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    Ctrl alt del not working during freeze

    Discussion in 'Alienware 17 and M17x' started by craven42, May 29, 2011.

  1. craven42

    craven42 Notebook Enthusiast

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    Hi I have recently reinstalled windows and now I am experiencing a very weird issue.

    Whenever ANY program freezes the key combinations ctrl alt del or ctrl shift esc or any other means of accessing task manager stop working and dont respond at all. Also once one program freezes others do too even though they might appear functional at first.

    If I w8 for a min or two or press sleep button the computer will remain frozen for a min but then it will unfreeze and I will be able to access task manager and other programs once again.

    Any one knows what causes this ??? This is extra annoying since whenever even a small minor freeze occurs everything goes unresponsive.

    I have Vista Home Premium SP 2. Alienware 17x R1 Computer clean and free of any viruses. Scanned with Norton 360 and Avast.
     
    craven42, May 29, 2011
    #1
  2. LVNeptune

    LVNeptune Notebook Virtuoso

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    1) Get rid of Norton and Avast, they are horrible AV's, it's Kaspersky or bust.

    2) Windows Vista, is a great OS but has many flaws unfortunately, I have had the issue you are talking about before on a specific system I built and was unable to resolve it.

    3) See if the issue is present in Windows 7 as well.
     
    LVNeptune, May 29, 2011
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  3. Chuzzz

    Chuzzz Notebook Consultant

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    Well there's your problem... :p
    It shouldn't cause that type of freezing, of course, but Vista is terrible. I think this is a good excuse to do a clean install of Windows 7 which will hopefully solve whatever the specific problem is.
     
    Chuzzz, May 29, 2011
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  4. Tapakidney

    Tapakidney Notebook Evangelist

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    Honestly, this smells like a bad hard drive to me. Run some disk checkers and see if you have bad sectors. I had exactly similar issues before that were fixed by a new HD. The bad drive couldn't pass a single integrity check.
     
    Tapakidney, May 29, 2011
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  5. LVNeptune

    LVNeptune Notebook Virtuoso

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    Do you have an SSD by chance?
     
    LVNeptune, May 30, 2011
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  6. mfractal

    mfractal T|I

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    ^^ Yeah, sounds like a LPM issue..
     
    mfractal, May 30, 2011
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  7. LVNeptune

    LVNeptune Notebook Virtuoso

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    Link Power Fail. :)
     
    LVNeptune, May 30, 2011
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  8. Typecast

    Typecast NBR's Tamed Zombie

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    Can you please recommend the best disk checker?
     
    Typecast, May 30, 2011
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  9. Tapakidney

    Tapakidney Notebook Evangelist

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    Well, the quickest, easiest test is running checkdisk (comes with windows). If it jams and hangs a lot, your disk is in bad shape.

    Also available are Seatools and something similar from Western digital. You can run a SMART check first. My bad HDs could not pass that, let alone the more complex tests.

    So, start here.
     
    Tapakidney, May 30, 2011
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  10. LVNeptune

    LVNeptune Notebook Virtuoso

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    Use the manufacturer's tools...They will tell you if they are working properly.
     
    LVNeptune, May 31, 2011
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