Laptop freezing randomly

[Rui Costa]

Hi to you all.

This is my first time posting the problem but i hope i get some usefull answers anyway.

I've got an Asus M51VA (oldie but goldie) for about 8 years and for about a couple of months i began freezing randomly. I've tried everything i remembered: replaced thermal paste, cleaned heatsink and fan with compressed air, analised for virus and spyware, cleaned registry, you name it. What is strange is it has no rule to freezing. Sometimes it comes out of nothing, sometimes is when i try to download torrents, now is when i try to update League of Legends, it stays for one hour and then freezes. But when gaming or viewing movies it stays normal. It's not overheating. I installed Speedfan and at the moment it freezes it normaly reads 50-60C.

Now for the specifications:

ASUS M51VA
4 Gb RAM
INTEL Duo P8600
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3650
Windows Vista Home Premium 32b SP2

Thanks in advance guys,

Rui Costa

 

[scottiemedic]

Any blue screens? Have you looked at your video card temp in speedfan (does it register)? Might be time to reflow the video card.

 

[pteradox]

Windows often keeps logs of system errors and crashes - see if there's anything there that might help. Also, try a different operating system (maybe a small Linux install like Damn Small Linux) if you aren't afraid to partition your hard drive a bit, this can determine whether it is a hardware or OS problem (knowing Vista, it could be an OS problem). But in the end, a laptop living for 8 years could be prone to CPU or hard drive failures and it may just be time for a new one. If you've put up with Vista for that long, you deserve it anyways.

 

[Rui Costa]

Scottie:
No BSOD and my video card temp doesn't go as far as 80-85C when gaming. What do you mean by "reflow"?

Pteradox:
Going to look at event viewer, but i did that in the past and didn't get any usefull info. Gonna try installing a new OS like you said. As for keeping up with Vista, i changed a few times the OS to Windows 7 and between versions of Vista. I kept Vista just because the laptop does not have the resources for something like Windows 7.

I always liked my laptop. It always ran some top games. Like for example I'm playing Starcraft II without ever freezing. It may reach 90C but as soon as I quit the game it begins to cool rather quickly.

Anyways thanks for the replies. Gonna keep you posted.

Bye

 

[Rui Costa]

Ok, now i installed fuduntu and im running it from my usb pen drive. I just want to know how can i open exe files from here, since all my problems seem to come when i download some big files. Earlier today i tries gaming for an hour and no trouble at all, even when the laptop began to become more hotter. But then i began downloading the patch for League of Legends and POW... laptop freeze. Could it be something related to the network or my network card? My drives are all up to date. Continuing to experiment with Fuduntu. Going to keep you updated.

Bye

 

[pteradox]

Linux doesn't run .exe files like Windows, nor will lots of Windows software (LoL, etc.) be compatible. However, there are plenty of files you can download, though you may want to consider actually installing instead of running from the pen drive since I'm not sure where the files would install to (I believe they install to the RAM, which is of course very limited). But you can choose any number of options, a (hopefully legal) torrent, download and install Steam and maybe try to download TF2, etc.

I'd just keep running in a Linux environment and stressing it out to make sure nothing (or something) happens. If you think it might be CPU related, here is a Linux tool that will stress your CPU to test that theory. Just be careful not to overdo it, especially on your old hardware, or else you could end up with a busted processor.

 

[Rui Costa]

Ok, i think i narrowed it down to 2 things: network driver or chrome. Just a moment ago i was watching a video in my laptop with the network adapter turned on and the laptop froze in the middle of the movie (rare thing that happens - laptop freezing when watching movie in player). So had to hard reboot the laptop to continue where i interrupted, but this time i turned the network adapter off with the built in switch. No problems watching the rest of the movie for almost 2 hours. When i finished watching it i switched on the adapter, connected to the network and minutes after opening chrome to see my mail it froze again.

So, network adapter or chrome. I just uninstalled the adapter, restarted windows and let it automatically install old drivers. Later i'm gonna let the laptop makind the patch download overnight and see what happens. If it works then its definitely the network drivers whos responsible.

Bye

 

[pteradox]

Well you mentioned downloading torrents causing issues sometimes so it seems like it wouldn't be Chrome-exclusive. A network driver/adapter issue would definitely be more likely - in that case, if a simple driver reinstall doesn't work, then maybe you could invest in a cheap USB wireless adapter and disable your built-in one.

 

[Rui Costa]

Problem solved.

It was in fact the network drivers. Just came up to my laptop which i left on overnight and it was not frozen. So the answer was to roll back the drivers of the adapter to something older. In my case i just uninstalled the drivers, restarted windows and let it install automatically. Nice and sweet

Hope this helps other with similar problems.

Thanks to all. Bye

 

[Rui Costa]

UPDATE: Seemingly the problem is not completely solved. Downloaded a pdf file and it froze. Gonna try and download a big file to determine if the problem is solved or not.

 

[Rui Costa]

Problem NOT solved. Now i really think its my network adapter's fault. Just a moment ago i was palying League of Legends and all of a sudden the signal went down, then the laptop froze like before. Any advice will be appreciated. Thanks

 

[DoGGyPlanetWoof]

Problem NOT solved. Now i really think its my network adapter's fault. Just a moment ago i was palying League of Legends and all of a sudden the signal went down, then the laptop froze like before. Any advice will be appreciated. Thanks

Check the memory. Take one out and try it. If it freezes. Try the other one. And switch memory sockets. Try one at a time. If you can run memtest. I bet it comes back with errors
.

 

[chavez1]

I have been having the same type of issue/s and have tried all the same help people have had to offer, in all the dfferent post I've read online.
Update: To actually fix this issue I ended up having to go to the device manager and check for driver updates on all my devices, one at a time. I think the ones that had updates that fixed this issue were the ACPIx64-based PC under the computer drop down and the IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers, specifically the ICH ATA and SATA AHCI controllers (I think these made the difference). I checked them all, but these were the only ones that had updates. Once those were updated and the computer was restarted, it has stayed on. It's been on for a day now and no problems so far.