HEL80 - Intermittent system freeze

This is a longshot, but I'm curious to see if anyone else has experienced this.

I've owned my HEL80 (Crown P 15:2 from PowerNotebooks) for several months, and I love it -- but there's one recurring problem with it that's bugging me. Every so often, on the order of once every week or two (though the occurrences seem to come in bunches), the system will freeze up completely, requiring a forced shutdown via the power button. More detailed symptoms:

- There is never any indication of a problem in the Windows Event Log after the fact. Application, Security and System sections all come up clean.

- This will usually happen when I leave the machine on, but completely idle, overnight. For several such nights in a row, it will be fine, then it'll have the problem for something like three nights out of four... then it'll go back to being fine again for a while.

- It has happened to me twice (once just a few minutes ago) when actively using the computer, both times while doing something innocuous (this time, loading a trustworthy, non-script-intensive webpage in Firefox).

- I originally thought it might be screensaver or standby related, but having completely disabled both functions, the problem still occurs. (The screen does not black out when the freeze happens.)

Normally, I'd brainwipe the machine back to a clean Windows XP install and see what happens, but this is a machine used for software development -- I won't be able to spare time for a full reinstall until after my current project ends in a couple of months. (And I will do that, if I don't solve the problem by then.) My questions, then, boil down to:

1. Has anyone experienced these sorts of lockups on their HEL80?

2. Aside from reinstalling the device drivers (which I'm going to do anyway), and short of reinstalling XP from scratch, does anyone have any suggestions for "trial and error" attempts to fix this, or even to troubleshoot it?

My biggest worry is that this might be a hardware issue, but I can't think of any way to prove or disprove that theory right now.

 

T&A stuff
Software/Windows
Make sure you have ran Disk clean-up, System File checker (start>run>sfc.exe /scannow), Defragmented the HD, obtained all latest updates, check for adware/spyware/viruses (AV suggested, CA, NOD32, Eset) (anti-adware/spyware, Ad-Aware, Spybot, Windows Defender, Pest Patrol)
Time to start testing hardware.
RAM - Memtest
HD - Find the Manf. of the HD and obtain the Diagnostic Software to test it for bad sectors. Post your Device Manager "Disk Drive" Model and I can tell you the Manf. (Right click 'My Computer'>properties>hardware>device manager)
It is also suggested that you monitor your heat, if the CPU is overheating this can cause this issue. Either A. using monitoring software or B. upon freeze, reboot into the BIOS (if the BIOS has monitoring capabilities (varies from pc to pc)) which would be recommended - (since if the pc freezes you can't check the temp anyways unless you have the software open)

 

Good suggestions. To follow up:

- An earlier defrag didn't seem to help, but it's been long enough that I'll try again. I should be doing that more often anyway.

- I'm running Avira AntiVir, and it hasn't reported any problems so far, but I'll scan everything I possibly can tonight just to be sure. Ditto Ad-Aware.

- RAM is Corsair brand. Did overnight runs using two different memtest utilities back when I first noticed this problem, both came up completely clean after 2000% coverage. So the memory seems not to be to blame.

- HD is a Seagate ST910021AS. SeaTools has been downloaded, will run tonight.

- I'll try to keep a closer eye on my temps in general. (I have a registered copy of Everest Ultimate Edition.) Right at this moment, I'm seeing CPU 58 C, GPU 54 C, HD 45 C. (CPU is a Core Duo T2500.)

(It also occurs to me that I was considering an HD upgrade (to 160GB) anyway, so I could do a clean XP install to the new drive for further troubleshooting and swap back to the "work" drive as needed.)

 

very true - hopefully that leads to an answer, if not just post / pm back -
Good Luck!

 

Hey,

Sorry you are having such a crazy problem on a production system, that always makes solutions trickier.. Something I was thinking of was for you to get RMclock and try setting it up with the likes of how I've recommended on here a few times. If it works you could narrow the problem down to heat (you can lower operating voltage for the CPU, as well as disable tons of sleep and lower usage modes). Might be worth a shot..

The other thing I was wondering about was your power coming into the system? Are you in an older house that might be having little spikes or anything strange? You can get line filters for around $40 shipped from newegg, or buy a UPS / surge suppressor with the ability. Maybe some kind of other digital devices or high frequency (phone?) on the same circuit in your home? Maybe buy a $3 wiring tester to check the outlets grounding? I haven't run into this much in Portland, but in Salem and back in Oklahoma this wasn't all to uncommon. Older systems ran fine because they were less picky..

Hope you got solved, otherwise post back and we can all try again.

 

I live in a moderately old, but well-maintained apartment complex. I wouldn't guarantee that my power is perfect, though it seems that way. On the other hand, the latest occurrence happened in the office (I work a 50/50 home/office split), and the power here is pretty solid.

In both locations, I use surge suppressors with the laptop at all times. (I have a little one-outlet one for emergencies.) I've also used at least two other laptops on the same outlet without power issues.

As for heat... I'll keep an eye on it, but honestly, the HEL80 seems to run quite cool. Also, when I have had laptop overheating problems in the past, I've found that the computer will generally shut down and/or go "black" instead of remaining on and freezing... am I mistaken? Is that not the more common overheating behavior?

 

Ok, count out the power issue since you say it happens at work too (I wouldn't count out older systems working fine, but other locations sure)...

As for heat, depends on what over heats and what system... coming from a background of repairing dozens of thousands of PC's over about 10 years I've seen a little of it all.. Normally when a video card overheats the screen cuts out.. but I've seen a fair share of Processor overheats that don't. Again, with RMclock you could watch the temp as well as control it better, as well as perhaps get extra battery life.

Try running music the whole time very quietly if you could... normally a driver related hard-lock will cause the music to st-st-st-st-stutter in the same split second bit.. That might be another way to go... or disable any hardware you know you aren't using. I don't normally recommend that to people I don't know, but you seem fairly comfortable with your system so just be careful... agree to this EULA... and sign here in blood stating that I am not responsible for your trigger happy actions

 

"I'm curious to see if anyone else has experienced this."

I have... most of the time it freezes as you describe, that is for no reason and without warning (edit: I did hear the stutter a couple time, but usually when I hear it the computer doesn't lock, as if it survived!). I use just the normal softwares except for BOINC which runs most of the time. Which means the computer is usually on 20h+/day.

Two or three times it was different and was related to the sound card (??) or maybe I think it was related to the sound card just because I had music playing when it stopped working and it made that big annoying sound until I shut it down...

 

I could honestly toss this up to Windows. I've gone through many systems over the years that within a few minutes of installing windows I can start catching bugs, and end up reinstalling over and over till the bugs are gone. It normally has to do with the way Windows set's up the hardware address tables. Back in the good ol days the firmware (BIOS) kept the addresses in line, but now it's not so much the case.

 

I have this same issue with my Z96JS, it usually recovers before completely locking up. Was any fix found for this?

Thnx,
Cat

 

One thing I haven't seen mentioned is chkdisk. Have it automatically repair, and check for bad sectors. You can access it through right clicking on the drive under my computer ->properties->tools->check for errors.

If the page file is getting assigned to a bad sector, windows could lock up whenever it writes/reads that sector.

My first guess was heat, but chkdisk is easy enough to run.

 

Hi....

I've just stumbled on your thread... ( I was actually looking for videos showing how to get to the processor to apply silver arctic silver 5 on it )

although my problem is not like yours happening 3 nights out of 4... my HEL80 also freezes from time to time....

I do use a power surge....
I've used different torrents of both windows 32 and 64 bits...
slackware linux (32 bits)
slamd64 (unofficial 64-bits port of slackware)
ubuntu (32 and 64 bits gutsy)

It also doesn't seem related to being on overnight.... some times if just froze after being on for 4 hours.....

One thing that might is that it most of the times, I was trying to watch a divx or dvd, while listening to music (yes pretty stupid to watch movies and listen to music at the same time, I know)
while browsing using firefox... (not blaming on firefox)

feel free to message me, cause I really like my HEL80