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My daughters laptop has started locking up shortly after startup and then when it does finally kick in to life, it will randomly lock up. I've ran a virus and malware scan and both were clean. I've had task manager open and I can't pinpoint anything inparticular although the laptop runs OK in safe mode. I've also had a hardware monitor open and there was nothing obvious on that either. I can't do a restore as it hasn't been setup. Any ideas what I can do?
Cheers.
Sounds like memory to me. Could also be HDD too.
Do this first -
Step 1: Open the Start Menu and type in mdsched.exe, then press enter.
Step 2. A pop-up will appear on your screen, asking how you'd like to go about checking the memory. The first option will restart your machine and check the memory right now, and the second option checks the next time you choose to reboot. Pick the option that best suits your needs.
Step 3: Your computer will load a screen that shows the progress of the check and number of passes it will run on the memory. Watch the memory diagnostic tool for errors. If there are no errors, then it's likely that your RAM is not causing any issues, and it's time to investigate other hardware or software issues.
What make and model of laptop you got?
As above sounds like memory or hard drive.
Right click my computer 》
Manage 》
Event viewer 》
System
Sort by type look for type disk or fdisk.
Disk 0 errors will show if its hard drive related
Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk
Could be a few things, most likely is software, but it could be hardware.
Yu need to assertain what type of lock up is it, is it a hard lockup where mouse wont move, keyboard CAPS LOCK wont toggle, or is it a soft lock, where mouse responds but it just doesnt load anything or programs respond?
If its a hard lockup, its usually heat related, when was the last time you hovered out the laptops CPU/GPU vent ports? if not try that....
If its a soft lockup, could be HDD, RAM, or just software... if its software, could be infection (see below), driver issue, update acting up (roll back to before the problem), or corrupted windows files.
To rule out infections try these, they remove the majority of hard to remove malware/adware. The quick one to try is AWDCLEANER, and a more in depth one is Combofix. Links :-
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/adwcleaner/
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/combofix/
Drivers and windows files are more tricky, generally easier to do a reinstall.. back up those files first! :D
Regards
Flea
If its locking up on bootup/ I wont really be a heat issue unless its been left on.
Has the lappy being dropped or something. Perhaps the memory has come loose slightly or as said there is sector errors on the laptop.
If this was my laptop doing this. I would boot from my usb stick and run diags from there. Best thing I ever did was make that windows usb disk. it takes a while to boot into windows but once in you can do more to your system as the "C" drive isn't locked.
If your confident about opening up and taking out the ram then do so, simply taking out and putting back in can fix issues like this. I have seen it myself. Sometimes you get what they call "DRY" joints, had it on one of my graphix cards power cords once as the screen kept locking up at times. although wont be your issue here really.
Last resort send it over to me I`ll do a full check on it out for you
So its either Hardware or Software. No shit Sherlock!Quote:
Originally Posted by Fleabum
... and before any other Laptop whisperers reply... this thread is over a month old!
He didnt say it was locking up on bootup, he said shortly after bootup.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mickey
But thats beside the point, it doesnt matter how long a machine has been left on for it to be affected by heat, if its an Intel based processor, then the speedstep thermal protection might kick in after a few seconds or a few minuites, depending on weither its a failed fan, innefficent heatsink cooling due to 'dust' or 'fluff' or other somesuch. It could be a damaged processor due to overheating as that can give random lockups, BSOD, data errors, but its unlikely with the newer generations of processors.
Saying that, with the original poster saying it seems to run OK in safe mode, its unlikely to be heat related, but its quick and simple for the average Jo to rule out clogged up fan by hoving the vents (and I personally think this should be done to all laptops at least once a year especially when used on beds or carpets where fibers and fluff from can be sucked into the vents).
Moving on; with it working OK in safe mode, its unlikely to be mis-seated RAM as this would effect both normal and safemode operation. I would say the two most common causes for this type of symptoms is infections of some type that run normally, it could be an entry in your Task Scheduler set to auto run after startup, or maybe a rootkit driver type infection, both of those could effect a machine shortly after bootup, but only in normal mode, as task scheduler and 3rd part drivers are not loaded in safe mode. The other would be damaged windows componients, which could be caused by corrupt data being read, this could be caused by the physical hard drive.
As laptops are moved around alot when they are powered up, they are prone (none solid state drive) to drive damage if banged or knocked, a way to test for this would be to do an entire disk check for bad blocks... if theres only one section, its most likely caused by knocking damage, if its in multiple areas its most likely due to magnetic surface degregration, and that means a new drive.
If it was my machine, I would do the following :-
Wait for the machine to hang, then listen to the hard drive, if its failing they get a ticking sound as it tries to re-read a certain area of data of the drive, if no clicking, then
Hover vents,
Run ADWcleaner, then ComboFix,
Do a full badblock diskcheck, windows vista or newer has one, but its not the best, command to run if its your C:\ drive would be - chkdsk c: /r,
If no bad blocks or one 1 section of bad blocks found, then reinstall windows, if multiple sections of bad blocks found, then replace the drive,
Regards
Flea
The clue is in what that lovely gal has said
thread over a month old and no replies, so I am no Sherlock homes but I think its been fixed or moved on