[halo71]

Not sure where to post this but....

Okay this all started a few days ago. I got to noticing that my laptop was taking a long time to boot. Then it was running pretty slugish. Well it got to the point where it would lock up. I mean CNRL+ALT+DEL does nothing, task manager nothing. So needless to say AVG/SpyBot/Adaware etc. can not finish because of the locking up. Only way to reboot is disconnect power!

Boot to safe mode, same exact thing as above. After about 10 minutes....locked.

I rolled the restore point back as far as I could, like around 12/20/08 or so. Still have the same problems.

Pulled back covers off thinking maybe something was loose, dusty etc. Fan and everything is clean. Both memory chips are seated properly. Thinking it was overheating maybe? Looks clean, HDD is seated properly as well.

Nothing new downloaded, no different websites visited that usual.

Removed any Windows updates for the last 3 weeks.

Running Vista Home Premium on Gateway MX8711 laptop, 100gig HDD, 2 gigs ram. AVG, Windows firewall (yeah I know, shame on me ) Have ran CCleaner, nothing new reported by it.

I think I have included everything I've done so far. About ready to take a hammer to it! I had thought about formatting it back to factory condition but at this point I dont even think that would help.

I did search online a bit for a solution prior to posting this, but I can't look too long as the laptop takes a dump and locks up. Anyone got any thoughts??



EDIT: Forgot to mention. I notice that there are up to 14 processes of 'svchost.exe' running. And really running the mem usage really high! I am also running on a Linksys wireless router. And always showing a good signal. Although I just did notice that the icon on the bottom right in the tray had a caution sign on the icon for just a second or two then it dissapeared.

[Daveskater]

Hello mate, I've moved you to the Windows forum because I'm not convinced it's a malware problem, and only a select few can post in MR so you can get more help here

First off start by posting a few of your latest minidumps, if there are 5 from the time this started happening then post them, otherwise just post the latest ones. You can tell by the file name which are the most recent, because the file name will be Mini followed by the date, then -01, -02 etc for how many occurred that day.

The files are at C:\Windows\Minidump, select the files you want to attach to this thread and right click, hover over Send To and select Compressed (zipped) folder, unless you have WinZip installed in which case you can use its way instead if you like.

It also wouldn't hurt to try and boot into Safe Mode and try to run the scans again, to get the boot mode menu up, after the POST screen (it may instead show the Gateway logo) press F8 a few times, then select Safe Mode from the list of options.

[halo71]

yeah I'd already ran the scans in safemode and nothing was found....computer still locked up. And for some reason there are only 2 minidump files, last one being dated 5/21/08 and the other late in 2007! Why is that?

Well for some reason it started back working fine. I rolled things back to 12/24/08 when it was working fine and everything seems to be fine now. So not real sure what happened.

[Daveskater]

That's a bit weird about the dumps, sometimes they don't seem to be created properly and I can't remember what causes it.

Actually, re-reading your first post, when a computer freezes it doesn't make a minidump, they are only created when a blue screen error occurs.

If it's still freezing in Safe Mode then it could be a hardware issue, because very few processes are being run in Safe Mode.

If it seems ok for now then that's good, but let me know if it starts again

[Rik]

The only time i have seen a problem like this on a lappy was because the thermal pad between the cpu and its heatsink had dried out and cracked, replacing the pad cured it.

[halo71]

Yeah I'd thought it was a overheating problem maybe at first. But this laptop is less than 2 years old! First and LAST Gateway! But now its working fine. Very strange!

[Albert Lionheart]

Try taking out any extra memory modules to test if it makes any difference?
Does not sound like a HDD problem.
Is this thing sitting near a heat source? Like GA for instance?

[halo71]

No Albert, no heat source. It is working fine now. In the same room, same climate, same everything.......

[Albert Lionheart]

Must be a different gremlin then!
Seriously tho', if the thing stops after 10 mins every time you use there is something adrift.
Does is stop even if you start it and just leave it sitting there?

[halo71]

Yeah it would stop working when doing something or letting it sit idle. But its working fine now.

[Albert Lionheart]

In which case, if it aint broke, don't fix it!