Laptop Just Freezing Up!

[0l0dom0l0]

Basically, I have had my Sony Vaio for about 4 and a half years now.

I've stuck an extra gig of RAM, and loaded Windows 7 onto it.

The other day, it just froze up on me. No problem I thought so I just crashed it out by holding the power button down.

Loaded back up again, put in my Password blah blah, and it loaded up to the normal desktop. Then I clicked on Google Chrome to resume what I was doing. Nothing, just dead. Soon enough it just froze up on me again.

I've tried loads of stuff, made a new user account and it still isn't doing anything. Any idea what's up?

Last resort is I reload windows 7 but seeing as I had to pretty much write the stupid graphics card driver I'd rather not if I don't have to.

Help is much appreciated.
____________________
CBT Passed: 30/08/2009, Theory Passed: 31/08/2010, Mod 1 Passed: 6/9/2010, Mod 2 Passed: 13/09/2010. Restriction ended 13/09/2012.

Bikes: 2007 Derbi GPR 50, 1998 Yamaha Fazer 600 (written off), 2002 Yamaha Fazer 600, 1994 CBR 600F, 2003 Triumph Daytona 600, Kawasaki ZX6R J1.....Current: 2006 Yamaha FZ6, 1998 Suzuki TL1000R and a Honda VFR 400 NC30.

[Dr. Quack]

The RAM you installed needs to be identical in amount in parrallel with the other RAM you have installed.
You can't just add a 1GIG stick of SODIMM to an already operational 2 GIG stick. If you had a stick of 2 GIG SODIMM already installed then you need to replace it with another 2 GIG stick or add another 2 GIG stick in addition to the 2 GIG stick which is currently installed. My guess is your RAM's nearly dead.

When you installed the O/S did you install all the drivers like hard drive controller and chip set driverECT.?

How about doing some normal maintenance and clean the registry while your at it with Ccleaner.

1. Left click on C drive> properties/run windows disc cleaner
2. Download Ccleaner from here: https://www.filehippo.com/
3. Install Ccleaner and run the cleaner top left, then run the registry cleaner below it on the left. you don’t need to backup the registry
4. Left click on C drive> properties>Tools>disc scanner or in the case of Vista it’s called something else, but it’s the top tab you click on> Prompt the scanner to scan upon next reboot and REBOOT COMPUTER)
#(Prepare to wait up to an hour)#
5. After Disk scan/Disk check has finished run windows Disc Cleaner again, Ccleaner again and registry cleaner again.
6. Then you must do a DEFRAGMENTAION of C drive which is START>ALL PROGRAMS>ACCESSORIES>TOOLS>DEFRAGMENTATION.

[0l0dom0l0]

The RAM is pretty much brand new. Kingston and is 2 1GB chips.

Not sure about what you mean with the hard drive drivers though?

I've done the c-cleaner clean, and also repaired the registry files to no avail!
____________________
CBT Passed: 30/08/2009, Theory Passed: 31/08/2010, Mod 1 Passed: 6/9/2010, Mod 2 Passed: 13/09/2010. Restriction ended 13/09/2012.

Bikes: 2007 Derbi GPR 50, 1998 Yamaha Fazer 600 (written off), 2002 Yamaha Fazer 600, 1994 CBR 600F, 2003 Triumph Daytona 600, Kawasaki ZX6R J1.....Current: 2006 Yamaha FZ6, 1998 Suzuki TL1000R and a Honda VFR 400 NC30.

[Rogerborg]

Memtest86+.
____________________
Biking is 1/20th as dangerous as horse riding.
GONE: HN125-8, LF-250B, GPz 305, GPZ 500S, Burgman 400 // RIDING: F650GS (800 twin), Royal Enfield Bullet Electra 500 AVL, Ninja 250R because racebike

[Dr. Quack]

Yeah when you install an O/S the first drivers you need to install are the intell drivers like hard drive controller and chip set, there are others too. You will get these from the manufacturers website with all the other drivers. They may not support win7 for your laptop model but most of them should install with recomended settings.
Just google sony support uk, or europe > drivers or downloads > find your model > download all the drivers onto a usb pen > fresh O/S install > install intell drivers then all the other drivers.

[CaNsA]

[el_oso]

[0l0dom0l0]

We were debating a hard drive failure or some kind of registry virus maybe. I think the hard drive is the most likely tbh.

With regards to the RAM, it had a 512 and a 1gb stick in there before and worked fine. RAM doesn't have to be paired but it tends to work better if it is.

Taking it to a guy at college who's going to have a look. Might just try loading windows on again.

Actually thinking about it, it was getting slower and slower over the last few weeks, and lagged to hell whenever I tried to access anything on the hard drive.
____________________
CBT Passed: 30/08/2009, Theory Passed: 31/08/2010, Mod 1 Passed: 6/9/2010, Mod 2 Passed: 13/09/2010. Restriction ended 13/09/2012.

Bikes: 2007 Derbi GPR 50, 1998 Yamaha Fazer 600 (written off), 2002 Yamaha Fazer 600, 1994 CBR 600F, 2003 Triumph Daytona 600, Kawasaki ZX6R J1.....Current: 2006 Yamaha FZ6, 1998 Suzuki TL1000R and a Honda VFR 400 NC30.

[chris-red]

Stick a hoover in all the vents take the panels off the back and see if you can get to the CPU/CPU heatsinks, there is probably a layer of dust in there.

Quack is talking shit you don't NEED to have matching pairs. If you didn't have the HDD controllers you wouldn't have got windows on the disc and a reg cleaner I doubt will help seeing as it is a fairly fresh install.


I would clean out as much dust as possible and if feasible remove the heatsinks and re apply thermal past (Use AS5)

If it still does it I would then take 1 stick of RAM out and see if it still did it, if does switch the sticks.

Let me know if it is still shit after that.
____________________
Well, you know what they say. If you want to save the world, you have to push a few old ladies down the stairs.
Skudd:- Perhaps she just thinks you are a window licker and is being nice just in case she becomes another Jill Dando.
WANTED:- Fujinon (Fuji) M42 (Screw on) lenses, let me know if you have anything.

[0l0dom0l0]

Okay. I will dismantle it when I get time and clean everything.

Will also take out each stick of RAM and see what happens.

As it turns out my mate has a vaio tucked away somewhere with a cooked motherboard but working HD. So I can chuck the HD from that in a see if I get any further to determine whether its the HD or not.

Just didn't fancy messing around with the stupid graphics card driver again but I know it can be done!

Will report back soon!
____________________
CBT Passed: 30/08/2009, Theory Passed: 31/08/2010, Mod 1 Passed: 6/9/2010, Mod 2 Passed: 13/09/2010. Restriction ended 13/09/2012.

Bikes: 2007 Derbi GPR 50, 1998 Yamaha Fazer 600 (written off), 2002 Yamaha Fazer 600, 1994 CBR 600F, 2003 Triumph Daytona 600, Kawasaki ZX6R J1.....Current: 2006 Yamaha FZ6, 1998 Suzuki TL1000R and a Honda VFR 400 NC30.

[chris-red]

[dogbot]

Is it getting hot? Are the fans running?

[0l0dom0l0]

Its not on long enough to get hot or be overheating. We are talking maybe 30 seconds on the desktop screen before it crashes.

Graphics card is a nvidia ge force go 7400. I can get the driver from the nvidia website no problems but you have to edit one of the files to get the vaio to recognize it as sony do some stupid thing. Not to much of an issue but was just a pain in the ass.
____________________
CBT Passed: 30/08/2009, Theory Passed: 31/08/2010, Mod 1 Passed: 6/9/2010, Mod 2 Passed: 13/09/2010. Restriction ended 13/09/2012.

Bikes: 2007 Derbi GPR 50, 1998 Yamaha Fazer 600 (written off), 2002 Yamaha Fazer 600, 1994 CBR 600F, 2003 Triumph Daytona 600, Kawasaki ZX6R J1.....Current: 2006 Yamaha FZ6, 1998 Suzuki TL1000R and a Honda VFR 400 NC30.

[chris-red]

That is long enough for it to overheat.


https://www.laptopvideo2go.com/

That site was of great help when I had a nvidia card in my laptop.
____________________
Well, you know what they say. If you want to save the world, you have to push a few old ladies down the stairs.
Skudd:- Perhaps she just thinks you are a window licker and is being nice just in case she becomes another Jill Dando.
WANTED:- Fujinon (Fuji) M42 (Screw on) lenses, let me know if you have anything.

[dogbot]

[0l0dom0l0]

Right some progress.

Cleaned it all out and the fan is working for sure now.

Took out the RAM and swapped it for another 2GB from my friends laptop. Same problem.

Swapped over the hard drive and it seems to have cured it. Loaded up with no problems. I've been going through and I'm deleting all the rubbish off it.

Seems to be a lot faster than usual too, so I can only assume the hard drive has been on its way out for a while.

Once I have finished copying all the files over from the hard drive to my external one I'm going to wipe it and start again. Fresh windows 7 install.

I'm also going to try the 2GHZ processor from my friends, as I currently have a 1.66.

Will report back.
____________________
CBT Passed: 30/08/2009, Theory Passed: 31/08/2010, Mod 1 Passed: 6/9/2010, Mod 2 Passed: 13/09/2010. Restriction ended 13/09/2012.

Bikes: 2007 Derbi GPR 50, 1998 Yamaha Fazer 600 (written off), 2002 Yamaha Fazer 600, 1994 CBR 600F, 2003 Triumph Daytona 600, Kawasaki ZX6R J1.....Current: 2006 Yamaha FZ6, 1998 Suzuki TL1000R and a Honda VFR 400 NC30.

[CaNsA]

This sounds like a similar prob i had with a laptop 18months ago.

Turned out the memory controller on the mobo had corrupted/burnt out/committed suicide.