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    SZ120 Freezes - GShock Problem? Something Else?

    Discussion in 'VAIO / Sony' started by tickybox, Mar 4, 2007.

  1. tickybox

    tickybox Notebook Enthusiast

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    Hi,

    I'm having a problem I see has been discussed here previously, but I haven't been able to tell from the threads I've found if an actual cause/solution was discovered.

    Lately, while working, my cursor and programs will freeze. My mouse will still work, for another 5 to 30 seconds, but eventually, that will freeze as well, and the only solution is a hard shutdown.

    I've had this computer for over a year now, with no problems at all. This has just started occurring in the last two weeks.

    Does anyone know what the answer to this might be? Is some hardware starting to fail? I've seen a few suggestions that it's the G-Shock protection that's causing the problem, but for the life of me, I can't find a way to access this software to try shutting it down. Even intentionally joggling the laptop only brings up a screen for a few seconds that does not allow me to click on it to change options.

    I've gone through the system as thoroughly as I can with both hijack this and adaware in an attempt to eliminate spyware as a possible cause. I've defragged the drive, checked the Event Log, and run chkdsk.

    One other strange symptom, that may or may not be related -- I went into Vaio Support Central with the idea that I'd update all the drivers, etc, see if that helped solve the problem. However, clicking on Web Support from Support Central brings up a message informing me that I'm not connected to the Internet, when I clearly am.

    Any ideas? All help greatly appreciated. I'm willing to go the route of completely reinstalling, or even buying a new hard drive, but obviously I'd rather not, particularly if it won't actually solve the problem...
     
  2. pigcat

    pigcat Notebook Guru

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    I've got exactly the same problem like you but it happened to my desktop instead. At first, out of sudden, the computer seems to be working on something, the whole system goes very slow and I can't click anything on the screen but my mouse still working. Eventually, the system freeze and nothing can be done, except hard shutdown.

    Ok, to find out if it's really the same problem like me, can you confirm that when the computer freeze, your harddisk indicator light will freeze and remain switched on? I found out the problem to be harddisk starting to fail, most probably due to harddisk overheat (yes I didn't care much about my 7200rpm harddisk until I got my harddisk failed...Sad...). I can't confirm this as it did happened again with another harddisk even it stays below 50 degree C, it might be the SATA cable but I really can't confirm. It might be the cause of having "bad" writes on the harddisk, more like a "software" bad sector so when ever your system touched that area, the system will goes very slow (I checked my task manager and I saw a 40~60% of CPU usage but the "system idle" remains >90%). But something for sure, I did have the desktop running 24/7, so maybe the harddisk is overworked...

    The possible solution is, to change your harddisk as soon as possible or else it'll get worse (not as bad as total fail, you can still recover all datas but it's wise to change sooner). Just clone an image or clone the whole harddisk to another new one. By the way, if you are going to clone the same system without installing new one, make sure you buy/borrow an external harddisk case to have your system "scanned" and saved the new harddisk ID first, or else you can't have your old system start up at new harddisk.

    Again, confirm it has the same symtoms like mine before you rush to buy a new harddisk. :)

    Hope this helps!!
     
  3. Agv

    Agv Notebook Enthusiast

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    Have same problem on sz 250.
    I noticed that it occures when i move notebook.
    I switch gsensor to high protect but it still freezes.

    It often freezes when i use utorrent, so now i try to disable it. But i think it will not give result.
    I think it freezes when i go around with notebook at apartment and use programs that needs high speed access to hard drive.
    Like utorrent or video players.
    I think it something with gshock function of hardrive.