Odd freeze on SZ1M

Don't know if anyone else has seen anything like this.

My new SZ1M (a factory recon from Sony) mostly works perfectly - and can run for long periods of time without trouble.

Only problem is that I get an odd freeze occasionally - where the screen is still displayed - the mouse pointer still moves - but it's not possible to click on anything. Looking from outside the machine is no longer on the network. The freeze mostly seems to happen when the machine is 'resting' - not when I'm in the middle of doing something.

In one case it eventually came up with a blue screen reporting a crash in, I think, win32.sys? Another time it died 'slowly' initially not re-painting the desktop -and then freezing a few moments later.

Only way out is to hold down the power button.

I have the latest sony drivers and bios updates - and I've also tried the Intel wireless drivers (but the freeze happens both ways).

There is nothing useful in the event log. It happens both on mains and battery and even with the custom Vaio power management turned off.

Sony suggested turning off some of the start-up items (which I've tried - but it didn't fix the problem), their next suggestion was to recover from scratch - which might work - but wouldn't allow me to use the machine without any software!

Any ideas as to what this might be -or how I can track it down?

 

How much free space do you have in your hard drive?

 

I also have the sony refurbished sz1m and have experienced similar things, although not to the same extent.

I sometimes notice that if i click something (for example 'start' on the start menu, or 'file' on the file menu within a program) the computer will freeze for two or three seconds before doing anything. Occasionally, it will freeze for up to 5-10 seconds, and during this time the mouse is still responive, but will not allow me to click anything.

I also have the latest bios and wireless driver updates.

 

20G free on C: - 7G free on D:

 

This has happened quite often to me as well (sz220 [corrected was sz120]). The system would lock up, and basically only the mouse would work (move the pointer) but clicking on things had no effect.

I also noticed two other things about this phenomenon: It usually happened when I was moving the laptop (never when it's just sitting and I'm VPNed to it from my desktop machine), and the HDD light stayed resolutely off when this was happening.

I contemplated this for a while then came up with a theory. What if the hard drive parking utility is parking the hard drive when the code to unpark the hard drive is not resident in memory.

I experimented with this theory by disabling the utility and seeing what would happen.

With it disabled, I didn't experience any lockups for nearly two weeks. That said, I didn't make any extra effort to jar the machine excessively, or perform any other rigerous testing with the HDD protection utility disabled (I don't want to ruin my HDD).

I downloaded an update and renabled it a couple of days ago, and BAM I had another lockup today (which led me to this forum).

Before PetecustomVaio asks, I have about 40G of free space on my HDD.

I'm loath to run with HDD protection disabled, but it's very annoying when the system freezes like this.

 

Very interesting. I thought this happened when I put the machine down - I suspected something related to power - but couldn't reproduce with power saving turned off.

I'll turn off protection and see what happens.

- Greg

 

the freezing with my machine happens when it is simply sitting still on my desk.

 

This is very interesting. I have a brand new UX180p and I got the _EXACT_ problem! I think this has something to do with the g-shock protection on the HDD.

My machine would lock up/freeze occasionally when I was moving it somehow (especially in the car). Also there's a hold/unhold button on the machine. Upon unholding a held UX, it also freeze sometimes (screen on, mouse can move, HDD light absolutely no activity). When this happens I can't do nothing but a hard reboot.

Do you guys think this is a just a defective machine or every machine has the same problem? I don't know if I should exchange it. Do you also think your machines were refurbed because people returned them for this issue? Thanks!

 

Mine was new, not refurbished.

I called Sony support and explained the issue to them in detail. Their advise was to a full recovery, then if it's still happening they'll try to fix it.

I just don't know if I have the patience to back everything up, wipe out my system then go through the tedium of reinstalling it all, especially as I don't have any confidece that that will fix anything.

 

BubbaNW, if your problem is identical to ours, a full recovery does _NOT_ fix it. I have done this million times on my UX and it just kept coming back. Good luck.

 

Here are a few things you can try:

1. Disable HDD shut down after being idle. Go to Start->Settings->Control Panel->Display->Screen Saver->Power Schemes->set "Turn off hard disks" to never.

2. Completely update Windows. I suggest using Autopatcher for this since it virtually contains every patch that MS has released, some of which not included in Windows Update. It contains other useful things as well such as the User Profile Hive Cleanup utility and registry tweaks. The AP team releases update packs every month so be sure to bookmark this page.

3. Check the Event Viewer for any negative reports and post them here if you have any. Go to Start->Run->type eventvwr.msc.

4. Run HijackThis and post your log. This will help us determine what's running at start-up and show what other things you have installed on your system. The pics below show what I have running at start-up. If you have any Sony utilities that are not in these pics they can safely be disabled from running at start-up. All of my SZ features work perfectly fine. Note that I don't use the Cingular WWAN service and the programs with the red dot next to them are irrelevant or third-party applications.

5. Defrag your OS partition and, although unlikely, scan for viruses/spyware.



The following steps don't have anything to do with the freeze problem but they should still be done to further optimize your system.

6. Run TuneXP and for whatever tweak that it lists enable it. Also for the last step, be sure to do the "ultra-fast booting" option. It may take up to an hour to complete, however, so take that into consideration.

7. You should try to free up as many memory resources as you can by turning off services you don't need. Go to Start->Run->type services.msc. See the pictures below for my set up. Note that I don't use Windows Firewall/ICS or Windows Automatic Update or connect my laptop to any Windows network, and I only have the Intel wireless driver installed, not the utilities. The services with the red dot next to them have nothing to do with optimizing my system.

8. Run RegScrubXP and back-up the registry (read the help file for instructions) before scanning/cleaning any registry errors. If anything doesn't appear to work after you reboot, you can simply restore the backed-up registry and everything will be back to normal.


Procexp - 1
Procexp - 2

Services - 1
Services - 2
Services - 3

 

D'Oh, I should have checked back here before I started.

I backed the thing up two different ways (ms backup to a network drive and a partition image on a USB drive), and pushed the "big red button." I'm at "Step 3" of the restore.

Luckily I don't rely on it as my only PC.

Once I've established whether or not it's freezing in it's pristine state, I'll restore my data and post the output of ProcExp and HijackThis (may take a few days). I've run it before, but never bothered saving the output.

Oh, I noticed I mistyped in my first post. My machine is an sz220 not sz120 (not that I think that matters, but hey...).

 

Well, it froze again after the reset, with only the software Sony ships installed.

The Sony customer rep claims that it is a hardware issue and so I've boxed it up and am waiting for a pickup.

I'll post back here when I have more information.

 

Unfortunately it does appear to be a hardware problem on my UX180p. I have already returned mine and ordered a UX90ps zero spindle (flash disk based).

 

Flash disk drives really look promising. I hope they become more mainstream soon. I can't believe how fast they are compared to normal hard drives. This review gives a glimpse of what's to come in the future.

Where did you purchase it and what was the price?

 

I bought it at geekstuff4u.com. It was about 2.5k with 1.2ghz/cradle. They have already sent the order to sonystyle japan so I should get it in a week or two.

You can also check dynamsim.com. They charge more (but includes eng XP home). They also state it's in-stock so you don't need to wait additional 2 weeks for Sony to customize/build it.

 

Well, it apparently was hardware related. I've had it back a week and no freezes.

From the invoice they replaced the HD cable.

 

That is good to hear. I didn't know a cable could have caused this.