M51S series Crash

I was wondering if anyone has had crashes with this series of Asus?

I had been throwing a blue screen for a few days usually saying something along the lines that there was a problem with memory management, so I decided to do a system restore back to a time when it wasn't throwing me this blue screen.

In the middle of the system restore I think it threw the blue screen again, causing the system restore to stop and the computer to restart, in the middle of the system restore.

Now my laptop is virtually functionless. I boot it up and just have a blank background, no icons load, no start bar, nothing. The only thing I can pull up is task manager, from which I can pull up the run menu. Also, for some reason, my hotkeys on the laptop still work. Right now I'm actually on the "crashed" laptop posting because the hotkey for the internet still works? Going through the task manager it looks like most of my services and what not had been shut down, so I reapplied which ones should open at startup, but it didn't make a difference. I also ran msconfig and changed some settings and turned on some programs that shouldnt be off, but that didn't help either.

If anyone has any ideas of what I should do to fix this or what happened ANY input is greatly appreciated.

I haven't taken it in to a shop to look at it yet, since I'm hoping it's something I can do myself. If it comes down to it I'll just reset the laptop and reinstall vista, but I hope it doesnt as I have ~40gbs of media on this this thing that I don't have backed up anywhere else.

 

Kind of a bump, and additional info

Using the run menu I can open itunes, but it doesn't work. Through itunes I can browse the files on my computer, and everything is still there, so that's good. It won't, however, let me open things like my music folder or program files from run. A window temporarily pops up when I try to run things like this, then closes quickly.

Should I just do a system recovery with the recovery disk, and if so, will it wipe my HDDs? Or can I do system recovery and option to not wipe my disks?

 

try running eventvwr.msc, maybe the event logs can help.
if not, safemode. hijackthis can be helpful to show what's done at startup, as well as loadord (from sysinternals).

if not, then a windows reinstall may be the only way to go.

 

Thanks for the tips man.

Unfortunately, when I open the event logs it has a red X and next to it says "MMC could not create the snap-in" then goes on to say Name:Event Viewer
CLSID:FX:{b05566ad-fe9c-4363-be05-7a4cbb7cb510}

Safemode gives me the same deal, no background, can't run anything, only difference is the screen is black with "safemode" in the corners.

If I reinstall is it gunna dump my HDDs, or even give me the option to keep my files on them? I ask because it would be a major pain in the to go about putting my 40gb music library back together, lol.

 

I'm going through a similar mess right now. I have an equivalent notebook to yours, the F3Sa.

For the past two days, I have been logging on to a black Vista desktop with a white mouse cursor. By pressing [Shift] five times, I could call up the Sticky Keys dialog, click on the link, and then type "Explorer" at the top of the "Set up Sticky Keys" applet. This restored my desktop so that I could frantically start the backup process. The Vista desktop continued to crash during my backup process, and I never was able to launch Windows Live Mail to export my Contacts. But I got everything else and am now completing a format and clean install.

If only ASUS download servers would serve up some files...

By the way, I think the problem began after an update to Windows Defender came through Windows Update. That is the only thing that changed on my notebook -- I didn't really use it since that update and the troubles began right away. The only other updates that may have been in play are updates to Google Chrome and AVG.

Search for Vista Black Screen and Mouse Arrow for more on this problem.

Jeremy

 

It sounds like your ram has gone bad and/or have bad sectors in your hard drive. See if you can run memtest86 to check your ram.

 

I think you're right about the windows defender. That's the first thing that started messing up for me, then it all went downhill from there.

I wasn't to the point of a black screen with the cursor...until now. I got up this morning and when I'd try to start the computer it would freeze on the windows load screen so finally rather than continuing the restore I went the other route and had it dump the restore data and start again, and NOW I just have the black screen, lol.

I tried your sticky keys thing and I can't get a setup window to pop up? It just pops up with the typcial "Do you want to turn on sticky keys" box, and it gives me the yes or no option, neither of which do anything.

Also, kinda weird, but the noises its making when I hit keys remind me of ooold ooold video games, hahaha.

 

Thanks for the idea man, I was thinking the memory may have gone bad too, and was totally looking forward to trying this until I get up this morning and all the sudden I can't even pull up my task window.

 

I would strongly recommend you to backup all your important data asap if you haven't already, just in case it could be a failing hard drive.

From here, I can suggest two things. 1 - RMA your laptop to Asus and have them fix the issue. 2 - if you have another working laptop, you can borrow its ram to make sure it's the ram that's at fault. If this is the case, you can simply buy a pair of ram from newegg and save the hassle of RMAing your laptop.

 

Ya, that's what I was hoping I'd be able to do, but now I can't. I bought the laptop Last June so it's not even a year old, definately didn't anticipate problems like this within the first year.

Is there any way I could use a firewire cable or USB to hookup the laptop to my desktop so that it'll show the laptops HDDs as slave drives and I could pull files off on to the desktop?


It should still fall under their accidental warranty if I could find my receipt. I don't have another laptop but I might have a friend that has matching memory and might be kind enough to let me borrow it.

 

You could transfer the files that way, but you'll need additional hardware to make that happen. See this.

I personally would prefer using a 2.5" external hard drive casing (any of these would do) and just pop the hard drive into the casing and connect it to your desktop.

 

What are the casings you mention? Would I pull my hard drive from the laptop then put it in the casing which connects to my desktop and allows me to run the hard drive as a slave on the desktop?

 

Yes, you are essentially taking your hard drive out your laptop, and making it into an external hard drive. The casings that I have linked in my previous post will all come with USB cables, so you're good to go with only that.

 

Awesome man, I'll probably run out today and see if I can pick one up and see how it works. I'll keep you guys updated on any progress. Thanks for the help.

 

Make sure you get one that's in a 2.5" form with a SATA interface

 

Haha, thanks for clarifying. I was looking at a PATA interface

 

your not out of luck yet.
see if you can run cmd -> chkdsk <drive>: /x /f

if it doesn't work, or there are no errors, do regedit. im fairly sure vista has the same hive structure as xp so, go to HKLM\System\Current Control Set\Services

here is a list of all the drivers (services are drivers too) that load when you start windows. 0 = boot time, this is before you see the windows bar. 1 = system, this is during the boot bar. 2 = auto, this is when you log in. 3 = manual, loaded when needed. 4 = disabled.
there is also a key called DisplayName. this should give you a general idea of what that driver does.
only stuff like ACPI, battery, dcomlaunch, dmio, disk, ntfs, rpcss etc. is necessary. even if you make a mistake, don't worry, just boot to "Last Known Good Config." this will restore the registry to how it was on the last clean shutdown.
since your system crashes on the desktop (maybe login, idk), chances are its a 2 or 3 start driver. if its not, then go into the 1's (if you see keys like Serial or other devices you don't need, you can disable those as well).

along with those, disable stuff that runs on startup. usually, this is in HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Run and Run Once. the same thing is in HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\.

registry edits aren't as dangerous as people make them seem if you can run cmd, you should be able to make a copy of the hive files before the edits just in case. you'll have to google it though, since they changed the locations since XP.

 

I can't pull up my task manager anymore, so I can't figure out any way to run anything anymore. Is there a way around that so I can try what you're talking about?

 

try windowskey + r to bring up the run menu

 

Didn't work.

The only thing I can pull up at this point is the sticky keys window, but there's nothing i can do from there.

 

How about in safe mode?

 

can you get and burn a cd/dvd? if so, download an ubuntu livecd.
boot into it, and open a terminal (should be somewhere in applications)

Code:

sudo gparted

shrink your windows by 40 if you can, and make a new fat32 partition in that space. don't worry about killing windows, as im pretty sure it's already dead. write down the names of the windows and new partition, should be sdaX and sdaY (x and Y are numbers).

Code:

sudo mount

this will list all mounted partitions, i dont think your windows will be there by default

Code:

sudo mkdir /mnt/c
sudo mount /dev/sdaX /mnt/c

where sdaX is what you wrote down earlier for windows

Code:

cd /mnt/c

to get into your windows partition

Code:

sudo mkdir /mnt/backup
sudo mount /dev/sdaY /mnt/backup/

where sdaY is what you wrote down earlier for the backup

you should now be in the root of your windows drive. running "ls" should list all the files and folders. using cd (and ls), navigate to your music (and anything else you want to back up). * is a wildcard, spaces have to be escaped (with \).

Code:

sudo cp <options> SOURCE DESTINATION

to copy. if its a folder, add "-r" to options. destination should be /mnt/backup/

mv <options> SOURCE DEST = move a file (-r for a folder)
rm <options> TARGET = delete a file (-rf for folders)

 

Safe mode is the same deal.

 

That post just went into a whole other language I don't speak my friend.

 

http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download

download, burn, and set BIOS to boot to CD/DVD.
once its done loading, there should be Terminal somehwere in the applications menu.

then follow the steps above.
according to the laptops specs, it has a 250GB hdd, which should be enough to back everything up.

 

Cool, I'll see what I can do. It's a 250gb hdd thats partitioned into 2 sections. I filled up the one that has the OS on it so I started putting media on the D: back when it worked. I won't be terrible upset if I can't back up EVERYTHING. Just the important stuff.

 

instead of making a new partition, find out (through gparted) which one D is, and mount that. if you don't like the command-line copying,

sudo nautilus

will bring up a GUI file manager similar to windows' explorer. i have a feeling you had to shutdown with the power button, so replace the mount steps like so:

sudo mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/sdaX /mnt/X -o force

 

How badly can I f&%* everything up if I don't do this right? I'm definately not the most experienced computer guy but I do know a decent little bit of stuff and can follow directions pretty well. lol

 

if you can understand what the instructions intend you to do without memorizing them, then you should be good

basically, youre downloading a linux cd, that once loaded, resides in RAM (so no damage possible yet). using that "environment", you're mounting both partitions (C and D), and copying anything you want from C to D. even if you mess around with moving and deleting, i dont think things can get much worse than they already are

 

Ya, I was thinking, the thing doesn't do me any good right now to begin with, it's like ive already lost everything so I might as well try and get it back, and If I can't then it's no different.

So after I move my around to my non-os hdd, then I can use my recovery disk and what not to recover my OS on the C: and it won't get rid of any files from the D:?

 

ive never used the recovery cd, but thats what i've heard. some option like "recover to first partition", idk. D should be intact.

 

Yes this is exactly correct. The second partition will stay intact while the system is recovered from the recovery image onto the first partition.

 

Fn awesome guys, I've got ubuntu on a dvd sitting next to me, so I'm about to give it a shot. Cross your fingers. Haha, I'll let you know how it goes.

 

When I run ubuntu should I "try ubuntu without changing my computer" or should I actually install it?

 

"try ubuntu without changing my computer"

 

From the pre-install screen on ubuntu It gave me the option of running a memory test so I'm doing that right now before I get in to things. From what I can tell, it's not looking good, lol.

It's only been running for 7 and a half minutes though so I'll try and decipher the results when it's all done. Anyone have an idea of how long a memory test might take?

 

many hours. never actually completed one fully. if there are errors, then it will be very obvious.

 

It should only take about 20 to 25 mins* for one pass on your M51S. It's definitely a good idea to run memtest for even longer (more passes, or indefinitely) if you are dealing with potential corruption.

*It could take longer (I'm not sure how much RAM you have..)

 

It has 4gbs of ram and has been running for a little over half an hour. It's about to be finished testing up through 3072mb and only has a 25% pass rate it looks like, and it's showing 1,5xx,xxx errors. Im thinking bad memory might be at fault here

 

Ya with 4GB a pass will take longer... but with a core 2 duo it shouldn't take more than an hour or so for one pass (very roughly, memtest is something I usually just let run so I tend to forget about time when I run it).... if you're showing that many errors it's time to replace your modules!!

 

That's what I'm thinking. I'm kinda disappointed that the memory went bad after 8 months, especially paying 1200 for this sucker. I guess they had to cut corners somewhere

Update: Running for 52 minutes now and up to 2.4+ million errors.

Am I still going to be able to move my stuff from the C to D hdd with this much bad memory? Lol.

 

It'd be risky to do any kind of transfer with the memory in the state it's in... and if you send it in for warranty service they reserve the right to fry your data. So the safest option is to get an external enclosure and copy the data off with another computer. Alternatively you could use another notebook, replace the hard disk with yours, and use a live CD to transfer the data off using the network, USB drive or CD-R depending on the amount and filesizes. The best option would be to take the hard drive out and use another computer to get the data off...

Edit: Are you sure those numbers are errors? I mean.. if your computer even boots with that many bad memory cells it's a miracle.

 

Alright, so, best course of action

1. Buy External Enclosure, remove HDD and copy files off HDD onto desktop computer, then reinstall HDD

2. Buy new memory, install it

3. Restore computer to factory settings through BIOS?

4. Pull HDD again to replace the files from my desktop back onto the laptop

Sound good?

 

I made an edit, are you certain those are actually errors? Your comp probably wouldn't boot ...

If you're not doing warranty service, just replace the RAM and take it from there. There's always the chance it's a bad motherboard component and not your memory, so that's a possibility too... but in any event taking the HD out and copying the data off with an enclosure is the sure-fire way to save your data despite all this.

 

I wish I could do a print screen of what it's showing cuz I don't totally understand it all. I'll see if I can snap a good pic of it to see whats going on.

 

Well in any case, an external 2.5" SATA enclosure is a good bet, I got one for $15 or something, but there are nicer ones that have eSATA (I just have a USB one).

If your notebook is only a year old, why don't you start a support ticket with ASUS and have them replace the RAM and/or motherboard after you back up your data... it should be under warranty?

 

Here's a pic I snapped.

 

I hadn't thought about that option...That's a good idea. I need to find all my warranty stuff though.

Side note, having ubuntu on the computer isn't going to void the warranty is it?

 

yea, thats bad. RMA or new ram.
and no, it wont. there should be no trace (unless you installed it).

 

OK, yea that is bad... those are errors.. have you tried pulling the modules out (with the battery out and unplugged of course) and putting them back in? Sometimes reseating them is all they need.