9750 Freezes

Occasionally my 9750 freezes while in use. The cursor just stops responding. Everything on screen looks fine, there's just no response from mouse or keyboard. When this happens, there is no change in fan speed, the machine is not particularly hot (fairly constant temp of about 50C), and usage is light to normal--the freeze often occurring when I am only surfing, maybe switching from one browser tab to another. This problem arises only intermittently. It happened twice last night, and hadn't happened in a couple of weeks prior to that. It has to be shut down by depressing the power button for a few seconds. Rebooting typically resolves the problem, and it might not reoccur for days or weeks. The only thing that seems consistent from occurrence to occurrence is that these freezes happen when using the computer after it has sat idle for a couple hours--not asleep, just on but with no activity.

Any ideas what causes these freezes? Right now they aren't much of a nuisance, but I expect their frequency will increase over time (I've had the unit about 1 year).

Thanks for your ideas.

 

hows the GPU temp?
and do you check the health of your HDD, from what you describe, that might be a symptom of a dying HDD (next symptom would be physical failure)

Check your GPU temp using RivaTuner, and the other stuff (including CPU temp, and HDD S.M.A.R.T. health try using Notebook Hardware Control.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=81852

For Clevo D900K, this version of Notebook seems to be the best.
NHC 1.10 b3

I am currently using these now, no probs at all.

 

Hey rob...oh man..i hated those as well.

In many ways I prefer a BSOD so at least I can work the dump files to see what was causing it (which I did successfully tracing an issue to a nv4_min.sys using the Windows Debugger)

Anyway, in the past, here is what I did with my 9750 would freeze:

1. Keep a log. Each time it freezes, note the time and date. Also what apps you were running.
2. Follow Gophn's suggestion and make sure the GPU temp. Make sure all your vents are clean and clear.
3. Usually a lot of the freezing is due to bad RAM. Run memtest. You can download from here: http://www.memtest.org/ Suggest you run it overnight at the minimum.
4. Next time it freezes, see if the Fn+F2 keys work. In speaking with Sager, it is their way of seeing if its mobo related or o/s related.
5. Also, if you're using webshots screen saver, take it off. I think that was causing some freezing in my 9750.
6. If you are game and willing to learn, there is a MS XP Windows Debugger that could help you trace a freeze issue. You can look in here: http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/devtools/debugging/default.mspx
7. Call Sager Tech support if you get down here. Suggest you ask for Allen Zhang by name, I deal with him all the time and hes freakin awesome, very knowledgeable and articulate.

Good luck rob...feel for you, this is one B*TCH issue I do not want or wish on anyone.

 

Gophn..its interesting that you are using the 1.10 beta. I am using the 2.0 Pre-release 4. Is there any reason why you chose the 1.10 beta over the 2.0 pre-release ?

 

Goph -- Thank you for suggesting RivaTuner and Notebook Hardware Control. I perused the sites you linked to and see that using those utilities should be easy enough. I have some diagnostic tools already on board and will use them first to see what is indicated, if anything. Justin at xoticpc.com recommends starting with a look at the processes running when it freezes.

Albsterama--Thank you, too for suggesting memtest and MS XP Windows Debugger. Visiting the two sources you linked to, and downloading initial packages to my computer at work suggests those utilities are way over my user experience. Your buddy at Sager will hear from me before I try to use those tools. Thanks for recommending him.

I will report back on what is found.

Albsterama--your signature block states that your 9750 is back in the shop. Man, you've had a time with that thing, haven't you? It's too bad. What's the problem now?

 

Im using the 1.10 because it can detect the actually batterylife (for the D900K), the newer versions of NHC does not.

Read this short thread on it:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=100124

 

Ah...missed that thread. thanks...

 

Oooh, me bad - my sig should not have reflected that its gone back to Sager. I had meant to reflect my displeasure with the ATS and PCT so I have now changed it to "Vapour Warranty"

Sager did take good care of me! As I posted in the Poll thread over here, my biggest regret is the ATS debacle and I DO hold PCTorque.com partially responsible for the non-action. If they had been more upfront and communicate with the people who paid into this warranty, I may be less mad about things.

My last interaction with Sager was mid Jan07 when it underwent the last mobo replacement and I have since rebuilt XP on it.

Yeah, please keep us all up to date with what you find as any findings adds to the collective to help others. Thats what forums are all about...

:smile:

 

Well, I followed Gophn's suggestions and came up with the following data:
GPU temperature after 60 minutes of standard use = 57C average. This is some websurfing, emailing, etc. No gaming or high-test benchmarking.

CPU temperature = 51C.

HDD temperature = 38C.

I also ran benchmarks using Fresh Diagnose. The HDD write speed came out 4.68 MB/S. I don't know what it is supposed to be, but that seems low. The HDD is 80GB 5400rpm SATA.

Following the suggestion of Justin at XoticPC, I looked at processes running, but am not sure what to look for there. Nothing appeared abnormal, but what is normal?

In the 90 minutes or so the computer has been running now, no freezes. So maybe these intermittent freezes aren't serious yet. Still, I wonder about that HDD write speed.