Freezing Laptop

Hello,
I have had some troubles with my laptop from the days i first booted it. It tends to freeze a lot. Sometimes it is just a short freeze, for like 1 minute and then continue without any problem. But sometimes this doesnt happen and i have to do an instant shut down and reboot my laptop again. This is very inconvenient especialy when working on something and all progress is lost. What is the cause of this problem? Is it software, hardware what is it? Temps are always perfectly fine in my laptop (CPU never higher than 75 and GPU never higher than 60) so it might be rather a HDD/mSATA SSD/MoBo problem (just guessing here). I got avast free virus scan and it doesnt say i got a virus on my laptop. Really this is the bigest issue i have with my laptop other than that it is great

thanks!

 

If you doubt its an hardware issue, most you can do is try a clean install with updated drivers and see if that solves the issue. If you're still getting lockups after that, it will be something hardware related, and that's when you could start stress testing components and seeing which one cracks first.

Although, what are you running when it freezes up? Does it freeze if left idle and running nothing?

 

Thanks for the reply. I dont think it has aynthing to do with the CPU/GPU/RAM. I checked on the google before and lots of people say your laptop could freeze from overheating but since that isnt the case. It could perfectly be a MoBo issue or HDD issue. I actualy do suspect it is one of them.

That was what i was scared of, a total reinstall and 10 hours of reinstalling and downloading. I have already reinstalled my laptop after i had this problem (this was only after a few days) but didnt really solve it for good. It got less but it wasnt 100% solved. But i can look if it helps ill only have to install evrything again blah.. But i might have gathered a lot of junk on my way as well as lots of system errors.

stress testing all the time with benchmarks Those never give issues. The freezing can occur at any time i think. I get it a lot even during normal browsing the web, It never freezes while idling

 

If you don't want to reinstall the OS everytime to test for things like that, you could make an image of the entire drive with Windows itself and keep that as a backup while you figure out what might be wrong (be it software or whatever), then when you find the problem, you can reimage the drive back to what it was before you erased it, no extra programs to install.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/att...1808-installing-msata-ssd-guide-fotos-041.jpg
IS this a good image

I really have no clue about what to do in those cases. When it comes to software i am a real noob. I kinda know my way around in the hardware world.. I have only been interested in computers a few months and lots to learn left. Does it make any differnce i got 2 hard disc one HDD and one mSATA (which is for 70-80% full)? Thanks for the input i´ll look into it.

 

If you want to go there, that's not a very good image at all, I can't read any of the text

As long as you have free space on the external drive equal or greater to the space used on the SSD, you can use the built in imaging tool, in 8 its under "Windows 7 File Recovery". System Images are copies of a disk/drive at a certain time that when restored to a drive, will bring you right back to when the image was made, bit for bit (as long as nothing gets corrupted).

This would make more sense if I wasn't pulling an allnighter

 

The problem what you explained is typical Sandforce 2xxx problem. So if you have OCZ mSata, garbage it!

 

Thanks! After googeling:

Laptop with Sata 3 SSD freezes randomly

THis guy has 100% the same problem But he explained it better. Seems like i have to update the firmware and do a reinstall :s

 

OCZ Technology

So what do i need to do now? Make a copy on windwos on the D drive and boot from that and update firmware? And then delete the copy of windows (if at all possible) just guessing something

 

This is exactly the 'consistency' issue that 2013 will hopefully be the year that SSD manufacturer's 'fix' thanks to Anand's exposure of the issue (just as he exposed the real issue of the 'stuttering' 5 years ago in those early SSD's).

See:
AnandTech - Plextor Updates The Firmware on M5 Pro: Promises Increased Performance, We Test It


Sounds like your mSATA SSD is performing worse than the already terrible Plextor M5 PRO in the link above (Page 2 linked - last graph on page...).

Note that even with 25% over-provisioning - MOST of the data points are along the BOTTOM of the graph.

Your SSD is performing worse than that.


What you need to do is copy your data to an external HDD and Secure Erase and update the Firmware on the mSATA SSD - this will/should bring it's performance back to like-new levels. To keep the performance somewhere close to this level - you need to leave at least 30% 'unallocated'.

Yes - there is a difference between 'unallocated' and simply leaving 'free space' as you have been doing up until now - 'unallocated' will let the SSD's controller 'know' which nand chips have no user data on them and can be used much more efficiently for GC and TRIM routines than simple 'free space' that needs the controller to monitor/track/clean/erase nand chips that 'may' have wanted user data on them or not.


With a 60GB mSATA SSD - my advice is to scrap it and get a 256GB version (Crucial M4 256GB mSATA highly recommended) if you don't want this problem to keep recurring. Yeah; sell it, donate it or throw it away - anything else on a modern O/S is just asking for the headaches you're seeing (not really any 'SSD-like' benefits with a puny capacity, huh?).





What you're basically seeing with the 'freezes' is the GC routines trying to clean up the nand as you're using it - with such a small capacity, high %-filled and low performance 'brand new spec's' - the SSD is doing all it can to keep itself alive. But it is not doing you any good when a 5400 RPM HDD would be giving you better overall performance (and with less chance of a sudden 'stroke' - due to the fact that the SSD is probably running a very high WA factor as-is and is literally doing 10-50 times the work it was designed for).



Good luck.

 

You can try, but firmware updates, windows re installs did not solved these problems for me. I had trouble with both Agilty 3 128GB and Vertex 3 256GB too. The only thing what helped is trashing them and moving to non Sandforce controller SSDs, to Samsung and Crucial.

 

Thanks for this reply. Adding 16gb ram on a 60gb GB mSATA system wasnt that clever. The RAM will consume 16gb only for hybernating which means less than 40gb is free (55,7GB capacity). Basicly the only thing on the mSATA is my OS now i store evrything else and programs as well on my HDD. I agree with you that 60gb is really on the small side. I dont agree on the part that the HDD is doing as good as the ssd. In benchmarks i have run the HDD got smashed by the ssd (did this when i just installed the ssd). Also loading times on the ssd are loads shorter than on the HDD.

How do you assign space as unallocated? I´ll look into that as well and hope that will help. Really as i said i dont know about such things..

 

Ok thats a pitty I will considder getting another ssd. Investing too much in my machine.. Are samsung and crucial the only ones not using Sandforce controller ssd´s? How about Intel, Kingston, corsair or Sandisk?

 

All those mentioned are SF based SSD's... as for the 16GB RAM added - you can disable hibernation (doesn't make much sense with an SSD and Win7).


Also; doesn't matter what the SSD 'scored' when new/unused state - they aren't used like that (as you see...).

What matters is the continuous 'steady-state' performance it can offer (and with up to 1 minute 'freezing' of the O/S to user input it is WELL BELOW HDD performance levels).

 

Ok so you advise me to get either a samsung or crucial SSD to fix my freezing problem. I cant believe all people that run on OCZ´s or lets say Intels are suffering from freezing. But basicly all those other people do have the same issue.

And how for unallocated space, would that fix my problem?

 

intel 330 series is also SandForce but would not eliminate then necessarily - AnandTech - The Intel SSD 330 Review (60GB, 120GB, 180GB).. see final words if you do not want to read the lengthy article
AFA as allocated space - after you format a drive the entire space is unallocated, as you set up partitions whatever is not used for them remains unallocated.

 

No, you're putting words in my mouth (I didn't say that at all - I simply answered your question).


I run Intel 520 Series 240GB SF based SSD's and with up to 140GB 'unallocated' (of the rated nominal capacity) - I don't have your issues. OCZ's issues are entirely theirs - they opted for the fastest benchmark 'scores' for their drives with no regard to long term or real world usage patterns/expectations.


I am also not recommending a Samsung SSD either - no direct experience with the latest versions - but also would not recommend them with all the data that I have seen about them either. Others swear by them - but I don't know what they're basing they're swearing on.

 

Ah sorry i lost you on that post. I wouldnt know anything about partitions and formation. But if i make some unallocated space would that fix the freezing as well?

 

I guess i didnt ask my question right then. And then interpetated your words in a wrong way or i didnt understand you well. I basicly dont know that much about ssd´s and HDD is general so much room of misinterpetation there as well. So what i get from your post is that unallocated space could make a difference. But would it fix the problems with my OCZ as well?

 

To fix the freezing you need to update to the most current Firmware and Secure Erase the SSD (as stated earlier).

Will over-provisioning help with your specific SSD? Only trying will let us know for sure.

But with a 60GB SSD:

60 x 1,000,000,000 = 60,000,000,000 (What OCZ sells it as - '60GB').

divide the above with 1024 and again by 1024 and again by 1024 = 55.88GB (equals actual available space in Windows)

multiple the above by .70 to leave 30% 'unallocated' = ~39GB of usable space


Which is barely enough for a Windows 7 or 8 x64 installation and the recommended free space of around 25GB.

Which means this drive is too small to continue using as an O/S drive.

Which means time for an upgrade (capacity) and quality (brand).


Look at the link I've provided to see how much difference spare area has on the consistency of an SSD's performance - or look at this one that talks about consistency specifically:

See:
AnandTech - Exploring the Relationship Between Spare Area and Performance Consistency in Modern SSDs




And yes - spare area - over-provisioning - or leaving 'unallocated' capacity (all different terms for the same end result) will make a difference in sustained performance over time.

 

I am afraid that the ssd is indeed a bit too small. Even an 80gb would have been much better and i´d have been able to leave 30% and install evrything i´d needed. But i think i´ll look into getting the new firmware. How do i actualy make sure m doing it right. It says i cannot update the firmware on the disk im running windows on..
And what if i´d keep lets say 20% unallocated space? Would that take care of the freezing?

But i might as well save up a bit of money and buy a decent ssd instead..

 

I looked at the toolbox guide and you are correct, either configure the OCZ drive as a secondary drive, or see " updating your firmware with a drive that can not be updated"... then use the link and instructions in the toolbox guide (Download the Linux Distribution from the link there and boot from the optical media that you will have to create... as described in said guide).
Other manufacturers make the process much easier such as Intel and the toolbox for their drives..

 

Ah i think ill look into it. I do have some time the folowing weeks (no college only exames so no trouble in 2 hour downloads) and i might do a total reinstall after i updated the firmware and look into making as much room as possible for anallocated space.

This link says nothing of NOCTI´s being suported
http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/f...W!!-OCZ-Bootable-Toolbox-PC-Edition-(REBUILD)
Does it make it different me running an mSATA?

 

I was looking here OCZ Technology and NOCTI does appear to be supported.

Hopefully an owner will chime in here to confirm..

 

Yes i have checked out that link. But when you open this tab
NEW!! - OCZ Bootable Toolbox - PC Edition
It doesnt say anthing about Nocti nor mSATA..