topic Vaio FX705, XP just freezing in PCs & Accessories

Vaio FX705, XP just freezing

3nity — Thu, 11 Mar 2004 09:40:54 GMT

Hello everyboy,

need urgently some help. Hope my english is good enough. After having installed xp home on my vaio it seems not to work properly as the system suddenly freezes regardless which program is running. So the only solution to make the system work again is to restart my vaio. Even the taskmanager doesn't react. I just can't understand what's the problem. My FX705 is 1,5 year old and I treated it really fine Contacting sony support they answered I should update my drivers for the hardware. I followed their instructions but windows XP doesn't work properly. Can anybody help?? pls.

Greetings 3nity

Vaio FX705, XP just freezing

leven — Fri, 12 Mar 2004 00:57:22 GMT

Hi,
I need some more information . Please answer these questions so that I can try to help you.
Is this after a reinstall of XP or were you putting it on for the first time?

Did this happen immediately after installing XP or did it run well for some time?

How much RAM have you got? Please give specifications of your laptop.

Here is something to check just now.
Go to the link below and download the free program MemTest to test your RAM. Even a new stick of RAM can be bad.

http://hcidesign.com/memtest/

Please give as much information as possible. It will make it easier to help

Elaine

Vaio FX705, XP just freezing

Fodder — Fri, 12 Mar 2004 07:55:29 GMT

Seem to have the same problem, leave it unattended for an hour and the thing locks up completely. I have tried both the system and network power management settings which have not cured the problem. Has anybody got any other suggestions?

Vaio FX705, XP just freezing

leven — Fri, 12 Mar 2004 10:25:46 GMT

Hi Fodder,
I would really like to help you, but as I already said in this thread I need more information to try to work out what might be wrong.
Please post system specs
How long has this been happening? If lately have you tried System Restore?
Does it only happen after running for an hour or so? If so it might be overheating
Did you install anything or update any drivers just before it happened?

Check this meantime.
Look in Event Viewer for RED errors. If you find any double click them and note down the error number and Source. Post them back.

Please give as much information as possible and I will try to help. Too much is better than too little

There are now two of you with this problem, so please keep an eye on all members answers in this thread.

Elaine

Vaio FX705, XP just freezing

Fodder — Fri, 12 Mar 2004 11:11:01 GMT

Hi Elaine.
The machine is a FX705 1500+, 256mb ram running XP home (SP1).
I've only recently acquired this machine (free) and started using it more frequently so I can't say whether the fault has been present for some time, but I have only noticed it over the last two days since networking it.
I've checked the event viewer and can only find errors in relation to printing, dhcp and time update. I don't think these will be responsible.
I'm having to output my display permanently to an external monitor, owing to the fact the lcd was destroyed (thats why it was free), could this have any effect :smileyconfused::

Vaio FX705, XP just freezing

leven — Fri, 12 Mar 2004 13:45:41 GMT

Hi Fodder
I don`t think these errors are connected either. I have not come across freezing caused by networking, but there is no such thing as coincidence! If you think the problem started after networking, looks like the first thing to check should be the Network cards etc.
Try swapping the cards and see what happens with each machine.
Go to Device Manager and look for "Yellow" errors in the Network Adaptors and their drivers. Have you got all the latest drivers? Check manufacturers website.

I suppose you could try System Restore to before the networking, but you would lose your settings. However it would probably indicate if that was the problem or not.

I shall do some hunting around.

Elaine

Vaio FX705, XP just freezing

Qbix — Sat, 13 Mar 2004 17:03:57 GMT

I had similar problems with my FX701 freezing. I eventually cured it by updating the BIOS and Via 4-in-1 drivers. However I would sugges investigating if other issues are causing your problems first! There are a number of threads detailing how to update the BIOS - but read the warnings before starting!

Q

Vaio FX705, XP just freezing

3nity — Tue, 16 Mar 2004 11:47:38 GMT

Hi Elaine, thanks a lot for your help. Here are my answers, just added them behind your questions.

Posted: Fri Mar 12, 2004 2:57 am Post subject:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi,
I need some more information . Please answer these questions so that I can try to help you.
Is this after a reinstall of XP or were you putting it on for the first time?
-after a reinstall with the recovery cds from sony
Did this happen immediately after installing XP or did it run well for some time?
-immediately after installing just xp home. Then I gone online and after some minutes :freezing

How much RAM have you got? Please give specifications of your laptop.
-i got the same laptop as fodder, 1500+ power now, 256 RAM, it's a fx-705

Here is something to check just now.
Go to the link below and download the free program MemTest to test your RAM. Even a new stick of RAM can be bad.
-now i will make this test, let me see what happens.

Greetz 3nity

http://hcidesign.com/memtest/

Please give as much information as possible. It will make it easier to help

Elaine

Vaio FX705, XP just freezing

leven — Tue, 16 Mar 2004 14:05:42 GMT

Hi 3nity,
This could be many things, so lets start checking.
1.After you reinstalled did you reinstall SP1 (if it is on your recovery CD, it will be reinstalled)?
2. Did you reinstall all the Windows Updates before going online at all? If you went online without these you may have picked up some nasty things. If this is what you did you will have to run checks for viruses and worms and spyware. It will be difficult if your computer is freezing all the time. Do you think it will be possible to do this?

Before we can go any further you must answer these questions.
Can you use another computer to download the Updates and put them on a CD? If you can do this I will tell you how to do it so you can make your computer safe before ever going online.

Elaine

Vaio FX705, XP just freezing

Fodder — Tue, 16 Mar 2004 17:57:10 GMT

Hi.

I seem to have sorted my problem by re-installing windows from the recovery discs, updating the bios then changing the bios power setting to "suspend" and setting the default screen out to CRT (I'm forced into using an external monitor).

I have installed all the available windows updates and tested it by running several memory hungry apps, downloading large files overnight and burned CD's all without any freezes whatsoever.

The machine is now happily connected to my home network and is performing admirably.

Thanks for the assistance, I'm sure I'll be back :smileygrin:

I.E.

3nity — Tue, 16 Mar 2004 18:04:19 GMT

Hihi Elaine.-)

I already got all the updates. While being online I started zone labs firewall and let my pc checked by norton online services. So we can be sure I don't have any viruses at all. But one thing I remarked is really special. Anytime I go online with the Internet Explorer from Microsoft XP freezes. Now I got time enough to download the Opera Browser. Now nothing is suspicious. Let me see how long the system stays clean and runs properly. I'll be happy if I.E. 6 was the only cause.
I'm sorry for being late with my previous answer. I had some bad virus and felt really bad.
One question left: did you hear anything bad about my pc type? Is it possible that some hardware on my board is not really good referring to sony fx-705??
Thank you very much, greetz 3nity ':smileytongue:'

Vaio FX705, XP just freezing

leven — Wed, 17 Mar 2004 02:19:05 GMT

Fodder,
Glad to hear you`ve fixed it. Thanks for telling us the solution.

3nity,
This problem is often caused by out of date video drivers. Go to the web site for the manufacturer of your card, and look for an updated driver.

Elaine

frustrated

3nity — Wed, 17 Mar 2004 09:25:07 GMT

Hello Elaine,

Fodder, greetings.-))
Yesterday the same shi...again eventough I was offline just using acrobat reader. I have all the updates from the official sony driver's site. The only one I didn't make is the bios update as I heared some bad stories from people who wanted to update their bios.
Oh, I ran the mem test 1h, everything ok.
Can it be possible that my hdd is overwritten and overwritten again too much?? Would it be better to run fdisk and then clean everything out und then to reinstall xp again??
I still have my guarantee till Sept. 2004. Can i otherwise let my pc changed out??

Vaio FX705, XP just freezing

leven — Wed, 17 Mar 2004 10:18:14 GMT

3nity,
The trouble with freezing is that it can be caused by so many,many things. In fact almost anything.
You have checked
Drivers
RAM
I have read your posts again and noticed that you only have 256MB RAM. That is a bare minimum for XP. If you are running a few things at once it could cause freezing..No matter what this problem is, if you intnd to keep XP, I suggest you should make your RAM up to 512MB.
Did you look in Event Viewer as I suggested before
Look for RED errors. If you find any double click them and note down the error number and Source. Post them back. This might tell us something. If you find lots of the same error here, post back before doing any of the othr suggestions.

Spyware is another cause.
Download these free programs. When they are installed, before you run them, "Check for updates" on the first page you see. Download the Updates and then run the programs. Let them fix anything they find

Spybot Search & Destroy
http://www.safer-networking.org/index.php?lang=en&page=download

Adaware
http://www.lavasoft.de/support/download/

It seems that some members have fixdedthis by Updating the Bios, but that can be dangerous. I don`t blame you for not wanting to do it.

Sorry this is taking so long, but it can take ages to find the cause of freezing. I don`t think the writing to the hard disk would cause it.

Elaine

?

3nity — Thu, 18 Mar 2004 11:45:51 GMT

Hi Elaine.-))

I tried to reinstall xp but while xp was formatting my drives automatically my vaio was fed up and decided himself to shut down. I tried to start the pc with linux knoppix live cd. But it was not possible because there wasn't enough memory as linux told me. Then I put out my battery and started my vaio again in order to erase the rest of overwritten memory. Then I reinstalled xp. Then I could watch "They found Nemo" for 1h, nothing happened.-))) Now I'm online....everything ok. But as a precaution I will talk to my dealer and ask him for some new ram. By the way, hardware is up to date.

Greetz, 3nity.

Vaio FX705, XP just freezing

leven — Thu, 18 Mar 2004 16:32:37 GMT

Hi 3nity,
Please correct me if I am wrong, but i think you are telling me that you have managed to reinstall XP and that all is running well. Is that correct?
It is the best thing to do when it is so hard to find your problem. We could probably have fixed it eventually but it might have taken a while.
Make sure you have all the Updates, a Firewall and a good Antivirus.
You will notice better performance if you upgrade your RAM to at least 512MB and also less chance of freezing again.
When you get your extra RAM set the virtual memory to 1.5 times your RAM. Make both the min and max the same.

Hope all goes well for you now
Elaine

RAM

3nity — Thu, 18 Mar 2004 19:22:30 GMT

Hi Elaine.-))

Yeah, you did understand me correctly. I've got one question left: can i cange ram on myself?? I'm afraid of loosing my guarantee if I'll do this.
Greetz and thaaaaaaaanks a lot!!!

3nity

Vaio FX705, XP just freezing

leven — Thu, 18 Mar 2004 20:39:51 GMT

Strange you should ask that. I don`t know myself and have just posted a question about it in the "Solutions Room" Forum here. The thread is called "Warranty Advice Please"
Go there and read all about it. Just posted yesterday, so it is near the top of the list. We will get good advice there.

Elaine

RAM

3nity — Fri, 19 Mar 2004 12:33:27 GMT

Hihi Elaine.-))))

Now I'm just about to leave my home on the way to my dealer. He will help me to install my new ram (Kingston). I'm pretty happy now!!! I will report how it was like when someone wants to know.

So, cu later alligator.

greeeeeeeetz 3nity