Programs hang up during use, sometimes crash without warning

Coloumb · 06 Jul 2012

I’m a member of the IT department in a relatively small company. Earlier last week, one of my users reported a strange error to me. I have never encountered this before. The problem he described is detailed further below. We have several of this model laptop; this is the first one to give us any problems.

System Information:

Lenovo ThinkPad T420s
Model #: 4170CTO
OS: Windows 7 Professional 6.1.7601 Service Pack 1 Build 7601 (64-bit)
Processor: Intel Core i5-2540M (CPU @ 2.60GHz, 2 Cores)
RAM: 8GB
Spec Sheet: https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B3z...1V2dm5hZFNNazA

Problem:

• The laptop locks up during normal usage, typically when running a Microsoft program such as Word or Excel. When this happens, it generally forces the program closed, resulting in loss of work.
• On 6/28/12 the computer forced a shut-down without warning. After rebooting, the machine gave an error message saying something along the lines of “Not enough resources” to load the user profile. The message requests logging on with a user account which has been used previously on the laptop, even though the account(s) being tried have all logged on before. In order to log in again the machine had to be rebooted several times.
• Computer has yet to provide a blue screen error.

I do have access to the Event Log, if it would be of any help. However, I could not find any errors associated with the log-on message we received. Here is one of the “Application Hang” errors, which I believe is what the user was referring to when he mentioned the trouble with Microsoft programs.

Log Name: Application
Source: Application Hang
Date: 6/28/2012 9:27:45 AM
Event ID: 1002
Task Category: (101)
Level: Error
Keywords: Classic
User: N/A
Computer: CLIL00026-T420S
Description:
The program Explorer.EXE version 6.1.7601.17567 stopped interacting with Windows and was closed. To see if more information about the problem is available, check the problem history in the Action Center control panel.
Process ID: dcc
Start Time: 01cd5528207bf840
Termination Time: 34894
Application Path: C:\Windows\Explorer.EXE
Report Id: f23c3238-c124-11e1-a497-e4d53dc8bfcc

To my knowledge, the computer has not given the login error since the morning of the 28th, but continues to run sluggishly and forcibly close some programs without warning.

gregrocker · 06 Jul 2012

Work through these standard Troubleshooting Steps for Windows 7

karlsnooks · 06 Jul 2012

coloumb,

Are any of the Lenovo laptops identical to this one?

Do they all have the same problem?

Are the laptops part of an internal company network?

Are they individually licensed or covered by an enterprise license?

Looking thru event logs can be quite a pain to be honest.

Nevertheless, I'll give you a script for actually deleting the logs. What this will do is get rid of the thousands of entries which help to cloud the issue.

After that, at the next error then check for critical errors in the event log.

Script:


# ************************************************************
# Clear the EVENT LOGS
#
# **********************INSTRUCTIONS**************************
# STEP 1 *****************************************************
# RUN PowerShell as ADMINISTRATOR
# START ORB | type POWERSHELL | CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER key combo | ALT+Y keycombo
# ************************************************************
# STEP 2 *****************************************************
# COPY, starting with the first line that does NOT start with a #
# COPY, using CTRL+C, every line thru both EXIT statements 
# PASTE into Powershell
# You PASTE by Right-clicking at the PowerShell Prompt
#  (Ctrl+V does not work)
# ************************************************************

Get-WinEvent -ListLog * -Force | % { $_.logname;Wevtutil.exe cl $_.logname };Wevtutil.exe cl system

EXIT
EXIT

# ***************** NOTE - POWERSHELL VERSION*****************
# if you receive this error msg:
#  Get-WinEvent: The system can not find the path specified
# you need to update your PowerShell
# you must be using Powershell 2.0 or later.
#
# To determine your Powershell version:
#   Run PowerShell
#   enter $host.version
#   you should see at least:
# Major  Minor  Build  Revision
# -----  -----  -----  --------
# 2      0      -1     -1
#
# If you do not see the above, update your Vista/Win 7.
# ************************************************************
# *************** NOTE - EXECUTION POLICY*********************
# If you haven't set the execution policy, you may need to:
#   Run PowerShell
#   enter Set-ExecutionPolicy -executionpolicy remotesigned
#
# ************************************************************

=============================================

Of course, that's only one step.

Are the programs on the Lenovos all the same within the company or is every Tom,Dick, and Harry permitted to install whatever he pleases?

karl