Laptop Freezes - Infection or Hardware FUBAR?

[MeGustaXL]

Hi there,

Last night my laptop froze while opening a second window in IE7.

The progress bar reached about a quarter of the way across then nothing. No windows could be closed down, I couldn't open Task Manager or minimise to the desktop. No other applications could be opened and Ctrl-Alt-Del didn't work.

The only way to switch off was a hard reboot by holding the power switch.

I restarted in Safe Mode, ran CCleaner, Super AntiSpyware and scanned with McAfee. No problems were reported, but as soon as I tried to open the web browser - Lock Up!

Hard rebooted again in Normal mode and tried running a couple of apps: Windows Explorer to save vital files to an external drive, just in case! Word 2K3 seemed OK, as Did XL2K3. Opened an MPG in Media Player 11 and it got abouot 2 minutes through then stopped. The whole thing was locked up again!

Hard reboot, run movies in WMP11 - no problems.

Could this be impending HDD failure?

Chris

Someday I'll know what I'm donig...damn!

 

[kjv1611]

Sounds like possible hard drive failure - OR memory issues. You could try running some scans, such as Memtest for the RAM and the mfg tester for your hard drive. These and more are loaded on the Ultimate Boot CD. I would more likely expect the hard drive, and then AFTER that, possibly the Ram.

If you don't want to fool with testing and all, you could just order a new HDD from NewEgg or similar. Of course, my preferred drive is the WD Black 320GB SATA 2.5. It is fast, quiet (in most systems), runs pretty cool for the speed, and has plenty of storage. It even seems to get better battery life than some 5400 RPM drives.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...&cm_re=wd_black_laptop-_-22-136-280-_-Product

$80 at NewEgg... you may can find it cheaper elsewhere.

Of course, the WD Blue hard drives have gotten stellar reviews as well - I've just not used one. I figure if a drive can dominate the charts at:

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/2.5-hard-drive-charts/benchmarks,25.html

Then it's worth the $10 to $30 difference.



--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[MeGustaXL]

Hi and thanks!

I'm running XP Pro SP2 on an Acer Travelmate - what scans/tests should I use? CHKDSK?

Chris

Someday I'll know what I'm donig...damn!

 

[kjv1611]

You could try running some scans, such as Memtest for the RAM and the mfg tester for your hard drive. These and more are loaded on the Ultimate Boot CD.

Take a look at the chart here if you like.

Or if you want to make absolute certain it isn't an odd browser issue, and somehow WMP is also tying into that, you could try a different browser or two, and then try a different media player or two as well:
browser: Firefox, Chrome, Safari, etc
media player: VLC, QuickTime, RealPlayer, etc

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[MeGustaXL]

HA Ha! clicked the link to the chart and of course it locked up as soon as it tried to open another browser window!

I'll try Firefox now...

Chris

Someday I'll know what I'm donig...damn!

 

[MeGustaXL]

Got to ultimatebootcd.com in Firefox, but clicking on the download link killed it

At least it's still under warranty - now, where did I put that receipt...

Chris

Someday I'll know what I'm donig...damn!