Solved Sporadic freezing on 'Starting Windows' screen and on sleep

[neopuff34]

Sometimes my laptop freezes when I put it to sleep with the power button, by closing the lid, or when it puts itself to sleep automatically. When I open it or move the mouse, the screen remains black and I have to do a hard reboot.

When I boot up the computer at the screen with a pulsing Windows flag that displays 'Starting Windows', sometimes the pulse freezes and I have to hard reboot.

The thing is, these only happen SOMETIMES. I'd say maybe 1/4 times, the computer will boot without a hitch, and 2/3 times it will sleep and awaken properly.

I haven't really taken any steps to fix this besides re-installing Windows and downloading the newest drivers from HP's website, however neither of these worked. I'm not sure if it's worth mentioning, but the boot-up problem started out being very sporadic and gradually got more and more frequent and the wake-up problem suddenly started one day. The laptop is more than 4 years old and has seen daily use, but again I'm not sure if that's relevant.

 

[centaur78]

Hey neo

if this is BSOD problem .... try to follow Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) posting instructio and post the result here

this would help us narrow down your problem

 

[neopuff34]

Sorry, it's not, I should have been more clear. It's just a straight-up freeze. This seemed like the most suitable sub-forum to post the problem in.

 

[centaur78]

alright

in any case u could still run the above tool to give us an idea of why your facing the freeze.

Also look into your event viewer both on the Application and System logs to see for any error or warning...

 

[neopuff34]

As requested

 

[centaur78]

Hmmmm

This doesnt look so good....i can see three BSOD... and while checking the App event and System around these events... i can see that the system was freezing at around time... your system temperature has gone high.....

i would suggest you clean the vents of your laptop.......

you could also run SPECCY from Piriform.... to see at what temps your cpu, hdd and other are working....

Let me know what you find there

 

[neopuff34]

http://speccy.piriform.com/results/80sNci6WJjwZUlbZ3C14AsF

Yikes! I don't know what an acceptable range of temperatures is but those seem way high!

EDIT: And actually now that you mention it, my laptop does seem to feel hotter than it used to on my lap when I use it. The vents look clean from the outside though... Could there be clogging that I can't see?

 

[centaur78]

hmmm

the CPU is at 68 and the graphics card at 77 c...... these are high.... and the mobo temp is at 60.....what is the temperature that is set at Bios... i mean there has to be a max temp trip mentioned in the Bios.... try checking those and let me know.... if those are set at say @50 or so... and the temp goes high ... at say 60 c.... the system will automatically shut down to save the CPU, RAM and others..

Just for curiosity.... do you by any chance use your laptop at the bedside i mean on you bed..... or in area's where you fan vent is usually blocked ????? I have seen lots of user do this.... and when i end up taking the laptop apart.... i can see lots of dust blocking inside of the heatsinks....

since the freezing happen at intermittent intervals..... i would suggest we look at this .... before we move forward with other checks...

 

[neopuff34]

Just checked my BIOS settings and didn't see any mention of temperature ranges. "Starting Windows" screen froze again so out of curiousity I powered down until the fan port was cool to the touch and booted back up, but it still froze a good 7 or 8 times in a row before successfully booting.

I use my laptop on my bed all the time. Recently since I've noticed the laptop temperature increase, I make sure to put it down so that the fan ports are facing up but it's been years and I wouldn't have given it a second thought before. I'll definitely open it up and clean out the fans tomorrow and see if that helps.

Just to be clear, though, it doesn't randomly lock up. ONLY when trying to wake it up and at the 'Starting Windows' screen does it ever freeze. It's never done so while I'm using Windows normally, on the bed or otherwise.

 

[centaur78]

Just checked my BIOS settings and didn't see any mention of temperature ranges. "Starting Windows" screen froze again so out of curiousity I powered down until the fan port was cool to the touch and booted back up, but it still froze a good 7 or 8 times in a row before successfully booting.

I use my laptop on my bed all the time. Recently since I've noticed the laptop temperature increase, I make sure to put it down so that the fan ports are facing up but it's been years and I wouldn't have given it a second thought before. I'll definitely open it up and clean out the fans tomorrow and see if that helps.

Just to be clear, though, it doesn't randomly lock up. ONLY when trying to wake it up and at the 'Starting Windows' screen does it ever freeze. It's never done so while I'm using Windows normally, on the bed or otherwise.

Since it froze for almost 7 to 8 times .... you would have a fresh set of errors or BSODS related to this.. Try putting them up here to check again.

 

[neopuff34]

Not sure which part exactly tells you what you need to know, so here's the results of all 8 buttons from SF Diag Tool.exe and a new Speccy.

http://speccy.piriform.com/results/21m5FMOozxnzKkDA2sAXeiC

 

[neopuff34]

So I went ahead and disassembled the laptop down to the fans. The dust didn't look too bad, but I took a vaccum to it and put it all back together and WOW! I did a cold reboot 4 or 5 times in a row and put it to sleep using the power button and closing the lid and every single time it came back! I can definitely physically feel that the bottom is cooler, and here's a Speccy I just ran that shows the temps are way down. http://speccy.piriform.com/results/4kyyjqV7yx7xPkunX5zKhN1

Thank you so so much centaur! This had been driving me crazy for more than a month! I'll still keep an eye on my temperatures but it really looks like it's solved.

 

[centaur78]

Holy cow !!! neo those are cute little temperature...

Hope you had fun ripping you laptop apart....

and yes you are welcome !!

EDIT: try using some games to max the temps and see..if it spikes.. or use some cpu intensive programs to do the same... let me know if its on fire!! :devil: