Random freezes mins after loading

[ehr413]

Hello my parents bought a Dell 1558 studio laptop a year and a half ago

I'm only a high school student and don't know about computers specs so i ran CCleaner which said
Windows 7 64bit
Intel Core i7 CPU Q 720 @ 1.60 GHz, 3.0GB Ram, ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5470



For the last 2 months it freezes a few minutes after loading, display stays completely still (like an image), computer always makes louder noise when frozen.
I have to hold the power button to turn it off but if I don't then it stays around 10 minutes frozen like that before turning off.


If i restart it anytime soon after a freeze then it will freeze right after loading again.
I found out that if I disconnect/reconnect the power and wait a few hours then there is like a 65% chance it wont freeze just for that session.
I use it for gaming but the freezes happen even when i don't do anything
It froze even in safe mode and even if i run a separate windows 7 instead.



I have already tried reinstalling windows 7 and the drivers using discs which came with the laptop.
Then I Updated the drivers using downloads from the dell website.

I doubt its the temp because it often happens even when i just turn it on (also i have 4 mini external fans under it and i leave 2 inches of space under it).
I have not changed any of the hardware and i bought it brand new from Dell.

I don't know what else to do, help on this would be much appreciated.

 

[Archean]

Assuming you are able to boot into OS:

Go to:
Control Panel > Admin Tools > Event Viewer

Then go to System tab (you will find it in left side panel) and look for all Red/Yellow tagged events, it may give us a clue what may be causing all these issues.

 

[ehr413]

There were so many so I checked events from the last 24 hrs (my laptop froze around 2 times in last 24 hrs)
total 22 events from last 24hrs showed

I don't know which could be the problem so I'll post those 22 (In chronological order)

Level: Warning
Date/Time: 8/13/2011 11:27:48 AM
Source: DNS Client Events
Event ID: 1014
Task Category: None
Name resolution for the name tags.bluekai.com timed out after none of the configured DNS servers responded.

Level: Error
Date/Time: 8/13/2011 11:42:36 AM
Source: Application Popup
Event ID: 1060
Task Category: None
\??\E:\Program Files (x86)\Flyff\GameGuard\dump_wmimmc.sys has been blocked from loading due to incompatibility with this system.
Please contact your software vendor for a compatible version of the driver.

Level: Error
Date/Time: 8/13/2011 11:42:41 AM
Source: Service control Manager
Event ID: 7000
Task Category: None
The NPPTNT2 service failed to start due to the following error:
The system cannot find the file specified.

Level: Error
Date/Time: 8/13/2011 11:45:20 AM
Source: Service control Manager
Event ID: 7000
Task Category: None
The NPPTNT2 service failed to start due to the following error:
The system cannot find the file specified.

Level: Error
Date/Time: 8/13/2011 4:10:57 PM
Source: EventLog
Event ID: 6008
Task Category: None
The previous system shutdown at 11:48:30 AM on ‎8/‎13/‎2011 was unexpected.

Level: Critical
Date/Time: 8/13/2011 4:10:51 PM
Source: Kernel-Power
Event ID: 41
Task Category: (63)
The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first.
This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly.

Level: Warning
Date/Time: 8/13/2011 4:10:53 PM
Source: RTL8167
Event ID: 1
Task Category: None
Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller is disconnected from network.

Level: Warning
Date/Time: 8/13/2011 4:11:58 PM
Source: DNS Client Events
Event ID: 1014
Task Category: None
Name resolution for the name books.google.com timed out after none of the configured DNS servers responded.

Level: Error
Date/Time: 8/13/2011 10:27:54 PM
Source: EventLog
Event ID: 6008
Task Category: None
The previous system shutdown at 4:48:06 PM on ‎8/‎13/‎2011 was unexpected.

Level: Error
Date/Time: 8/14/2011 12:37:48 AM
Source: EventLog
Event ID: 6008
Task Category: None
The previous system shutdown at 10:42:49 PM on ‎8/‎13/‎2011 was unexpected.

Level: Critical
Date/Time: 8/14/2011 12:37:42 AM
Source: Kernel-Power
Event ID: 41
Task Category: (63)
The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first.
This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly.

Level: Warning
Date/Time: 8/14/2011 12:37:44 AM
Source: RTL8167
Event ID: 1
Task Category: None
Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller is disconnected from network.

Level: Error
Date/Time: 8/14/2011 12:38:26 AM
Source: Microsoft Antimalware
Event ID: 3002
Task Category: None
Microsoft Antimalware Real-Time Protection feature has encountered an error and failed.
Feature: Behavior Monitoring
Error Code: 0x80004005
Error description: Unspecified error
Reason: The filter driver requires an up-to-date engine in order to function. You must install the latest definition updates in order to enable real-time protection.

Level: Warning
Date/Time: 8/14/2011 12:38:40 AM
Source: DNS Client Events
Event ID: 1014
Task Category: None
Name resolution for the name books.google.com timed out after none of the configured DNS servers responded.

Level: Error
Date/Time: 8/14/2011 2:17:31 AM
Source: Application Popup
Event ID: 1060
Task Category: None
\??\E:\Program Files (x86)\Flyff\GameGuard\dump_wmimmc.sys has been blocked from loading due to incompatibility with this system.
Please contact your software vendor for a compatible version of the driver.

Level: Error
Date/Time: 8/14/2011 2:17:34 AM
Source: Service Control Manager
Event ID: 7000
Task Category: None
The NPPTNT2 service failed to start due to the following error:
The system cannot find the file specified.

Level: Error
Date/Time: 8/14/2011 2:18:58 AM
Source: Service Control Manager
Event ID: 7000
Task Category: None
The NPPTNT2 service failed to start due to the following error:
The system cannot find the file specified.

Level: Warning
Date/Time: 8/14/2011 2:21:56 AM
Source: Kernel-Processor-Power
Event ID: 37
Task Category: (7)
The speed of processor 0 in group 0 is being limited by system firmware.
The processor has been in this reduced performance state for 71 seconds since the last report.

Level: Error
Date/Time: 8/14/2011 2:24:11 AM
Source: Service Control Manager
Event ID: 7000
Task Category: None
The NPPTNT2 service failed to start due to the following error:
The system cannot find the file specified.

Level: Error
Date/Time: 8/14/2011 2:26:21 AM
Source: Service Control Manager
Event ID: 7000
Task Category: None
The NPPTNT2 service failed to start due to the following error:
The system cannot find the file specified.

Level: Error
Date/Time: 8/14/2011 2:30:28 AM
Source: Service Control Manager
Event ID: 7000
Task Category: None
The NPPTNT2 service failed to start due to the following error:
The system cannot find the file specified.

Level: Error
Date/Time: 8/14/2011 2:32:46 AM
Source: Service Control Manager
Event ID: 7000
Task Category: None
The NPPTNT2 service failed to start due to the following error:
The system cannot find the file specified.

 

[Archean]

Most of the errors seems to be coming from GameGuard (I think it is some sort of rootkit game protection system). Why you have installed GameGuard ? Or is that it came with some game you installed ?

Remaining errors are network connectivity related, which may be caused by service issues with your ISP.

 

[ehr413]

Hmm well I only installed a game, called flyff, and gameguard loads whenever i play that game, i guess to protect from hacking. And yea, my internet gets cut off a lot, crappy att service.

 

[Archean]

I would suggest you to uninstall this game along with all its addons (including gamegaurd) and see how things go from there.

 

[ehr413]

Okay ill try that out once i can get onto my laptop without the freezes and ill tell you if that works.

Also I forgot to mention that my display looks weird from close. When i look at a solid color like black its obvious to me that it doesn't look rich/solid in quality like it used to. It looks kind of buzzy/shaky and lighter. I'm not sure how to describe it.

And by the way. I just remembered that four months ago i accidentally stepped on my ac adapter and my laptop then gave me a message like "ac adapter cannot be determined and the battery will not charge" although it still accepts power coming from it. My battery is only at 8% and has not charged ever since.

I just bought a new ac adapter online a few minutes ago.

 

[Archean]

IMO you took a pretty serious risk by running your notebook with a faulty ac adapter for such a long period, it could also have damaged your battery permanently. Anyway, please do keep us updated about your progress.

 

[ehr413]

I had not used my laptop in a few days, i uninstalled gameguard, and my new adapter just arrived... but the freezes are still randomly happening, I noticed its more common when I do something that needs more performance, such as watching an hd video.

 

[Archean]

Okay, we need to clear out few things:

Are you running AV + Anti Malware to keep your system clean?

Are all the drivers up to date (i.e. Graphics / chipset etc.) ?

Whenever such hangup occers, immediately check event viewer log, to see what may have caused it.

 

[ehr413]

I am running Microsoft Security Essentials. Anyways, I was afk for many many hours and when I finally got back the computer crashed just a few mins after I started using it.
Also the internet got disconnected a few mins before that.(thanks to isp)

These showed in the event log:

Level: Error
Date/time: 8/22/2011 12:26:18 AM
Source: EventLog
Event ID: 6008
Task Category: None
The previous system shutdown at 12:01:20 AM on ‎8/‎22/‎2011 was unexpected.

Level: Critical
Date/time: 8/22/2011 12:26:10 AM
Source: Kernel-Power
Event ID: 41
Task Category: (63)
The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first.
This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly.

Level: Warning
Date/time: 8/22/2011 12:26:12 AM
Source: RTL8167
Event ID: 1
Task Category: None
Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller is disconnected from network.


Level: Error
Date/time: 8/22/2011 12:26:50 AM
Source: Microsoft Antimalware
Event ID: 3002
Task Category: None
Microsoft Antimalware Real-Time Protection feature has encountered an error and failed.
Feature: Behavior Monitoring
Error Code: 0x80004005
Error description: Unspecified error
Reason: The filter driver requires an up-to-date engine in order to function.
You must install the latest definition updates in order to enable real-time protection.


As for the drivers,
I’m not confident that I did it how I was supposed to because I don’t understand it much.
I installed the available drivers that I could from the disc that came with it.
On the Dell website there some others that I wasn’t sure if they were okay to install or not.
I saw two pages from the Dell website that had a list of what order to install drivers in but they both looked different. One had bios first (I think) and the other didn’t have it on the list so that confused me.
http://support.dell.com/support/top...s/document?c=us&cs=19&docid=268873&l=en&s=dhs
couldn't find the other link

Btw my power option is at balanced, do you recommend I switch to power saver or high performance or stay the same?

 

[Archean]

Event ID - 6008: The shutdown operation is initiated automatically by a program that uses the InitiateSystemShutdownEx function with the force flag. The Event Log service is not notified about the shutdown event, and as a result, the shutdown operation is incorrectly considered by the Event Log service as an unexpected event.

Recommendation: Please check whether you have all the windws updates installed on your system.

Event ID - 41: The last sleep transition was unsuccessful. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding failed or lost power during the sleep transition. 3 potential answers include need to upgrade drivers, PSU issues, OS is updated.

Event ID 3002: I think it is MSE related, as long as you have it updated IMO you are fine (unless someone knows better).

I am unsure about that Event ID 1 event, so I will dig bit deeper and if I find something useful I'll let you know.

I don't think the order of installation is a big issue anyway.