System freeze, no leads

[Ardneh]

vaguelyrapt:

It seems that currently the immediate problem is getting the BIOS to operate the CD/DVD drive. Don't know whether resetting BIOS to defaults or updating BIOS would fix that.

Vista on DVD is the usual format so far as I know.

 

[VaguelyRapt]

Hopefully, this will be the last post on this too-long-of-a-thread.

After using KillDisc free to successfully write 0's all over my HD, I did some reading and found that Vista doesn't really support booting. I had to install XP and run the Vista installation through there. All went well and my laptop is back up and running (HP bloatware free!!). I'm going to be very cautious as to what I'm installing, and if the problem shows up again, hopefully I'll be more aware of what caused the issue (so far, I have only the most basic drivers, important Windows-only updates, SP1, Comodo and Firefox). If I can't trace it back to any software - HP can expect to owe me a new laptop for hardware issues.

If the problem doesn't show up again, I can only assume it was indeed Acronis' partitioning (which did, in fact, operate inconsistently before).

I wish to thank everyone who helped me out on this thread throughout my dreadful and frustrating issue. A special thanks to John (usasma) and Ken (zigzag3143), for your excessive patience and quick, most helpful responses (reps obviously handed out).

Edit: Yes, it's solved!

 

[SallyMarie]

Same thing for me out of the blue! I have an HP laptop with Vista Home prem 64 bit. Has worked flawlessly for 1 year. Have not added any new software. Have reinstalled Vista SP2 twice...uninstalled then reinstalled thinking that was the problem, since thats when it started. However, it still froze after I uninstalled, so I put it back on. I would like to do a system restore to a month ago, but unfortunately my only choices are from a few days ago. (which I don't really understand..so what good is it) I didn't realize until now that that would be required. I had thought maybe it was just Outlook not responding because it gets stuck when retrieving mail at about 75%. But Word also froze. When this happens (programs say they are not responding) I press Contol Alt Delete to bring up the task mgr, but nothing happens...so I just have to power off and back on. I have looked at the event viewer till I am blue in the face, and cannot see anything out of the ordinary. WHY Now I wonder? Anyhow, it works fine in Safe Mode, but I really don't know what to do to see what the problem is, since I have added nothing new except for updates. I tried to uninstall the Office 2007 update for compatibility issues (thats a laugh in retrospect) which also came in at the beg of Aug, but it is blocked out from uninstalling? Hum..wonder why? Anyway, my computer worked fine until I came back from out of town, where I was on various WIfi systems. This is a laptop afterall and is suppose to travel well. I do have an up to date Virus Scanner and know I don't have a virus. I am pretty computer savvy for the most part, but don't really understand how to figure out why this conflict is happening ALL OF A SUDDEN. I HAVE DONE NOTHING DIFFERENT. Very frustrating!! ALso, the fan in this HP PAvilion dv9843cl 17 in notebook has been making noise for a few weeks and computer is hot to the tough by the grill. I called HP and they are sending me a box to send my computer in because its still under warranty as is yours, but mine was going in to get the fan changed. They asked me If I wanted them to reformat and I said no, but now I am wondering ??? After what you are saying, I am afraid to send it to them?? Plus, I really don 't want it to be gone for 2 weeks at which time I have to use my husbands HP (which is fine).
SallyMarie in Scottsdale

 

[VaguelyRapt]

Well, this is just me, but I don't trust HP technicians (or any OEM technicians for that matter) with software. They follow predefined procedures for all problems, and they always blame drivers, and when that doesn't work they ignore you. If it's a hardware problem, I would send it in though while it's still under warranty (If you send it to someone else for hardware troubles, you lose your warranty) and at worst you get a brand new computer with brand new hardware.

My fan is also making noise recently. I've read before that the Pavilion series is not unfamiliar with this issue - the fan can't handle too much if you do something out of the ordinary like booting something that isn't an OS, the fan drivers don't tell the fan to slow down, and it goes crazy until the bearings get loose... What kind of fan is one that breaks itself??? Anyway, I think I have no option but to send my laptop in before the warranty runs out to replace the fan... :sa: (for the third time in under a year) Actually, now that I think about it, there's a setting in the BIOS to have the fan always on fastest. Perhaps I'll look into turning that off...

As far as the freezing, it sounds like a situation as sticky as mine... I never got around to learning about real-time debugging, because I did manage to trace back the problem to hard disk partitioning, which solved the issue. If/when I do get around to it, I'll let you know what I know. In the meantime I suggest thinking again if maybe you did do something different after all - or what normal activity might have caused it? Perhaps it is somehow related to the fan issue?

I get it - the problem with this issue is that it's undiagnosable, right? You may want to try reinstalling Vista clean install/restoring it back to factory state (using migwiz to transfer your documents and/or settings) and see if that solves it...