HELP! Windows 7 freezes

[streetball]

Hi guys...my first thread here and I really hope for some solution.

Here is the deal: I upgraded to Windows 7 Ultimate on my Vaio VGN-Z11VRN

Some of the drivers were used from the official site of vaio but from other model which has the same hardware and is eligible for free upgrade by sone (Z21). There are no errors in the device manager at the moment.

I use the laptop for work, on a domain...using a domain profile for this, but also at home using local profile but also the domain one.

At work it always freezes.... I mean at least twice per day. I've tried everything. Checked all the drivers, tried stamina mode (disables nvidia graphic card), tried different internet browsers (firefox, internet explorer), plugged the LAN cable directly to the pc (not to the docking station)... still the same thing.

At home I use wifi.... and never had a issue with freezing windows.

What actually happens is usually internet explorer or the outlook (2007) cannot connect... then this program is not responding...while others for sometime are ok... however after a minute nothing is responding... can't use ctrl+alt+delete command as well.

The only way I can stop this is to shut it down with power button.

I've checked the event viewer and there are some errors there... don't know if they could help you people.

Hope there is a solution.... cause I can't really work like that
Thanks in advance

 

[roban]

It may seem obvious from your description that your NIC has a problem. Have you tried uninstalling that device and re-booting to install it again.

 

[torrentg]

Hi.

Install the video card driver using this link.

If you're using ZoneAlarm, completely uninstall it to test. Or matter of fact, do this for any firewall you installed.

 

[streetball]

sorry for a silly question...what exactly is NIC???

About the graphic card.... I've downloaded the latest driver from Nvidia... although they state there specifically that Vaio notebooks are not supported. I extracted the files but could not identify the necessary .inf!!!!

 

[Tews]

NIC= Network Interface Card...

 

[zigzag3143]

Hi guys...my first thread here and I really hope for some solution.

Here is the deal: I upgraded to Windows 7 Ultimate on my Vaio VGN-Z11VRN

Some of the drivers were used from the official site of vaio but from other model which has the same hardware and is eligible for free upgrade by sone (Z21). There are no errors in the device manager at the moment.

I use the laptop for work, on a domain...using a domain profile for this, but also at home using local profile but also the domain one.

At work it always freezes.... I mean at least twice per day. I've tried everything. Checked all the drivers, tried stamina mode (disables nvidia graphic card), tried different internet browsers (firefox, internet explorer), plugged the LAN cable directly to the pc (not to the docking station)... still the same thing.

At home I use wifi.... and never had a issue with freezing windows.

What actually happens is usually internet explorer or the outlook (2007) cannot connect... then this program is not responding...while others for sometime are ok... however after a minute nothing is responding... can't use ctrl+alt+delete command as well.

The only way I can stop this is to shut it down with power button.

I've checked the event viewer and there are some errors there... don't know if they could help you people.

Hope there is a solution.... cause I can't really work like that
Thanks in advance

Hi and welcome

Could you tell us what the event ID and source codes are of the relevant errors in event viewer?

Thanks

Ken ++

 

[streetball]

Oh...

Well...I have updated the drivers few times... the drivers for the docking station were downloaded from the sony site.

Will try again however.

I can't really understand why it could be the Nvidia graphic card though?? What is the connection? I mean i use it at home with no issues....

P.s. at work I am connected to a screen...via a docking station (in case this could be important)...

 

[streetball]

guys...I'm attaching you the extract with the errors that I had today... Hope this helps!

 

[wguimb]

I was having that same exact issue and tried updating the nVidia display driver, which made the problem go away fo three days. But, alas, the kernel-power messages came back when the screen went black and locked up the PC.

This time I had the case open and saw what happened. The PSU stoppred, all fans inside came to halt at the same time. Power supply failure. Bingo, time for a new PSU.

 

[torrentg]

Oh...

Well...I have updated the drivers few times... the drivers for the docking station were downloaded from the sony site.

Will try again however.

I can't really understand why it could be the Nvidia graphic card though?? What is the connection? I mean i use it at home with no issues....

P.s. at work I am connected to a screen...via a docking station (in case this could be important)...

Sorry, I didn't intend to show that there was a connection. I'm just showing you how to enable the Aero interface and have proper graphic acceleration for you video. Go to C:\NVIDIA and in the top right, search for *.inf.

Did you already uninstall your firewall?

 

[streetball]

thanks once more people.

I think you are missing a very important point. The laptop works perfectly at home. Having the same drivers for nvidia, same drivers for NIC, same firewall.

I'm just trying to understand what could be the problem.

Few things that differ in two cases are:
1. at work I use docking station through which I connect to LAN plus to an external display
2. at home I'm using wifi (no lan connection).

I think this could be probably the starting point.

I didn't really manage to modify the .inf file as said in the post about the drivers...have few questions about it. For now...I left it without nvidia drivers to see if there will be any improvement

Really strange though... and annoying at the same time...

Thanks once more people!

Did anyway checked the errors that I've posted?? maybe you could get some answers from there

 

[torrentg]

thanks once more people.

I think you are missing a very important point. The laptop works perfectly at home. Having the same drivers for nvidia, same drivers for NIC, same firewall.

I'm just trying to understand what could be the problem.

Few things that differ in two cases are:
1. at work I use docking station through which I connect to LAN plus to an external display
2. at home I'm using wifi (no lan connection).

I think this could be probably the starting point.

I didn't really manage to modify the .inf file as said in the post about the drivers...have few questions about it. For now...I left it without nvidia drivers to see if there will be any improvement

Really strange though... and annoying at the same time...

Thanks once more people!

Did anyway checked the errors that I've posted?? maybe you could get some answers from there

I'm not missing any point. I'm an experienced user. Listen if you want to clear your issue. I have debugged this already quite a few times. Please save us all a lot of effort here.

If it doesn't, it still is a very necessary step to have tried.

 

[streetball]

please dont get me wrong. I didnt mean to insult you. I am aware that you are experienced and that is the reason I am asking for your help. Just wanted to stress the main differences in two cases.

Could you please help me with the modification of the inf file cause I dont feel confident doing it.

My graphic card is Geforce 9300M GS

the ID is : PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_06E5&SUBSYS_9025104D&REV_A1

I think I understand where to write the first sentence, but I'm not sure about the second one...does it go just below.. and what about the section...should it be 12 or it depends on the card?

THANKS IN ADVANCE!!!

 

[torrentg]

No heh heh you didn't insult me. It's just that for some reason, that kind of stance seems to be the only way to get users (in general) to make these kinds of changes in a high percentage of cases.

If you want me to edit the .inf file, rar or zip it and attach to a post using the paperclip.

lol I'm still curious...did you uninstall the firewall to test? And is the firewall in question ZoneAlarm?

 

[streetball]

Thanks I would appreciate...

I dont have Zone alarm or any other firewall (except the windows one). My antivirus is Eset Nod32

I've tried to edit the inf file (by the way its a bit different from the one you describe...I actually went first to list of devices to find which inf to edit...then found my card there (its actually included) and edited the id number.

But when you install the driver... there are many cards in the list of the cards....I mean many of my cards.. and when I installed it.... the screen went black...

Hope you will be able to figure out

P.s. did you check the error report I attached above? Is there anything helpful there?

Looking forward for edited inf file

 

[streetball]

any ideas?

Wanted to add some more comments. Today I was trying to do certain things in order to try eliminate few of the possible causes.
To be more precise I've tried to disable first the geforce graphic card.... then the intel graphic card... I also tried to work with laptop without the use of docking station or any external screen...only connected to the local (work) network..... STILL THE SAME ISSUE!!!

Does this mean that the problem is actually when I am connected to the work domain?? cause if it was about the drivers...the problem would occur when I use it at home as well.... I had it all day long on yesterday at home without any errors... or freezes.... REALLY STRANGE!! I can't thing of anything else.

P.s. today I had a very strange error... I tried to save a file on my drive and it said that I cant store on this network drive cause I don't have the permission...I should contact the admin. The file actually appeared but with zero size...when I saved it again (replaced) it went smoothly. The profile I was logged in is in administrator group as well!!

Hope with your help soon we will manage to figure out what is actually the problem.

At the moment I installed the sony provided nvidia drivers for windows 7. nothing else seems to work up to now. Hope the modified inf will be the solution.

 

[torrentg]

There's a new video driver on NVIDIA's site for desktops. Download that and extract to C:\ATI

Then attach the rared NV_DISP.inf
for editing.

 

[streetball]

So I downloaded the driver (hope this is the one you are referring to) 195.62 and here is the attached .inf file.

Looking forward for some good news!

 

[torrentg]

Use the .inf in my attachment to overwrite the existing one you rared and uploaded here.

Then right click the video card in device manager. Update driver software. Browse my pc. Let me pick. Have disk. Browse. Double click on the .inf you overwrote with mine, inside C:\ATI somewhere

Click ok. Click next. Let it install. When done, reboot and choose an Aero theme.

Also, rar the entire contents of C:\ATI so you have this driver forever and can then keep it in a safe place.

 

[streetball]

Just did it...will restart now and let's hope that is fixed

One question though.... why should I use Aero theme?? I am using themes downloaded from the official site...you know...those of different countries...not sure whether they are Aero themes as well....