Another ASUS V1S Issue!

Occasionally my V1S will freeze completely, sometimes with letting me move the mouse (but it doesn't press anything) or completely EVERYTHING freezes.

I don't understand how this works:S I have 1gb ram at the moment.. with 2gb ready to be inserted when I finish exams... could that be a reason?

Or is it a manufacture defect? Should I return it?

 

I never had this but my first thought was that this is a driver problem. Try different drivers (NVidia, BT, Chipset etc.) and if this does not help: Do a clean install of the OS.
If this does not help either: return it.

 

If you still have all the ASUS bloatware, consider removing it. The freeze can be a direct cause of some bloatware (known to happen), or it may be because Windows Vista takes too much RAM, it needs to swap, and then you experience this as a freeze.

(it can also be for completely different reasons of course)

I suggest you take a look at my Vista optimization guide (signature). All the bloatware that you don't or might not need is listed there, and also some other hints on how to get things running more smoothly with Vista.

By the way, if you have the 2GB stick why not insert it? I know 3GB can cause problems with some notebooks, but the worst that can happen is you take it out again. The extra 2GB will give Vista a good kick in the back, I think you'll feel the advantage plenty.

 

Test the RAM: www.memtest.org. Actually, Vista has its Windows Memory Diagnostics, though it doesn't tell you as much.

If you installed anything that required drivers to be installed (ex: USB TV card, printers, scanners, third-party docking station etc), uninstall it.

 

Its not to likely to be a hardware issue, Try doing a clean install and be careful about what you install.

 

With the information given, it is impossible to completely rule it out.

If there's a fault in the memory that always occurs at a particular location and the corruption is not severe enough or in a critical point in memory, it is completely possible for that sort of thing to NOT cause a BSoD. I've seen systems that seem perfectly fine for basic web-browsing and email use until you run heavily resource-intensive programs/games on it, after which they fall like a house of cards in less than a minute because of RAM failures or weak power adapters/supplies.

The system randomly hard-locking is generally not software. It could be a bad/corrupt/incompatible/non-compliant driver or some hardware problem. You can check the Event Viewer, it might give you a hint as to what happened (Run eventvwr from the Start Menu).

If it's a program running out of control, you might be able to see what is happening with the Task Manager. CTRL-SHIFT-ESC.

If it crashes under a fresh reinstall condition, then there is definitely something hardware. Otherwise, probably software.

 

I mostly agree, Alex. (except it can crash due to software/.drivers after a "clean" install if the software/drivers is automatically installed, like with a typical ASUS recovery)

However, the most reasonable thing to do at this point is removing the bloatware or a truly clean install (no bloatware). Because I think there's a strong chance that the OP experiences Vista swapping due to 1GB of RAM as "freezes".

If that doesn't cut it, then we can move to driver and/or hardware issues.

My rule (and I think it's a reasonable rule) is always try to eliminate the most likely cause first, and move on to less likely causes if that doesn't fix the problem.

I restate my suggestion of inserting the 2GB RAM stick, as well.