Solved Laptop acting strange. Few things happening.

[UnknownReverent]

Ok so I've had this laptop since October. Occasionally when I'm on Skype with my cam I get this weird white noise type thing. My whole screen turns into like white noise, like how tv's are on the wrong channel. It's not the regular black and white dots, but there's color to it and it's lines. So basically color noise. It has happened a few times and I have to hold the button down and restart it. Recently though, my laptop has been turning itself off. No BSOD or anything, but just shutting off on it's own. It has happened twice. Once when I was on cam and got the color noise, and now another time while I was just watching a video. I have no idea what's going on. Any advice or help would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[indianacarnie]

Try updating your graphics driver.

 

[TVeblen]

Open your Event Viewer (type: Event Viewer at the Start search) and look to see if there are any Critical events listed around the time those problems occurred. Then Check the Errors.

See if anything corresponds to the time and symptom.

Also: are you on battery or power supply when this happens? Or does it not matter which?

 

[UnknownReverent]

Try updating your graphics driver.

I've done that already.

Open your Event Viewer (type: Event Viewer at the Start search) and look to see if there are any Critical events listed around the time those problems occurred. Then Check the Errors.

See if anything corresponds to the time and symptom.

Also: are you on battery or power supply when this happens? Or does it not matter which?

It happens on either. It doesn't matter. Which logs am I supposed to be viewing?

 

[TVeblen]

These:


Critical and Errors. Click the + sign to expand each.
Double click on the individual error to see details.

 

[UnknownReverent]

This is all it says.

The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly.

 

[UnknownReverent]

No one knows what could be the problem?

 

[TVeblen]

Not based on what is known now. Need more clues.

The graphics problem could be pre-symptomatic of a larger problem. Or it could be a stand-alone problem.
The shutting off problem could be a power problem, an overheating problem, or it could be a symptom of the graphics problem.
The graphics problem could be software and/or driver related, or it could be hardware related. As could the power problem.

A bad battery or power supply has been known to cause your kind of power symptom. You want to try running the computer for a while on battery only, on power supply only (remove the battery from the laptop and run it without one) to test to see if this could be the cause. You said you did this test and it was non conclusive. So we are assuming these components are good.

Overheating has been known to cause both your graphics problem and your power problem. In a laptop this is normally due to:

• A fan has stopped working
• Dust has built up inside the laptop, blocking air flow.
• A Component is overclocked, overworked, or defective and is running hot.

It would be much easier if I had your laptop on my bench. But right now all I see is SevenForums! The more information you can give the more help I can be.

And very often, in the process of slowing down and explaining their problem carefully a lot of folks figure out what is going on themselves.

But for now I suggest exploring the overheating issue. Here are some video tips:
How To Clean Dust From Your Laptop - YouTube
How to Clean a Laptop Fan - YouTube

Lets see if cleaning does it.

 

[karlsnooks]

No one knows what could be the problem?

What would help is for you to fill in the System Specs for the Laptop.

I realize that then later you may want to go back and change them to reflect your custom built desktop, but the time-being we need the system specs for the laptop.

Here is how. I prefer using Speccy, but the call is yours.

Update your SevenForums System Specs
User CP (located on the top menu bar) |
Your Profile | Edit System Spec (left-hand column)

To gather info, use Speccy (my favorite) or SIW or System Info

Add the word laptop or desktop or netbook to the
“system manufacturer” block, for example,
Toshiba Satellite L305D notebook.

Provide full windows version info, for example:
MS Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 64-bit

Use the “Other Info” block for Optical Reader,
Mouse, touchpad, wifi adapter, speakers, monitor, etc

Scroll down and click on SAVE CHANGES.
============================================

 

[ickymay]

I had this same symptom amongst others with a customers HP Pavilion Dv5 - 111Oem and the fault turned out to be bad sectors on the hard drive

run the laptops hard drive check on boot and see if it shows any problems ?

 

[UnknownReverent]

I can't remove the battery, unfortunately.

As for the system specs, here they are:

OS MS Windows 7 64-bit SP1
CPU Intel(R) Core(TM) i5 CPU M 480 @ 2.67GHz
Motherboard Samsung QX310/QX410/QX510/SF310/SF410/SF510
Memory 4GB
Graphics Card Intel(R) HD Graphics/NVIDIA GeForce 310M
Sound Card Realtek High Definition Audio
Screen Resolution 1366x768
Hard Drives Samsung HM641JI

 

[Slartybart]

Pixalation (white noise) can be caused by a whole bunch of things. It happens to me on Skype when the connection speed is insufficient to support high quality video. Same thing for videos (The DailyShow, Hulu, YouTube). This isn't really a problem and there's not a whole lot that you can do about it. Both ends of the stream plus traffic on your connection determine the "speed".

The random or intermittent shutdowns could be caused by your camera driver, your graphics driver, or some other issue (overheating).

I don't know why you can't remove the battery.
---> edit:Unless your machine is not a laptop.
Best practices: Remove the battery when using a laptop on AC after it is fully charged. This takes a big block of heat out of the way and it also allows better cooling.

 

[Slartybart]

You have two different screen resolutions listed. 1) in your post: 1366x768 and 2) in your sysspecs: 1280x1024

Changing the resolution might help the pixalation problem, but I don't think that's really going to do that much. Changing the window size does help, but I'm sure you want full screen output

 

[UnknownReverent]

My system specs listed above are my laptop specs. The other is my custom built computer. I can't remove the battery from the laptop because that's how it is. I don't understand it either, but there's no way to remove it unless I open the laptop. Also the white noise type thing is on the WHOLE screen. So I have to restart the laptop because I can't do anything when it happens.

 

[TVeblen]

I'm not trying to be difficult, but I am blown away by the idea that you can't remove the battery on a laptop.

What brand and model number is the laptop?

If you mean that if you remove the battery and try to run it on the power supply only and it won't work then there is your answer.

 

[UnknownReverent]

I'm not trying to be difficult, but I am blown away by the idea that you can't remove the battery on a laptop.

What brand and model number is it?

If you mean that if you remove the battery and try to run it on the power supply only and it won't work then there is your answer.

No, the battery is non-removable.

QX410-S02 Notebook with Windows 7 Home Premium 640GB HDD

 

[TVeblen]

WOW. I apologize. That is absolutely....... fascinating.
They are trying to kill us (technicians).

So the battery's life span is the laptop's lifespan? Let's hope that is not today!

 

[UnknownReverent]

WOW. I apologize. That is absolutely....... fascinating.
They are trying to kill us (technicians).

So the battery's life span is the laptop's lifespan? Let's hope that is not today!

I've had it for only half a year.

 

[TVeblen]

Well yeah. Wouldn't that suck in spades.

I suggest going back through this thread and checking to be sure you have tried and tested everything suggested here (that can be done). Report what you have done and what the result was. Just to keep from going in circles.

Let's see if we can find a more reasonable cause and solution.

 

[writhziden]

The first thought that occurred to me was dust. That has already been suggested, though. Would you be willing to do a factory recovery to the factory image? That would determine whether this is a hardware or software issue.

Perform a Complete Restore


Otherwise, for a 1/2 year old laptop that has a non-removable battery, my suggestion would be to use the warranty, in which case they will do the recovery for you, so really it is worth doing yourself to test. This may be a hardware problem that is graphics related.


Backup any important data to an external drive or USB flash drive prior to doing either of the above.