010

I dug a little deeper and I find many outdated drivers loading on your system. Some are quite obsolete and are XP drivers. Out of date drivers can and do cause conflicts, memory corruption and BSOD's. Update these drivers or uninstall the software or hardware they are associated with.

Apfiltr.sys 10/29/2008 - Alps Pointing-device, OEM - none at ã‚¢ãƒ«ãƒ—ã‚¹é›»æ°—. This device is obsolete uninstall it or rename the driver.

ArcSoftKsUFilter.sys 4/3/2008 - ArcSoft Magic-I Visual Effect. http://www.arcsoft.com/public/download.asp. If there is no update for this driver, uninstall the software.

iaStor.sys 4/15/2008 - Intel AHCI Controller. Intel Storage drivers. http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Default.aspx. Update this driver.

RTKVHD64.sys 7/2/2009 - HD Service for Realtek, Realtek High Definition Audio Function Driver Realtek. Update this driver.

IntcHdmi.sys 7/10/2009 - Intel(R) High Definition, Intel High Definition Audio HDMI Driver. http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Default.aspx. Update.

netw5v64.sys 5/14/2009 - Intel Wireless WiFi Link Driver, http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Default.aspx. Update.

PxHlpa64.sys 5/15/2009 - Sonic CD/DVD driver (used by many different CD/DVD programs) pxHelp20.sys programs
Go to C:\Windows\System32\drivers and rename PxHlpa64.sys to PxHlpa64.BAK
This will break your CD/DVD program, but can easily be renamed after we've finished.

rimssn64.sys 9/2/2008 - Ricoh Memory Card Reader driver, OEM - none at Home | Ricoh Global. This card reader is obsolete Uninstall it and upgrade to a card reader certified compatible with Win 7.

risdsn64.sys 9/22/2008 - Ricoh Memory Card Reader driver, OEM - none at Home | Ricoh Global, See above.

SFEP.sys 8/2/2007 - Sony Firmware Extension Parser driver, Sony eSupport - Electronics - Select Your Model. Update.

xaudio64.sys 11/28/2006 - Conexant Modem Audio Conexant: Support. This is XP hardware Uninstall it or rename the driver.

yk62x64.sys 2/23/2009 - NDIS6.2 Miniport Driver, Marvell Yukon Network driver, Marvell: Support. Update

How to find drivers -

- I have listed links to most of the drivers in the code box above. Please use the links there to see what info I've found about those drivers.
- search Google for the name of the driver
- compare the Google results with what's installed on your system to figure out which device/program it belongs to
- visit the web site of the manufacturer of the hardware/program to get the latest drivers (DON'T use Windows Update or the Update driver function of Device Manager).
- if there are difficulties in locating them, post back with questions and someone will try and help you locate the appropriate program.

- - The most common drivers are listed on this page: Driver Reference
- - Driver manufacturer links are on this page: Drivers and Downloads
- - To remove any left over driver remnants, especially from graphics cards, use driver sweeper Guru3D - Driver Sweeper

Intel Driver Utility: Intel® Driver Update Utility

Cleaning up this old drivers is essential. If you need help, please post.