Random Freezing

[ShadyGuitarist]

Hey all, I'm having a problem that is very annoying and I'm hoping maybe someone here can give me some troubleshooting steps to single out the problem. All I can tell you right now is that at random times, my entire laptop will freeze. I can't move the mouse, hit ctrl-alt-del ...nothing. It's completely locked and requires a manual reboot.

So far, I've only singled out that it isn't an overheating issue because I can have the laptop turned off for over 12 hours, turn it on and when windows starts...within the first 30 seconds it has locked like this before, which would make me think that the computer hasn't had time enough to overheat. Secondly, I have bought one of the laptop lap cooling fans and always have my laptop on this.

If anyone can give me some tips on what to look for next it'd be greatly appreciated. I am pretty tech savvy so I don't require step by step instructions, just the basics and I can figure out the rest. Thank you

 

[H2SO4]

In some ways, total lockups (no mouse movement, no HDD activity) are a rather complex problem to troubleshoot, expecially if there's no known way to trigger the symptom so you've got to just sit and wait for hours or days.

Do you know of any way to increase your chances of purposefully triggering one of these lockup events, or is it seemingly completely random?

The first thing you generally want to do is to try to work out whether the cause is likely to be software or hardware. One way to do that is to try to "reach" the OS during a lockup and see whether it responds. That can be done by using a particular keystroke sequence to induce a bugcheck (BSOD). If the machine does crash, you can be confident that the OS was in fact still running during the lockup, and that the cause is very likely a bad driver. Otherwise, if the bugcheck-triggering keystrokes are ignored, that greatly increases the likelihood of a hardware problem which has somehow caused a complete breakdown.

(Additionally, if it's software, analysis of the triggered memory dump can usually reveal the precise nature of the software problem, but that's beyond the scope of a web forum.)

1. To enable the keyboard driver to crash the OS, you first need to set a registry value called CrashOnCtrlScroll: Forcing a System Crash from the Keyboard
2. After rebooting, test that it works under normal circumstances. All you want to know is that Ctrl+ScrLk+ScrLk successfully BSODs the machine under normal circumstances.
3. Wait for the next lockup.
4. Try to crash the box with Ctrl+ScrLk+ScrLk.

If it works, start ripping out non-OS drivers based on their relative age. Otherwise, if the machine remains locked, you might want to consider booting into another OS for a while to test whether the same lockup is evident. If so - hardware.

 

[A320]

Can he/she look into the 'event viewer' for a possible clue? Also, shadyguitarist, have you ever changed the ram in your laptop?

 

[H2SO4]

Can he/she look into the 'event viewer' for a possible clue? Also, shadyguitarist, have you ever changed the ram in your laptop?

Sure, a very valid point - the Event Viewer should always be checked, especially when troubleshooting something this nasty.

Unfortunately, most lockups are not accompanied by useful events, for the simple reason that the lockup condition is so unexpected and debilitating to the OS's own internal mechanisms that the comparatively complex task of being sufficiently "with it" to log an event becomes difficult or impossible. That's no reason not to check though - have rep

 

[ShadyGuitarist]

thanks for the quick replies. I'll give these steps a try and get back to ya. appreciate it

 

[ShadyGuitarist]

Ok, i have also forgot to say that this problem mostly happens when the computer sits idle for a period of time. Mainly ...now that i think about it, when I am watching a movie, or if i let the computer sit unused for a period of time. In the event viewer , there are several events saying something about both processors being having 0 power for a certain period of time, and the next event states that there was an unexpected shutdown. I'll copy and paste in a few here.

 

[A320]

In the event viewer , there are several events saying something about both processors being having 0 power for a certain period of time, and the next event states that there was an unexpected shutdown. I'll copy and paste in a few here.

Are these all red critical(x) errors?

 

[ShadyGuitarist]

In the event viewer , there are several events saying something about both processors being having 0 power for a certain period of time, and the next event states that there was an unexpected shutdown. I'll copy and paste in a few here.

Are these all red critical(x) errors?

most are, but some also say "warning" instead of critical

 

[ShadyGuitarist]

This happens

Log Name: System
Source: Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Power
Date: 9/27/2009 10:35:34 PM
Event ID: 41
Task Category: (63)
Level: Critical
Keywords: (2)
User: SYSTEM
Computer: Ken-PC
Description:
The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly.
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
<System>
<Provider Name="Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Power" Guid="{331C3B3A-2005-44C2-AC5E-77220C37D6B4}" />
<EventID>41</EventID>
<Version>2</Version>
<Level>1</Level>
<Task>63</Task>
<Opcode>0</Opcode>
<Keywords>0x8000000000000002</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime="2009-09-28T02:35:34.301600000Z" />
<EventRecordID>30160</EventRecordID>
<Correlation />
<Execution ProcessID="4" ThreadID="8" />
<Channel>System</Channel>
<Computer>Ken-PC</Computer>
<Security UserID="S-1-5-18" />
</System>
<EventData>
<Data Name="BugcheckCode">0</Data>
<Data Name="BugcheckParameter1">0x0</Data>
<Data Name="BugcheckParameter2">0x0</Data>
<Data Name="BugcheckParameter3">0x0</Data>
<Data Name="BugcheckParameter4">0x0</Data>
<Data Name="SleepInProgress">false</Data>
<Data Name="PowerButtonTimestamp">0</Data>
</EventData>
</Event>


and Then this error comes next


Log Name: System
Source: Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Processor-Power
Date: 9/27/2009 8:22:02 PM
Event ID: 37
Task Category: (7)
Level: Warning
Keywords:
User: SYSTEM
Computer: Ken-PC
Description:
The speed of processor 0 in group 0 is being limited by system firmware. The processor has been in this reduced performance state for 19532 seconds since the last report.
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
<System>
<Provider Name="Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Processor-Power" Guid="{0F67E49F-FE51-4E9F-B490-6F2948CC6027}" />
<EventID>37</EventID>
<Version>0</Version>
<Level>3</Level>
<Task>7</Task>
<Opcode>0</Opcode>
<Keywords>0x8000000000000000</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime="2009-09-28T00:22:02.441300000Z" />
<EventRecordID>30142</EventRecordID>
<Correlation />
<Execution ProcessID="4" ThreadID="60" />
<Channel>System</Channel>
<Computer>Ken-PC</Computer>
<Security UserID="S-1-5-18" />
</System>
<EventData>
<Data Name="Group">0</Data>
<Data Name="Number">0</Data>
<Data Name="CapDurationInSeconds">19532</Data>
<Data Name="PpcChanges">33</Data>
<Data Name="TpcChanges">0</Data>
<Data Name="PccChanges">0</Data>
</EventData>
</Event>

 

[ShadyGuitarist]

Can he/she look into the 'event viewer' for a possible clue? Also, shadyguitarist, have you ever changed the ram in your laptop?

and sorry, i missed this earlier but yes I have changed the ram. I have also tried switching ram chips to chips from another laptop to test and see if one of the ram was bad, and again with 2 brand new, right out of the box 1gb ram chips...and still had the freezing issue

 

[H2SO4]

The first event is a normal side-effect of the OS realising that it just woke up without previously shutting down cleanly - "hey, something v.bad just happened and there was an unexplained reboot".

The second one relates to battery conservation features of the laptop. The processor gets throttled, especially when under battery power, in order to keep it consuming as little juice as possible under the circumstances.

By themselves, neither of the two events explain the lockup symptom.

 

[ShadyGuitarist]

Ok well, I will attempt your first recommendation shortly here and let ya know how that goes. Thanks

 

[A320]

Just for process of elimination, download memtest86+, get the ISO and burn it

Memtest86+ - Advanced Memory Diagnostic Tool

Boot your comp with this disk and let it do it's thing for a few hours and see if you get any errors at all.

 

[chev65]

The Windows version of memtest is also useful for checking system memory or other problems that cause locks ups besides memory. It will find problems that the Memtest CD can't. MemTest for Windows Download Page

Directions for using it correctly here. How to use Memtest for Windows