Another Laptop Thread - Lockup Issue

[Sean Malone]

My Sony Vaio is locking up after about three minutes after boot up. Just started last night. Booting up 'safe mode' seems OK which leads me to believe it's an OS issue instead of hardware. There is a MB BIOS update on Sony's website but it says it is to resolve a multiple monitor issue. I've read others have fixed their Vaio lockups with a BIOS flash. I'll try it tonight if I can get it to stay booted long enough.

Could also be overheating. The Vaio are notorious for running very hot. I can barely touch the bottom sometimes.

I ran a disk check in safe mode and it repaired a few bad sectors and then got to the file scan (step 4 of 4) and stops after 27%. That scan was on reboot which probably has “fix automatically” and “deep scan” turned on. When I run it from within safe mode with both of those options off it passes the scan.
I’ll probably spend this evening flashing the MB BIOS and cleaning it (and any other suggestions) but will resort to cleaning my data off in safe mode to my external and reformat.

Any suggestions?

[extramundane]

My Sony Vaio is locking up after about three minutes after boot up. Just started last night. Booting up 'safe mode' seems OK which leads me to believe it's an OS issue instead of hardware. There is a MB BIOS update on Sony's website but it says it is to resolve a multiple monitor issue. I've read others have fixed their Vaio lockups with a BIOS flash. I'll try it tonight if I can get it to stay booted long enough.

Could also be overheating. The Vaio are notorious for running very hot. I can barely touch the bottom sometimes.

I ran a disk check in safe mode and it repaired a few bad sectors and then got to the file scan (step 4 of 4) and stops after 27%. That scan was on reboot which probably has “fix automatically” and “deep scan” turned on. When I run it from within safe mode with both of those options off it passes the scan.
I’ll probably spend this evening flashing the MB BIOS and cleaning it (and any other suggestions) but will resort to cleaning my data off in safe mode to my external and reformat.

Any suggestions?

Boot to the recovery console, then do a "chkdsk /r" from there. It tends to do a more thorough job than a chkdsk from within Windows (even safe mode). I've got an increasingly ancient Dell laptop that hoses itself bi-weekly, and this fixes it every time.

[Sean Malone]

Boot to the recovery console, then do a "chkdsk /r" from there. It tends to do a more thorough job than a chkdsk from within Windows (even safe mode). I've got an increasingly ancient Dell laptop that hoses itself bi-weekly, and this fixes it every time.

Good tip!:thumbup:

I just remembered that my laptop came preloaded with XP. I have an older SP1 disc somewhere but I read there is some legwork to do to install RC from an SP1 disc on and SP2 machine. I'm lazy.

Maybe I can install the RC from safe mode??

Always sumpitn!

[Cam]

Good tip!:thumbup:

I just remembered that my laptop came preloaded with XP. I have an older SP1 disc somewhere but I read there is some legwork to do to install RC from an SP1 disc on and SP2 machine. I'm lazy.

Maybe I can install the RC from safe mode??

Always sumpitn!

No, there is a recovery console option on the install CD. Boot to the install CD as though you are going to install, (doesn't matter the SP version) and when you get to the first options you hit "R" and can drop into the recovery console after selecting the winblows installation you want to F with.

[Sean Malone]

No, there is a recovery console option on the install CD. Boot to the install CD as though you are going to install, (doesn't matter the SP version) and when you get to the first options you hit "R" and can drop into the recovery console after selecting the winblows installation you want to F with.

So SP1 disc to an SP2 OS shouldn't give me an issue? Guess I could try. :D

Thanks!

[extramundane]

So SP1 disc to an SP2 OS shouldn't give me an issue? Guess I could try. :D

Thanks!

Nah, it'll be fine for this. If you start replacing files, you could run into issues, but just to run a scandisk won't hurt.

[Sean Malone]

It wouldn't let me install it. I had to find the hidden XP image that SOny puts on here and install RC from that i386. Did that and ran dskchk with a /r and /p and normal boot lasted about an hour before lockup. Rebooted, rescanned and I've been running lock free for about two hours now. Fingers crossed.

Still past due on a reformat. Moving it up the priority list.

[Cam]

It wouldn't let me install it. I had to find the hidden XP image that SOny puts on here and install RC from that i386. Did that and ran dskchk with a /r and /p and normal boot lasted about an hour before lockup. Rebooted, rescanned and I've been running lock free for about two hours now. Fingers crossed.

Still past due on a reformat. Moving it up the priority list.

You didnt want to install! Just drop to recovery console. Fix those sector read errors and the likr an hopefully tou are OK... If you start getting errors such as "directory renumeration" or the like, you are hosed. (matbe) It's microshaft. Just remember that...

[Sean Malone]

You didnt want to install! Just drop to recovery console. Fix those sector read errors and the likr an hopefully tou are OK... If you start getting errors such as "directory renumeration" or the like, you are hosed. (matbe) It's microshaft. Just remember that...

I had to install cuz my old XP disc wasn't bootable. (eh hm).

I got three hours runtime with no lockups but it did auto-reboot with no obvious catalyst. I re-ran dskchk with /r and /p switches and I can't get past 70% (I let it run all night). Hardware? This thing gets so hot, I'll be surprised if it's not.

[Cam]

I had to install cuz my old XP disc wasn't bootable. (eh hm).

I got three hours runtime with no lockups but it did auto-reboot with no obvious catalyst. I re-ran dskchk with /r and /p switches and I can't get past 70% (I let it run all night). Hardware? This thing gets so hot, I'll be surprised if it's not.

Does the machine still have it's "feet"? If the rubber stoppers on the bottom have gone missing there is probably not enough air flow to the processor and it is overheating.

[extramundane]

I had to install cuz my old XP disc wasn't bootable. (eh hm).

I got three hours runtime with no lockups but it did auto-reboot with no obvious catalyst. I re-ran dskchk with /r and /p switches and I can't get past 70% (I let it run all night). Hardware? This thing gets so hot, I'll be surprised if it's not.

http://www.officedepot.com/pictures/SK/LG/681248_sk_lg.jpg

$20 at Office Depot. (http://www.officedepot.com/ddSKU.do?level=SK&id=681248&Ntt=chill&uniqueSearchFlag=true&An=text) Solved a similar problem for The Woman's laptop, which got so hot it ruined the finish on her desk.

[Sean O'Gorman]

I bought one of those, and it stopped working for a few months. I ended up downloading a program that changes when the fan comes on. The laptop is still a bit warm, but between that app (which I'm sure will burn out the fan before long), and the plate, the heat is at least tolerable.

[Sean Malone]

I split 'er open expecting to find a molton lava temperature of a hard drive but actually the HDD was cool to the touch! the heat was confined to the corner where the power supply is. No dust inside this unit to speak of either.
I've done numerous chkdsk and a simple scan comes back saying it has found errors on the drive. When I scan with the /r switch it stops at 70% and then will auto-reboot.
Just for the heck of it I grabbed the BIOS upgrade posted on Sony's site and after a successful flash she ran for many hours with no lockups or BSoD's. I don't know why after two years a BIOS flash would magically solve things but whatever works right?

[extramundane]

I don't know why after two years a BIOS flash would magically solve things but whatever works right?

Don't knock it- it's that kinda randomness that keeps me employed.

[Sean Malone]

Don't knock it- it's that kinda randomness that keeps me employed.

I hear ya!

I wish I could access the BIOS settings on this machine. Sony locks me:cry: out.

[Sean Malone]

So the evening of my last post I received a strange BSoD that I’ve never seen before. It was simply “Memory parity error/ contact your system admin”. No numeric strings, no further detail, nothin’.

Back in June I installed two 1gb sticks of excellent quality DDR3 RAM from Crucial. Never a problem. So the first thing I did after receiving the parity error BSoD was removed one of the gig sticks; turned it back on and I’ve been issue free for two weeks. I could probably live on 1 gig if all I did was surf the net but I use this notebook to run ProTools so I need 2 gigs of RAM. Repeat, I MUST HAVE 2 gigs of RAM.
My first thought is that “ok, the RAM went bad and I got lucky and pulled the bad stick”. Then I thought maybe it’s more than that. It is too much of a coincidence that I was having the other issues and then this. Maybe the RAM socket burnt out?
So I hit the web with my new BSoD and found some interesting results, namely that the “memory parity error BSoD” isn’t necessarily a RAM issue!!! Who’d a thunk? Actually, many different resources point back to bad HDD’s. Hmmm, that’s where this story started.

I think my next step is to reformat, throw the other stick of RAM back in and see if the HDD error was caused by bad sectors or corrupt 1’s and 0’s. If that doesn’t work, I’ll try throwing a new HDD in it. I could probably try a single 2 gig stick too. Hmmm.

[Insomniac]

So the evening of my last post I received a strange BSoD that I’ve never seen before. It was simply “Memory parity error/ contact your system admin”. No numeric strings, no further detail, nothin’.

Back in June I installed two 1gb sticks of excellent quality DDR3 RAM from Crucial. Never a problem. So the first thing I did after receiving the parity error BSoD was removed one of the gig sticks; turned it back on and I’ve been issue free for two weeks. I could probably live on 1 gig if all I did was surf the net but I use this notebook to run ProTools so I need 2 gigs of RAM. Repeat, I MUST HAVE 2 gigs of RAM.
My first thought is that “ok, the RAM went bad and I got lucky and pulled the bad stick”. Then I thought maybe it’s more than that. It is too much of a coincidence that I was having the other issues and then this. Maybe the RAM socket burnt out?
So I hit the web with my new BSoD and found some interesting results, namely that the “memory parity error BSoD” isn’t necessarily a RAM issue!!! Who’d a thunk? Actually, many different resources point back to bad HDD’s. Hmmm, that’s where this story started.

I think my next step is to reformat, throw the other stick of RAM back in and see if the HDD error was caused by bad sectors or corrupt 1’s and 0’s. If that doesn’t work, I’ll try throwing a new HDD in it. I could probably try a single 2 gig stick too. Hmmm.

Try memtest86.

http://www.memtest.org/
http://www.memtest86.com/