Sony VAIO Freezing up after start up

[Rayak]

Hi guys,
I've got this problem with my SONY VAIO VGN-NR260D laptop that was purchased just a couple of months ago. Up until yesterday it was working perfectly fine. I was using Microsoft Office 2007 Power Point yesterday, just reading slides, and had to leave the computer for a little while so I put it on Sleep mode. When I came back and got it back to operational mode it worked fine for a minute but then as I was trying to connect to the wireless internet network in my school it froze. At first I didn't think anything of it (it has never happened before during the same set of events I just described, which I have done hunderds of times by now), but when I restarted it and tried connecting again, it froze again. I had restarted it like 7 times afterwards without connecting, or having my wireless turned off completely, but it would freeze anyways. So after that the problem persisted even when I just tried to open any folder or even go to Star menu, or even just freeze on random after being on for a few minutes after complete start up. I have ran system restore to a few days before (since I thought the problem was due to a just installed scheduled security update) but it didn't solve the problem. I have tried running the Last Known Good Configuration, but that worked only for like a minute longer (might have been just a coninsidence), and also performed virus scans, at the end of which the comp froze again.
Note, that it runs normally in Safe Mode, so I figured that the core files are fine. But have no idea what's causing the freeze up, or how to even look for a problem. My guess is reformat? But I can't transfer any files or burn DVDs or CDs in Safe mode, so all info will be lost. Any suggestions?
Thanks a million in advance!!!

 

[Bobbye]

Reformat is a last ditch effort when nothing else works. Even using 'Last known good configuration' can be put off while attempts are made to find a cause of the problem. Unfortunately, since you went back to 'last known', you will have lost some valuable information. So you're going to have to work with what appears since them:

The Event Viewer, found in the Control Panel> Administrative Tools has logs of everything that happens on the computer> the system, apps and security audits. By finding Errors in the Event Viewer that occur at the time of the problem, we can usually get enough information to find the cause, and hopefully the resolution:

Since you can get into Safe Mode with no problem, do that. Once in, follow this: You are going to look for Error Events that happened at the time of a freezes:
Here is the path: Control Panel> Administrative Tools> Event Viewer> right click> Properties on any Error> click on the Copy icon below the down arrow on the right> Paste here (Ctrl V)

Ignore Warnings. Ignore Information events. You do not need to include the lines of code in the box below the Description. IF you have multiples of the same Error> same ID#, same Source and same Description, you need only copy and paste one.

We'll go from there.

 

[Rayak]

Hi Bobbye,
Thank you for the help, but unfortunately I do not have internet acces while in Safe mode ... however, I will be able to get you the info you need but I need to ask another question before that. When you say "right click> Properties on any Error> click on the Copy icon below the down arrow on the right> Paste here (Ctrl V)", when I am at the Event Log, and I expand the 'Error' list, and right click on any error it says "View all instances of this even", now if that's clicked it showed A LOT of instances for each event, but they are all the same so that's not a problem. Then I can copy the event, but there are two options it gives me when I click copy (after I click, veiw instances, otherwise I can't get to the 'copy' option), one option is just 'Copy Table' just gives the exact line as in the error such as "Error 7/18/2008 1:21:04 PM SRTSP 4 None" and the second option is "Copy Details as Text" gives you a detailed description with Event xml and a bunch of other stuff related to that that i dont understand, including Binary, channel system, time, keywords and so on... but it's a long list...
So it shows a lot of errors just like 34 in the last hour. How detailed do you want it?

 

[Bobbye]

What is your operating system? The instructions I gave are for Windows XP. If you use Vista, see this:
Reading the Event Viewer in Vista:

http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles_tutorials/Monitoring-Event-Logs-Windows-Vista.html

The Vista Copy feature is on the lower left corner of the screen. You don't need Internet access to do this. Copy the Error, Paste to Wordpad. The three pieces of information I need are the Error Event ID#, the Error Event Source and the Event Error Description.

Follow the screen shots. Create View for Error only, select the date range, then choose Application first and when finished with App errors, do same with System. The screen shot titled "XML Under the Hood" General tab is the one I want you to copy. Copy button on lower left. Don't even open 'Details!

This was so much easier to follow in Windows XP. Microsoft has thrown a lot of useless input to the Vista version- I say useless, because it almost always has to be the user doing the troubleshooting, without help, because the logs have so much 'extra' info.

Let me know if that doesn't clear it up for you.

 

[Rayak]

Yep, sorry using Vista, I forgot to mention that. I keep hearing that Vista is not that good, but don't really know why myself. I know enough about comps to get around, more than average I would say, but still not enough to solve anything major, so help is definitely appreciated!
Alright well here is the info I have gathererd:

ID Source Description

4 SRTSP Error loading virus definitions

5 SRTSP Error loading Symantec real time Anti-Virus driver.

33 SideBySide Activation context generation failed for "C:\Windows\Installer\{67E03279-F703-408F-B4BF-46B5FC8D70CD}\WksWP.exe". Dependent Assembly msadctls,processorArchitecture="x86",type="win32",version="1.0.1801.0" could not be found. Please use sxstrace.exe for detailed diagnosis.

4609 EventSystem The COM+ Event System detected a bad return code during its internal processing. HRESULT was 8007043c from line 45 of d:\vistartm\com\complus\src\events\tier1\eventsystemobj.cpp. Please contact Microsoft Product Support Services to report this error.

6008 EventLog The previous system shutdown at 3:04:59 PM on 7/18/2008 was unexpected.

7000 Service Control Manager Eventlog Provider The SRTSPL service failed to start due to the following error:
A device attached to the system is not functioning.

7001 Service Control Manager Eventlog Provider The Network List Service service depends on the Network Location Awareness service which failed to start because of the following error:
The dependency service or group failed to start.

7026 Service Control Manager Eventlog Provider The following boot-start or system-start driver(s) failed to load:
AFD
DfsC
DMICall
eeCtrl
NetBIOS
netbt
nsiproxy
PSched
RasAcd
rdbss
Smb
SPBBCDrv
spldr
SRTSPX
SYMTDI
Tcpip
tdx

10005 DistributedCOM Failed to create restore point on volume (Process = C:\Users\Owner\AppData\Local\Temp\set708D.tmp -deleter -l0x9 -removeonly -your_launchersetup.exe -clone_of"C:\Program Files\InstallShield Installation Information\{D417C96A-FCC7-4590-A1BB-FAF73F5BC98E}\"; Descripton = Removed GTA San Andreas; Hr = 0x8007043c).

all of the above errors occured within the last hour as well as the last 24 hours, there were a lot more errors but i didnt include them since they didn't occur even in the last 7 days, so i figured they don't have anything to do with the current issue
the most common problems were with IDs 4 (occured 25 times within last hour and 86 within last 24 hours), 5 (25 and 86 times), 33 (14 and 98) and 7000 (51 and 104), 7001 (19 and 63), 10005 (5 and 45), the rest occured once or twice... (i kept restarting the laptop quite a few times in the last 2 days though)

 

[Bobbye]

SRTSP: The process Symantec AutoProtect belongs to the software Symantec Real Time Storage by Symantec. Srtsp.sys is a driver related to Symantec antiviral software
The SRTSPL service problem is also a part of the Symantec Endpoint Protection.

Error, Source: SRTSP, Event ID: 4, Description: Error loading virus definitions.
Error, Source: SRTSP, Event ID: 5, Description: Error loading Symantec real time Anti-Virus driver.
Error, Source: Service Control Manager, Event ID: 7000, Description: The SRTSPL service failed to start due to the following error: A device attached to the system is not functioning.

Issues with SRTP can occur if you have installed the Symantec Endpoint Protection 11.0 software on the Windows Server 2003-based computer. The file name of the driver that causes this issue is SRTSP.sys.

See this Symantec document for resolution: upgrade or update:
http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/ent-security.nsf/docid/20071026134849

See this Symantec document for 'How to manually uninstall Symantec Endpoint Protection client from Windows Vista 32-bit: http://tinyurl.com/4vbdyk

 

[Bobbye]

Error, Source: Service Control Manager, Event ID 7001, Description: NLA Service failed/Dependency

Open Administrative Tools by clicking the Start> Control Panel> System and Maintenance> Administrative Tools>
Services> right click> Properties on NLA (Network Location Awareness> Set Startup to Automatic> Start the Service
The following are the 'dependencies': What service Network Location Awareness needs to function properly:
* Network Store Interface Service
o NSI proxy Service
* Remote Procedure Call (RPC)
o DCOM Server Process Launcher
* TCP/IP Protocol Driver

These Serviced also need to be started or NLA won't run.
Additional information from Black Viper: http://www.blackviper.com/WinVista/Services/Network_Location_Awareness.htm

 

[Bobbye]

Error, Source: EventSystem, Event ID: 4609, Description: The COM+ Event System detected a bad return code during its internal processing. HRESULT was 8007043c.

- Error code: 8007043C. Usually this event is followed by event id 8193 from "VSS". From a Microsoft support- "If the events occurred on a machine that was running in Safe Mode, these events are benign and you can ignore them - unfortunately they will always appear whenever you reboot the machine in Safe Mode. We plan to fix this bug for future versions of Windows (it is already fixed in Windows Server 2003)."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Error , Source: Service Control Manager, Event ID: 7026 The following boot-start or system-start driver(s) failed to load:

these don't load in Safe Mode.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is one I'm not sure aobut. The site is for Windows XP- I couldn't find for Vista:

Error, Source: SideBySide, Event ID: 33, Description: Activation context generation failed

If the error refers to "Dependent Assembly Microsoft.VC80..." then it is Microsoft Visual C v8.0 (a.k.a. MS Visual C++ 2005). These are currently available from the Microsoft site. On those pages, you will also find links to similar downloads like .NET versions, and the VB6 run-times. These can help correct various SideBySide errors.
Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Redistributable Package (x86):
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...ee-a3f9-4c13-9c99-220b62a191ee&displaylang=en
(Please use sxstrace.exe for detailed diagnosis.)

Source for help on Error Events: EventID.net

 

[Rayak]

Wow, thanks
It's going to take me a little time to go through it all, it was a very bad timing for the comp to break down like that, writing med school exams :S...
It's interesting though, that yesterday it worked perfectly fine for the entire day and night, but in the morning again it started freezing up... and even more interesting (and kinda sad) is that now it won't start up at all, not even in the Safe Mode, it just says loading and that's it, and same thing in the regular mode, the loading bar is running at the bottome but that's it.
Oh well, thanks for the help though!

 

[Bobbye]

Yes, there is a lot to go through. I tried to group the Errors in the best order for you. I recommend you deal with the Symantec problem first because it appears that your anti-virus program isn't able to update. It is possible that Event ID#5 may be due to the fact that you were in Safe Mode, but I wasn't able to determine that for sure.

If Windows isn't loading, you may have to go into the BIOS, change the boot order to CD first, hard drive second, Save and Exit, then run the Setup from the Windows CD. I don't know if you will have to access the recovery console.