HP G62 355DX randomly freezes

[sadbluescreener]

Hello. My mother owns an HP G62 355DX and it randomly freezes while she uses it. It doesn't respond to anything, not even Ctrl + Alt + Del. She then has to wait until the machine becomes responsive. What can I do to fix this?

 

[Mark56]

Try running in safe mode to see if the problem still happens.

If it does not happen in safe mode it is most probably a driver.

Take a look in Event Viewer and see if it has a record of any problems.

What OS?

 

[utmsig07]

Same problem

Hello,
I am having the same problem. It freezes randomly during any application that may be open on the computer...then unfreezes within a minute or so. I looked at the event viewer....and during the time of the freezes...it says I have a EventID 129 and Source is amd_sata. Any info would help on how to solve this problem.

Thanks.

 

[Route44]

How old is your system?

 

[Mark56]

utmsig07, please start your own thread to avoid confusion.

sadbluescreener.

To add to my last post, can you hear a lot of hard drive activity when the PC freezes?

If so it could be a windows service that is causing the problem. To give a guide for this I need to know your version of Windows.

 

[sadbluescreener]

Hello, I am so sorry I had not replied to your post but my computer died on me. I've just got a replacement.
The problem still persists though, the freezing.
She uses Windows 7 64bit. When I use her computer again I will attempt the Safe Mode and check the Event Viewer.

Also I hear no excessive HD noise when it freezes.

 

[Mark56]

I've just looked again at your opening post, you say that when it freezes, if you waite a while, it then returns to normal?

This behaviour could for one thing be the hard drive failing. As a process of elimination start by testing the drive, follow this guide.

But, if you do find it doesn't freeze in safe mode then it is more likely to be a system service, a driver or possibly Malware. Run this to check for infections.
http://www.malwarebytes.org/products/malwarebytes_free

Identify the make of your hard drive and then use one of the links below to get the manufacturers diagnostic for ISO CD. Burn the image file to a CD, boot the PC with the disc in the drive and run the diagnostics. You first need to set the CD drive to 1st in the boot order in the Bios setup.

If you do not have an image burner use this free software to make the CD.

http://www.isoimageburner.com/


ExcelStor: http://www.excelstor.com/eng/support.php?sub_id=3

Hitachi/IBM: http://www.hitachigst.com/support/downloads/

Samsung: http://www.samsung.com/global/business/hdd/support/downloads/support_in_es.html

Toshiba Fujitsu: http://sdd.toshiba.com/main.aspx?Path=SoftwareUtilities#diagnostic

Seagate, Maxtor & Quantum:http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/downloads

Western Digital:http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?lang=en

 

[sadbluescreener]

Hey again guys, I just found out that the machine has 64-bit Windows 7 but only has 3GB of RAM. Would that cause any problems?

 

[Mark56]

Win7 64bit will run on 2GB of RAM so that will not be the problem.

Have you tried running in safe mode or run the diagnostics on the hard drive?

 

[sadbluescreener]

Sorry for the large gaps in replies, I'm without any computer right now but my mother has returned from abroad and so i have her computer to use.
I've run it in safe mode and it still freezes. I realise that when it does freeze the HDD light is constantly on, no blinking just a constant light.
How would I find the HDD make? i'm hoping i can use this time to quickly find out the problem before my mother has to leave again.

 

[sadbluescreener]

Also since using it it's frozen a good amount already. In the Event Viewer I see a lot of the same warnings.
It has Event ID 129 with the source being amd_sata.
In the General tab it says:
"Reset to device, \Device\RaidPort0, was issued."

 

[sadbluescreener]

I found a fix for the problem online, i'm not sure if it's going to work but I'll watch it and let you know. I changed the sata driver from the AMD driver to the windows AHCI 1.0 driver.

 

[Mark56]

Sounds like you may have found the solution. Let us know how it goes.

 

[sadbluescreener]

It has failed considerably I believe. This fix was found on the HP support forums but still, it freezes. Probably even worse now. It's ridiculous.

 

[Mark56]

Ok, start by running the hard drive diagnostics. You will have to remove the hard drive to see what make and model it is. If you are not comfortable removing the drive then use the diagnostics from the Seagate link, this will work on any make of drive.

If that comes up clean then run Memtest86+ to test your RAM.

Download Memtest86+ from here.

You need to scroll down the page until you see the three blue screenshots. Just below is the list of downloads for Memtest86+ V4.20. Click on Download - Pre-Compiled Bootable ISO (.zip) and save to your desktop.

When the download is complete right click the file and select Extract Here and burn the image to a CD.

In windows 7 right click the extracted file, select Open With, then select Windows Disc Image Burning Tool then follow the prompts. For all other versions of windows (if you do not have an ISO burner) download this free software. isoimageburner

Boot the PC into the Bios setup and set the CD/DVD drive to 1st in the boot sequence. Insert the disk in the drive then reboot and the disc will load into dos. Leave the test to run through at least 8 cycles or until it is showing some errors. If errors show in the test, remove all but one of your RAM sticks and repeat the test on each stick until you find the one that is faulty. This is a long slow test and should ideally be run overnight.

The memtest will not be 100% accurate but should easily detect any major faults.