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Wonky laptop with freezing issues

1K views 24 replies 6 participants last post by  DMM1 
#1 ·
I don't want to start off with an essay and overwhelm anyone. I've tried the basics, run malwarebytes, replaced the HDD, updated a few drivers, etc. Since I've yet to determine a pattern on why this happens or why it goes away for weeks at a time, let me start with this question. When it freezes I hold the power button to turn it off. What is going on when I press the button, the lappy lights up, but nothing boots. Can BIOS go bad? It does come back after one or two tries.

Basically if I know I'm venturing into hard to solve hardware issues, I have to decide how much effort I put into fixing this. Right now all I can see is the freezing tends to occur after I've gotten a 'video driver has crashed and recovered' message.
 
#3 ·
It's Win 7 (and I'd prefer to keep it if possible, hope that doesn't turn away any help). That driver is one thing I updated. Uses an Intel chip and I have a utility from them that says it's up to date. I thought once maybe the default drivers were best but that doesn't explain why it works for weeks at a time, then I get a bad day or two with frequent lockups.

*I've worked (or fought) with PC's for a long time, built my own once. This is an aggravating issue and maybe someone has seen something like this. The Toshiba monitor says it's not overheating either. Hopefully I can solve the first issue before figuring out the rest.
 
#5 ·
It's pretty much only for web browsing. No games, little bit of MP3 playback or minor photo editing. Firefox has frozen on Ebay, on YT, posting on a forum, or just using the home button on FF. Using version 86, 64 bit.

Trying to think what else I can mention. Can't be certain it's ever frozen without FF running, other than the boot up problem after a hard shut down. Don't see any unusual processes, definitely not maxing out my hardware. Again this has been a pain in my ass for some time now, off and on. Nothing stands out in event viewer, just unexpected shutdown and errors that don't sound related.

Other than a couple new HDD's and a replacement battery the hardware is unchanged. Last year I even tore it apart far enough to clean the heatsink and fan. Didn't check thermal paste.
 
#8 ·
If you don't mind me asking - is this more for a clean baseline? I haven't touched those settings in a long time so I wouldn't suspect anything there to be the cause.

Last night was ok. Now it just froze when I clicked reply and again after a reboot and loading FF... At least if it was consistent I could narrow down what is or isn't the problem.
 
#10 ·
Finally froze again just after bringing it out of sleep (moved the mouse). Reset BIOS and redid a few small settings like turn off the trackpad and the open lid-power on function. As soon as I saved and exited, it booted to a black screen like I said in the first post. Power off, on, nothing. Black screen, no HDD activity so it's not like my screen went bad. Another off and on brought it to the Toshiba logo, booted ok. Any idea what causes a failed boot? If the HDD was bad I'd get errors at least.
 
#12 ·
I'll look on the next reboot. To clarify, if the HDD was failing wouldn't I get a 'media not present' error? I've lost 2 other drives on the lappy over the years. This is a failure before it gets to that point which is what I don't understand yet.

I think I get what you mean though. The long boot will show the process.
 
#13 · (Edited)
Happened again. I have 2 choices, fast and normal and it's set to normal. Anything else I can try to get some more info?

*I opened the thing last year to clean the heatsink and fan, didn't see anything suspicious. When I said I replaced parts the HDD is solid state (the previous ones weren't) and I purchased a third party battery with good reviews when the original just wasn't holding much charge anymore. I'm rarely on battery though, could the charger be doing something? Trying to think if power issues could be to blame.
 
#14 ·
Back again. Been working for a couple weeks then today had 2 freezes on different sites. One restart froze before the Toshiba logo appeared (as noted above), and another time froze while that was showing. Still no idea why it's so random. Haven't touched anything in BIOS or installed/removed anything recently. Is there something else we can try? I've fixed this plenty over the years but this has me stumped.
 
#15 ·
Froze during a YT video. Reboot but it came up a blinking cursor for a change. Reboot and it froze while loading Win. Can SSD's go bad after only a year or two? I know that's probably a stupid question, anything mass produced can go bad. Doesn't explain why it works for a few weeks then annoys me for a few days.
 
#16 ·
https://forums.techguy.org/threads/random-freezing-on-old-laptop.1260480/page-4

I know, it became a problem right before the weather got warm and I didn't want to spend excess time up here without AC.

Anyway so I took another crack at it and thought I found a solution. The case was cracked a bit so if I flexed the front corner it was moving the HDD. Thought I corrupted it. Got a new HDD, spent the day gluing and reinstalling. Was going fine and rebooted a lot until it froze during a performance check. Then wouldn't POST again. When it decided to work again it froze in the same place. How depressing.

Did we discuss why it wouldn't post? I mean it was running in safe mode for the last few months so I wanna rule out RAM, power, etc. Maybe normal mode is overworking the CPU and it needs new paste? I can feel heat from the fan so I didn't bother trying to fix that part yet.
 
#17 ·
Freezing and shutdowns would indicate a hardware fault or overheating. Have you had it apart and ensured that it is clean? Looked it over to ensure items like heatsinks are still attached/attached properly?

And if it's running, and then shuts down (assuming it is a heat issue), it's not likely to just restart and work as it would still be hot.
 
#18 ·
Dunno if you checked my previous topic. It started acting up a while ago and yeah my first thought was to clean the usual spots. Last night I verified it was still clean, nothing obvious was blown/burnt on the boards. I didn't take apart the heatsink area because I can feel heat from the fans, and sometimes digging into that area can make things worse. There aren't any thermal alerts. It's been running fine in safe mode and only locking up in normal mode. Now on a fresh drive and install, it's not able to finish setup.

It doesn't shut down or anything it just stops responding. There were times where the screen would blank out then come back saying the driver crashed. Updating didn't help. There wasn't any pattern to it. On top of that after manually shutting it off it often won't POST. Eventually it does get past that but like I said it only stayed running in safe mode.

I don't have luck with these dang things anymore. It's not that I can't fix them, I just dunno WTF is causing it to know where to look. Why is safe mode stable? If it was a software issue then a reinstall should help. Can a BIOS battery cause this? I know some systems do weird things but this one isn't easily replaceable. No warnings, no messages, no parts to swap.

Truth is I've gotten 8 or 10 years out of it. I wanna keep it if I can, it's not easy finding a laptop with a CD drive, backlit board, chicklet keys, for a reasonable price. Especially with all the chip shortages, it's an awful time to buy.
 
#19 ·
Little off topic, but a different question. If an accessory is listed as compatible with Ipads, as long as it uses BT is there any reason to believe it wouldn't work with Android or something?

I've temporarily given up on the laptop. While I'm waiting to find the right replacement I thought to try a tablet for my mobile browsing. And I'm hoping to find a small backlit KB to use with it. I've never used Apple products to know if my guess on compatibility is correct.
 
#22 ·
Cool, thanks. I didn't expect to find the old one locked although I kinda walked away from the project when we got a lot of warm weather.

Huh, lotta options at that link. I'll have to browse. Trying to find something that holds the screen laptop-style which is why I asked if Apple stuff connects using BT or something proprietary. The one I found doesn't specifically state any other tablets.
 
#21 ·
I can't answer about Apple. We own several android tablets and I had no trouble pairing 2 different bluetooth keyboards with the tablets. (One is a travel size that folds and the other is almost a full size keyboard.) The package says iOS, Windows and Android so I'd say get one that mentions all 3 operating systems and you'll be sure it will work.
examples: https://picclick.com/US-Slim-Backlit-Wireless-Bluetooth30-Keyboard-For-IOS-184356272567.html
https://www.amazon.com/OYOSUOGG-Wireless-Bluetooth-Keyboard-Compatible/dp/B07NV7ZDKQ
 
#24 ·
When you replaced the hard drive,how were you doing it? software, cloner what? New install or copying old? Some Toshibas require special chipset drivers and they way they number them it is very hard to tell what is the newest. Bad or incompatible memory can cause intermittent freezers! Just because windows says you have the best drivers dosen't mean it is true. I have a 2013 Toshiba laptop that was slow as dirt until I put 16gb memory in and a SSD, now it is fast as a new one!😁
 
#25 ·
Done it once or twice before when the old magnetic types corrupted. New HDD and the factory software discs. Once things were going then I'd copy information over from the drive or whatever I managed to back up someplace.

It's been working a long time, and since safe mode was stable I'm gonna guess the HDD or RAM weren't at fault. I'd gotten a new 3rd party battery a while ago, not sure that could do anything but did test the system on AC only (batt removed) and it froze anyway. Without parts to swap out I can't exactly pinpoint what went wrong but the fact it doesn't clear POST half the time I'm leaning towards a bad BIOS or mobo. The battery is soldered on. Think I wrote all that before...

There was a point I updated a lot of drivers trying to get the webcam going, then ruled it out when the fresh install froze before finishing. Still a good system if I could figure this out. Maybe find a refurb mobo online.
 
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