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Random freezing on old laptop

2K views 37 replies 5 participants last post by  DMM1 
#1 ·
What is the full model name of that Toshiba laptop ?

Please run this TSG utility on it and paste the text it creates into your reply :- https://static.techguy.org/download/tsginfo.exe

You said you have dismantled that laptop before so you could check that the ram and SSD are pushed fully into their sockets.
 
#2 · (Edited)
Satellite P755-S5263

I know it's old, don't yell at me. Ha. I don't ask much from it but I can't switch to a tablet style PC and lose my KB. I'll try the prog in a few minutes.

Yeah I cleaned it thinking a heat issue so I'll double check the components. Honestly that concerned me from the get go, the SSD is thinner than the old drive and it sits under the wrist part of the KB. I thought I was bending it out of place except it has frozen various other times.

*This has been going on a while so I forget when it started. Pretty sure at some point I've run tests on the memory and HDD with nothing to report. Unless I'm on the wrong tab, there's nothing in the event viewer other than unexpected shutdowns. It's always on my desk and AC power except during the summer when I head towards the porch or air conditioning (meaning it's not being roughed up).
 
#3 ·
Ok.

Tech Support Guy System Info Utility version 1.0.0.9
OS Version: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium, Service Pack 1, 64 bit, Build 7601, Installed 20190117194036.000000-300
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2410M CPU @ 2.30GHz, Intel64 Family 6 Model 42 Stepping 7, CPU Count: 4
Total Physical RAM: 6 GB
Graphics Card: Intel(R) HD Graphics 3000
Hard Drives: C: 110 GB (23 GB Free);
Motherboard: TOSHIBA PEQAA, ver 1.00, s/n 0123456789AB
System: TOSHIBA, ver TOSCPL - 1072009, s/n 5B374056K
Antivirus: None
 
#5 · (Edited)
Froze again but this time it happened a few minutes after getting a display driver error. I've always leaned towards that being the source but I dunno what else to try.

Just to rule out the HDD I ran a chkdsk. No errors. Rebooted, froze loading FF. Then twice got the black screen. Which annoys me because if it locks up before booting then the device driver wouldn't be responsible.

*Probably unrelated but will mention. I don't turn the lappy off at night, I close the lid and let it sleep. This has gone on for a while, sometime in the morning (between 7 and 8 ish) I will hear the fan spin up for a second or two then stop. I have not scheduled anything. Nothing I'm aware of. Automatic updates are turned off or at least to ask me first. I've run malware checks and found nothing.
 
#6 ·
#7 ·
It can't hurt to try. See if it gives me some answers.

I'm trying to remember if this started before I got new drivers. See, I'm one of those 'if it's not broke don't fix it' types, and something must have gone weird for me to track down drivers newer than what came on the recovery software. Might have updated when I was trying to fix my webcam though. Whatever I'm using now came through an Intel Driver assistant tool.

Thanks for the help so far. Was hoping either someone ran into this before or noticed something I overlooked. We all know how annoying a wipe and reinstall would be...

I've even questioned if the mouse or USB could be causing it because once in a rare while I'll get the chime that a device was removed/reconnected when I hadn't touched anything. It probably sounds like this poor thing is falling apart when it's really not. I'm just trying to offer any info to figure this out.
 
#8 ·
I know how frustrating it can be, it's best to be methodical and try one potential fix at a time.
See how you get on with those drivers, if it doesn't help we can try some other things.
 
#9 ·
Ya know, I'm gonna go with my gut and wait a few on the drivers. It just took me 4 tries to get past the black boot screen so whatever is going on is pre-post. It froze after I woke it up. I'm now on my old tablet because it takes me 5 or 6 tries to get back in. Not good...

I know it's not a bad backlight because there's no drive activity. I push the button, the fan spins and the charging lights are on but nothing else.

I re-seated the HDD and ram. Win ran a memory test and it didn't show problems. It also stopped while loading Win during one attempt. I really don't want to buy yet another drive but what else could it be? Do SSD's give any signals like when a standard drive starts clicking?
 
#10 · (Edited)
Alrighty, got fed up enough to tear it all down again except for taking the heatsink and CPU apart. I'm no pro at component repair but I don't see anything obvious. Burns, cracks, etc. And yay, it froze again after one sentence so let's try this again. WTF.

*Froze after my post. Again after going to a different site briefly. Brought it up in safe mode, been going 20 minutes without FF or networking. The bad boot crap tells me hardware, safe mode tells me drivers. Maybe I have several problems at once? Too bizarre.
 
#12 ·
Ok, so yesterday I barely got 5 minutes before a freeze. Since going safe mode I haven't had an issue (besides browsing with this awful resolution). BUT this could be one of those stretches where nothing happens. That's why I just want to bang my head on the desk. I also don't want to give the impression I'm ignoring the suggestions because then everyone will ignore the topic. I simply don't know what to focus on. Since the drivers wouldn't kick in until Win loads I'm unsure what would prevent booting. Which has gotten worse, 6 or 7 tries to get by now.

I'd thought of that because it's the one piece I didn't take apart. One of my old PC's turned out that way. Tons of freezing, usually during UT night. Long story short I took the heatsink off and there was a clear square of paste that wore out. Fresh compound fixed it. I don't play games on PC anymore and the fan isn't being overworked so I don't think it's overheating, the Toshiba utility also shows normal levels. Still something to consider should I find out how that comes off. It's got a heat pipe to the fan.

Work is getting busy so we'll see if I fuss with it tonight or wait for some free time tomorrow. I'll write more if anything interesting happens or I try a suggestion. Thanks.
 
#13 ·
Wanted to rule the drivers out so I grabbed the 2 you linked to. Oddly enough the first said no compatible hardware was found, the second wouldn't unpack.

I'm back on regular mode for now. Exiting safe mode gave me the black screen but it got through after one try.
 
#14 ·
Well I did say that only one of those drivers would be compatible, presumably the one that would not install was not.
What happened with the one that would not unpack ? Any error message etc ?

Safe mode uses a basic graphics driver and I suspect that's why it does not turn off.
 
#15 · (Edited)
I've been using it normally for 2 days now, besides the bad restart it's been fine. Even if we did stumble on the answer I wouldn't know if it's truly fixed until a month or two goes by. To think just the other night I was expecting it to be a brick with all the failures to reboot.

Ok, so yeah the first said hardware wasn't compatible and the second gave me something like 'error creating directory or file'. I assumed both drivers were looking for the same thing.

I did have one thought. I'm not that deeply familiar with the hardware since I didn't build this, could there be an issue with the GPU part of the chipset, if such a thing exists? It would tie the drivers crashing in Win with the issue of no graphics when the laptop is booting. I haven't found a way to examine the post so I don't know which part is preventing a reboot. When it breaks I'm not even getting to the Toshiba logo screen to enter bios.

*Uh, so I'm an idiot. I accidentally grabbed the Nvidia driver now that I look at the page again. Let me get the right ones this time and report what happens...
 
#16 ·
Alrighty, armed with the RIGHT drivers this time (my bad) the first one I tried installed with just a warning that my current drivers were newer. Installed anyway, the system rebooted properly on the first try, and I guess we'll wait to see what happens.

Logically if I keep it from crashing then the reboot problem, if related, will be less of a concern.
 
#18 ·
Sure will. It may crash tonight, it may crash 2 weeks from now, or it won't. There's no pattern to it which is why I stopped in here. Still thinking something must have happened for me to alter the drivers in the first place, so we'll see what it does. One step at a time right? Thanks.
 
#20 ·
That was a new one. I was simply reading something on a site when it just shut itself off. Never happened before. Pushed the button and it rebooted ok. I'm not on battery, the AC is plugged in.

****. Why must something new pop up. I don't smell anything, yet.
 
#23 ·
When hardware gives that many problems, it is time to put it out to pasture.
We have 4 Windows 7 computers and so far all of them (two desktops and two netbooks) are working fine. The desktops are from 2006 and 2009 and originally came with XP. The netbooks are newer; purchased in 2011 and 2013.

I did buy an android tablet (10") in 2016 to future-proof myself because I have no intention of running Windows 10. My husband and I are in our 70's and we basically only do email, stream, surf and have Zoom meetings. The tablet came with Word and Excel so I can even read docx and xlsx files.

Think about what you do then decide if a Windows 10 laptop, chromebook or android tablet is a good fit for your needs.
 
#24 ·
You could check the ram with Memtest, you make a bootable Usb and boot from that to run the test.

An easy way to make it is to download Easy2boot and run it to create the bootable Usb stick which includes Memtest. When you boot from the Usb stick it will show a Menu, choose Utilities > Memory Test > Memtest86+ and let it run for at least one full pass, it will take quite some time so do it when you don't need to use the laptop, or even better overnight. If you see any errors you can stop the test and test one ram stick at a time until you find the culprit.

Easy2Boot download :- https://www.fosshub.com/Easy2Boot.html?dwl=Easy2Boot_v2.08_password_is_e2b.zip
 
#25 ·
Nah I get ya. When this started it was a minor nuisance. This crap with the failing boot tells me something else has to be going on. Just wish I knew if I could fix it. If it was hardware related why does safe mode work? The choice is what's more valuable, my time or money. With shortages and everything the prices aren't in my favor. I've had this 8-10 years but I'm also one of those people who only throws things away as a last resort. To be totally honest I'd likely try a new drive and clean install just to see before shelling out for another.

I have a tablet too, several years old. Good for occasional use but I can't stand those tiny on screen KB's. I don't do a lot besides browse. I have consoles for my games and since getting another car I don't need to burn CD's anymore. So I'd have some flexibility in that regard. One idea being a mini PC for the desk so I don't lose all the capabilities I have now, then get a lightweight laptop or chromebook for the times I need portability.
 
#26 ·
I think I did a RAM test once. Not that I can't do it again. I hesitate to reboot it now because of how long it took last night but if I make a bootable USB that could provide some answers. Telling me the boot record is borked or if the USB fails then the problem is before that step.

Ah well, we'll see. I wanna unwind from work and get cleaned up. Then I'll see if I'm in the mood to fight with it. As long as safe mode stays viable I can still do research or comparisons. Once I restart I'm committed to reaching whatever the next step is. Too bad, I got a couple Pi's around and would switch over to those temporarily if my files were compatible.
 
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