Computer problem, constant freezing, what is causing this?

[DDRFREAK1030]

My friends laptop is having many problems with it. Mainly it will not boot up normally and it freezes quite a bit. (actually it freezes a lot)
:frusty:
HP dv2000
Windows XP Performance Edition Version 3 or 4 (i forgot which)
Came Instlled With Vista

Here is what happens:

When the power button on the laptop is pressed on the computer , the screen is black for a long time. Usually it would show an HP logo when it boots up but it does not show but the
main thing is that the computer will boot. But, it may take anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour to load because of what happens next.

Once it finally reaches the windows boot screen, it will constantly stop and not load. The light on the lappy (the Hard drive load one) does not blink like it normally does when windows usually loads and it is at this screen for about 30 minutes plus. Once it can finally leave this screen I am at a scren with the mouse cursor and it is black.

Usually it stays at this point fot about 15 minutes and then it loads to the desktop finally. Then when anything is used such as any software it will freeze and sometimes
glitch. for example

Game 1: Maple Story MMORPG (Online Game) -http://maplestory.nexon.net/-
Game 2: Stepmania DanceDanceRevolution for Computer-http://www.stepmania.com/-

game 1 will freeze badly, not lag like a normal online game but actually freeze. and then sometimes the laptop will return back to normal after 15 -30 minutes and then freeze again
maybe 5 minutes later. when game 2 was played the screen actually glitched! that was actually surprizing! it looked like a green screen with many lines with the game in the the
screen it was in but completely distorted. Also the computer froze at this point as well.

We have been trying to figure out what is wrong with the lappy but cant really figure it out We have reformatted many times using diffrent versions of windows xp and it still does the same thing. The problems seems to be when the computer is started up.

This problems had happened before, my friend gave his laptop to somebody and they said a driver was missing. makes no sense to me though. the problem before was that it would just freeze at the windows xp load screen though.
:frusty::frusty::frusty::frusty:
any ideas? any help is aprreciated.:cry:

[clocker]

You need to run hardware diagnostics...specifically, check the hard drive and the memory.

[DDRFREAK1030]

how would i go about doing this

BTW um it just froze when installing windows so there is no OS on the lappy right now

[jam0980tr]

You need to run hardware diagnostics...specifically, check the hard drive and the memory.

Maybe it can be virus or adware do a proper scan on adware that can slow it down and
clean up your Prefetch folder and check if there are to many program starting up in the msconfig i hope this help's a lil


I got HP Pavilion ze2251EA Notebook

[DDRFREAK1030]

there is nothing on the laptop right now, i was installing windows xp up until it froze again

i am doing the hard drive self test in the bios right now

[clocker]

Maybe it can be virus or adware do a proper scan on adware that can slow it down and

T'aint no virus/adware if it just froze during a Windows install.

[Snee]

This is stuff you could do if you run out of options:

I can't promise you that this'll do you any good, but if you feel like experimenting and you're not getting anywhere, try downloading knoppix (http://www.knoppix.org/) and booting that from the disc.

If it stops loading, check and see what it was loading last, and write down any error codes. (Knowing something about linux helps with this.)

I've used that to track down a couple of weird hardware errors.

Memtest (http://www.memtest86.com/) might also come in handy, if you don't get anything off testing your hardware otherwise. (It comes included on the knoppix disc, btw.)

I guess flipping through BIOS options to see if our friend has done something strange might be a good idea too. And, I dunno, ask if he's had anything added to it after he bought it, like more RAM. If someone did anything strange while mounting something that might be a problem.

[muyoso]

It sounds like a hard drive issue to me. A memory issue would most likely result in blue screens or sudden crashes. Slowdowns tend to be hard drive issues. Of course I would test the hard drive first to make sure. If it comes back corrupt or whatever, I would run chkdisk or a similar program to scan for bad sectors. Then I would zero the drive. What zeroing the drive does is basically erase ALL information. Personally, zeroing the drive has fixed some issues for me, I cannot explain it, but it works. Then I would try reinstaling XP on the drive again, if it works, great. If it doesnt work, then you are going to need a new drive.

[DDRFREAK1030]

i will try to do this

i ran chkdsk in safe mode but i do not remember it freezing in safe mode, nothing bad came up just normalness. I alran ran the hard drive self test in the BIOS and the test came back ok. i kinda dont want to erase all data on the drive because there is a recovery portion on it i think erasing that would void the warranty. (even though i think reformattind already did but i can recover the vista portion)

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c00372205&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&product=3340125&rule=27524&lang=en




could it be something like that, i got bored and searched around and iono what to realy do

im trying to install xp stil freezing...

i also read that it could be something with the bios but the updaters need windows installed...
that is kind of pointless

[DDRFREAK1030]

i ran hard drive self test and it came out with no errors and also ran memcheck86 to check my ram and everything came out ok with no errors. im stuck not knowing what is wrong with it now. i removed he hard drive and put it back in and same with the ram. it is still freezing and still the same problems. neither of the tests came back with errors. i don;t know that much about linux personally so i cant use knoppik because it would proove useless to me

[DDRFREAK1030]

knoppix didnt even run, it froze before anything happened

[zapjb]

Silly yes. But you did boot from, not run Knoppix?

[Snee]

knoppix didnt even run, it froze before anything happened

Assuming you did it right, like zap says (ie: burn knoppix iso to disc, put it in during POST or so, so you boot knoppix from the disc):

Now, where does it stop? Do you get nothing at all, no text whatsoever, or do you reach the bit with boot options? And do you notice if the hd is working while the screen stays blank after passing the boot options screen?


Because if something like that happens, there are things you can try.


If you are unable to boot Knoppix (i.e. the screen goes blank, you see a kernel panic message, the screen flickers, you are dropped into a minimal shell, Knoppix simply freezes while booting, etc.), try these boot commands in order:

1. boot: knoppix vga=0
2. boot: knoppix acpi=off pnpbios=off noapic noapm Helpful for laptops
3. boot: knoppix vga=0 debug -b 3 Using this boot command will cause Knoppix to pause at various stages in the boot process. Just type 'exit' at each shell prompt to move on to the next stage. You will know that you are at the final stage when typing 'exit' does not do anything. If you get that far, type 'init 5' to go into graphics mode.
4. boot: failsafe debug -b 3 That will do the same as the previous boot command, except turn off most of the hardware detection.

source (http://www.knoppix.net/wiki/Cheat_Codes)

You can also try fixed frame-buffering, which used to be necessary with old laptops.

Ie, instead of just booting you could write knoppix fb1025x768 or whatever resolution you want.

If it works, knoppix should start booting, at which point you should see it start to initiate a bunch of stuff. If it stops during this phase, you should take a note of what it was doing last.

If it gets past this, and starts loading up a gui, you should look out for errors, and again take note, if there are any errors.


If there is any sort of error, try googling it after.
If knoppix won't work (and you know the disc is all right), no matter what, this may point to there being something wrong with your IDE controller or your dvd-drive.

As far as I know, that model of laptop is meant to work with knoppix, so it shouldn't be a compatibility issue.

Don't feel forced to do any of it though, if you don't feel like you want to. It may help, but it won't necessarily give you anything.

Another thing you could check (which has nothing to do with booting knoppix) is which mode the harddrive is in, in your BIOS. Apparently changing it from SATA to compatible mode, has helped some people get XP running on one, look (http://neworder.box.sk/forum.php?did=multWindows&thread=256803).

[DDRFREAK1030]

it was right after the boot screen (i accidently downloaded the wrong language verision for one thing. It was after the boot screen when it was running knoppix from the disc. the screen went black and i left it for 15 minutes. Nothing happened at all so then i becan to press keys randomly. nothing still happened.

I wanted to take my hard drive out of my laptop and his hard drive out of his lappy and install windows on it like that but the connection is like the ide type thingy anymore. it is like a single line of pins. so that plan went to crap.

now it is taking longer to boot though than usual. longer than the longness

[Snee]

Err, @clocker or someone who's better at this than me: It can't be that he needs to load up SATA drivers from a floppy or something during the windows install, right? Or is the laptop that old?

[clocker]

It can't be that he needs to load up SATA drivers from a floppy or something during the windows install, right? Or is the laptop that old?
I still think there is a hardware problem.
Even if it needed SATA drivers F6'ed in it wouldn't "freeze" during install, it would stop after loading files and complain that there was no HDD detected.

It's the "freezing" and failing to respond to input that's worrisome.

@DDRFreak...what diag did you run on the hard drive?
This is the one I would try. (http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/download.htm#DFT)

[DDRFREAK1030]

self test in the bios

the only one i was really able to run because i became impatient with the lappy.

um there is no floopy drive and we dont have any usb floppy drives. it seems to have magically began to run normally from stupidity!!!!!!!!!!!111111

The simple solution was: Let the battery die, plug in and turn on and it loads normally

strange isnt it?

not sure if this is permanent but now it is running normal as it ever has

[clocker]

Fucking laptops, I hate 'em.

[DDRFREAK1030]

it stoped again!!

when the battery got fully charged

i think it is battery realated

[clocker]

What happens when you run it with no battery at all?

[Snee]

it stoped again!!

when the battery got fully charged

i think it is battery realated

Weird. I had an old laptop-battery go bad, and the only thing that happened was that it hardly took any time at all to charge it so windows said it was full charged, and then it ran out in like three minutes. I think that's how it normally goes when batteries go bad. Well, some explode, I hear. Bit weird to only notice there's anything wrong when the battery is fully charged.

I don't really know how they build them nowadays, though. If it had been my old laptop, and I'd been sure it had something to do with the battery, I'd have thought there was a problem somewhere in the bits that interface with the battery, rather than in the battery itself

But booting up without the battery in is a really good idea.

[DDRFREAK1030]

i did that, sometimes it will boot
normally it wont. this seems to be hella annoying now.

i am about to kill the lappy with a hammer!

anyways it doesnt boot anymore for some strange reason

i'll get back to you later on. i gotta go work

[lynx]

i am about to kill the lappy with a hammer!
Pics please.

[DDRFREAK1030]

im trying to boot it again

hopefully i will get lucky

[DDRFREAK1030]

now it is booting but not all the way

im really getting pissed

[clocker]

Did you ever recert the drive with the app I suggested?

[DDRFREAK1030]

i cant even get the lappy to boot to the bios anymore

it is being stupid again

[DDRFREAK1030]

still didn't boot

could it be the motherboard?

[DDRFREAK1030]

I think the lappy died, it is not booting anymore. only sometimes the fans will run but not all the time