6920G freezing up

Any 6920G owner have their hard drive access light stuck on "on" for about 30 seconds or so and have their laptops freeze for this duration? Freeze as in as soon as I click any window, it turns white. This happens every now and then, doesn't matter what I'm doing.

 

im not a computer pro, but maybe you have a virus, i suggest you email acer, maybe they can help?

 

This happens even after I reinstall Vista, and I'm 99.999% sure I have no virus since I'm pretty careful.

 

There were several threads about 6920 freezing problems not so long ago, I think it was the SATA drivers fault. You have SATA drivers installed or you let Vista use generic drivers? You may want to download the newest sata drivers from Intel and try them out, maybe this will solve your problem.

I'll try to find those threads I've mentioned above and post the here by editing this post.

Edit: Found one thread about it here check pages 6 and 7 for possible solution. Keep in mind this is old stuff and PROBABLY has been fixed with the new Intel Matrix Storage Manager(SATA drivers), so before you mess with your registry and stuff I suggest you try the latest SATA drivers.

 

I used Vista's generic drivers. Where would I find Intel's drivers, and how do I know what model hard drive I have?

 

I edited my previous pos,t check it out.

The model of your harddrive can be found in the device manager, however you don't need to know that to download the proper driver.

Caution: If you decide to try any of the solutions posted in this old thread I gave you above make sure you know what are you doing! Modifying the registry for example is dangerous, if you don't know what are you doing you can mess up your windows installation! You're doing this on your own risk!

 

I'm willing to give my registry a try. In that post, I found this link:

http://www.paulscomputerservice.net/index.php?body=./os/intelSataError9.php

It says to rename the key

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\iaStor\Parameters

to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\iaStor\Parameters.bad

Is Parameters the folder in the registry or one of those values on the right pane? I only see it as a folder.

 

I guess it's the folder but I have no idea. I've never tried this "fix" myself.

By renaming "Parameters" to "Parameters.old" you basically disable all those reg keys in the folder. I suppose you'll need to restart in order to these changes to take effect.

 

OK thanks, i will give it a shot and come back (in a few days) and report.

Also, I have another folder of registry keys,

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\iaStorV

Should I disable Parameters under that too? Before I installed Intel's driver,

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\iaStor

did not exist.

 

I don't know what is this folder iaStorV, but I'd say no, don't modify this one as the "fix" is intended to the Intel SATA drivers so you need to touch reg keys&folders which are part from these driver --> iaStor.
If in a few days you experience the same issue THEN I suppose you can try to rename this iaStorV too..

 

That's the 2 registry folders I'm talking about.

And you're suggesting I rename it if I come across that problem later on?

 

Exactly. For now just leave it as it is and if you experience the problem again in the next few days you can try to rename the Parameters folder in iaStorV.

 

OK just froze again. I renamed IaStorV's Parameter also and wish me luck!

 

Well..good luck

Apparently the best solution is to switch to IDE mode from the BIOS but if you do so you might need to reinstall the OS. Check page 7 from the freeze thread.

 

Yeah read that ...

I really would rather reinstall Vista than send it off to Acer ... I hope my laptop will behave and I won't have to do either.

 

OK just froze again after I changed both registry folders ...

 

Bump Bump Bump

 

Bump, I've had the same problem and I changed the registry in the iaStor folder. It worked for a bit, but it just froze again recently. I tried installing Intel's latest drivers prior to changing the registry but it didn't fix it at all. I'm beginning to wonder if there is an actual fix to this problem - The one guy in the seven-page thread got his 6920 sent back from Acer with them saying there was nothing wrong with it.

 

I was just about to send it to Acer but now I'll hold that off. Save my $50 shipping.

 

Switch to IDE mode guys, this should fix it. I doubt you'll notice any performance loss.

 

How do you do that?

Edit: I changed it to IDE from like ACHPIE or something in BIOS, is that correct? Vista booted fine, a bit more slowly, and installed drivers for my hard drive and rebooted.

 

There you go, you figured it out yourself

First time with no IDE drivers loaded is slower but then it should boot normally.

 

OK awesome, thanks! No freeze-ups so far.

 

What major differences will occur from switching from AHCI mode to IDE?
Can someone explain a little more detailed. Thanks.

P.S. I just upgraded Intel Storage Manager and for know.. to me.. it works fine.. no freezes..