M17x locking up suddenly

Hey NBR,

I've had my M17x for about 2 months or so and it's worked fine up until this point. I'll try to explain the problem as best as I can.

It all started last night when I alt tabbed out of a game (Heroes of Newerth) to Firefox. I think I opened a Youtube video and my computer locked up, the mouse wouldn't move, so I tried a few keyboard commands like Ctrl Alt Del, Alt-tab etc etc... and the screen went black but the cursor was back and I could move it. I held my power button down for a bit to turn it off and presumed it was just a bug of some sort and it wouldn't happen again.

It happened again and again, I tried Safe Mode, running on battery etc etc...

I am completely clueless as to what the problem could be. But I have a few guesses.

1.) My avast! anti virus software expired the same day these problems started occurring. Firefox seems to crash every time (Not responding) and will lock up for a long time.

2.) Could my hard drive be failing?

3.) Could it be a video card / driver problem? I doubt it's this but when I ran it on battery using the on board video, it didn't lock up as quickly as it did before.

If anyone has heard of a similar problem or has an idea of what I could be experiencing, I would greatly appreciate some advice on how I can locate the exact problem. Thanks.

 

I think I have a similar problem as well, and would also like to know what is causing the problem.

 

invinceable,

I'm not sure what your problem is but it could be completely unrelated. In any case, does anyone know what could be happening here?

invinceable, did you have an antivirus software expire? I have a problem believing that my computer is locking up because I no longer have avast! installed but it's just ironic that it happens on the same day. Argh!

I might have to format just to find out if it's software or hardware related because I can't live a day without my M17x. My lockups are like 1-2 minutes long and sometimes it won't even unlock! Someone help if you have ideas.

 

No I did not have any antivirus software expire, I doubt it has to do with that though

 

Yeah you're right it's not. I just got done formatting my computer, installing all the drivers again and when I was watching a YouTube video, it just froze and the audio kept repeating over and over again. Does anyone know why I may be having these lockups?

 

Hi averagejo3,
I would recommend booting from the resource cd and using custom to test the memory. Windows Vista is highly dependent on memory useage especially during normal use. If the test doesn't reveal a memory issue, you may want to remove one stick at a time and try using it. Often times, memory can perform well enough to pass the test but fail in real application.

Thanks,
Gabe