Vaio FX705, XP just freezing

[3nity]

Hello everyboy,

need urgently some help. Hope my english is good enough. After having installed xp home on my vaio it seems not to work properly as the system suddenly freezes regardless which program is running. So the only solution to make the system work again is to restart my vaio. Even the taskmanager doesn't react. I just can't understand what's the problem. My FX705 is 1,5 year old and I treated it really fine Contacting sony support they answered I should update my drivers for the hardware. I followed their instructions but windows XP doesn't work properly. Can anybody help?? pls.

Greetings 3nity

[leven]

Hi,
I need some more information . Please answer these questions so that I can try to help you.
Is this after a reinstall of XP or were you putting it on for the first time?

Did this happen immediately after installing XP or did it run well for some time?

How much RAM have you got? Please give specifications of your laptop.

Here is something to check just now.
Go to the link below and download the free program MemTest to test your RAM. Even a new stick of RAM can be bad.

http://hcidesign.com/memtest/

Please give as much information as possible. It will make it easier to help

Elaine

[Fodder]

Seem to have the same problem, leave it unattended for an hour and the thing locks up completely. I have tried both the system and network power management settings which have not cured the problem. Has anybody got any other suggestions?

[leven]

Hi Fodder,
I would really like to help you, but as I already said in this thread I need more information to try to work out what might be wrong.
Please post system specs
How long has this been happening? If lately have you tried System Restore?
Does it only happen after running for an hour or so? If so it might be overheating
Did you install anything or update any drivers just before it happened?

Check this meantime.
Look in Event Viewer for RED errors. If you find any double click them and note down the error number and Source. Post them back.

Please give as much information as possible and I will try to help. Too much is better than too little

There are now two of you with this problem, so please keep an eye on all members answers in this thread.

Elaine

[Fodder]

Hi Elaine.
The machine is a FX705 1500+, 256mb ram running XP home (SP1).
I've only recently acquired this machine (free) and started using it more frequently so I can't say whether the fault has been present for some time, but I have only noticed it over the last two days since networking it.
I've checked the event viewer and can only find errors in relation to printing, dhcp and time update. I don't think these will be responsible.
I'm having to output my display permanently to an external monitor, owing to the fact the lcd was destroyed (thats why it was free), could this have any effect :smileyconfused::

[leven]

Hi Fodder
I don`t think these errors are connected either. I have not come across freezing caused by networking, but there is no such thing as coincidence! If you think the problem started after networking, looks like the first thing to check should be the Network cards etc.
Try swapping the cards and see what happens with each machine.
Go to Device Manager and look for "Yellow" errors in the Network Adaptors and their drivers. Have you got all the latest drivers? Check manufacturers website.

I suppose you could try System Restore to before the networking, but you would lose your settings. However it would probably indicate if that was the problem or not.

I shall do some hunting around.

Elaine

[Qbix]

I had similar problems with my FX701 freezing. I eventually cured it by updating the BIOS and Via 4-in-1 drivers. However I would sugges investigating if other issues are causing your problems first! There are a number of threads detailing how to update the BIOS - but read the warnings before starting!

Q

[3nity]

Hi Elaine, thanks a lot for your help. Here are my answers, just added them behind your questions.

Posted: Fri Mar 12, 2004 2:57 am Post subject:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi,
I need some more information . Please answer these questions so that I can try to help you.
Is this after a reinstall of XP or were you putting it on for the first time?
-after a reinstall with the recovery cds from sony
Did this happen immediately after installing XP or did it run well for some time?
-immediately after installing just xp home. Then I gone online and after some minutes :freezing

How much RAM have you got? Please give specifications of your laptop.
-i got the same laptop as fodder, 1500+ power now, 256 RAM, it's a fx-705

Here is something to check just now.
Go to the link below and download the free program MemTest to test your RAM. Even a new stick of RAM can be bad.
-now i will make this test, let me see what happens.

Greetz 3nity

http://hcidesign.com/memtest/

Please give as much information as possible. It will make it easier to help

Elaine

[leven]

Hi 3nity,
This could be many things, so lets start checking.
1.After you reinstalled did you reinstall SP1 (if it is on your recovery CD, it will be reinstalled)?
2. Did you reinstall all the Windows Updates before going online at all? If you went online without these you may have picked up some nasty things. If this is what you did you will have to run checks for viruses and worms and spyware. It will be difficult if your computer is freezing all the time. Do you think it will be possible to do this?

Before we can go any further you must answer these questions.
Can you use another computer to download the Updates and put them on a CD? If you can do this I will tell you how to do it so you can make your computer safe before ever going online.

Elaine

[Fodder]

Hi.

I seem to have sorted my problem by re-installing windows from the recovery discs, updating the bios then changing the bios power setting to "suspend" and setting the default screen out to CRT (I'm forced into using an external monitor).

I have installed all the available windows updates and tested it by running several memory hungry apps, downloading large files overnight and burned CD's all without any freezes whatsoever.

The machine is now happily connected to my home network and is performing admirably.

Thanks for the assistance, I'm sure I'll be back :smileygrin: