Laptop freezing with Vista.

[Zoidberg]

Hello,

Ive got my friend's son's laptop that has been freezing its a Toshiba Satellite Pro L300. He's had it since the start of the year and I think the hard drive is dying?

I've had two BSOD one was 0x000000F4 and the first one was 0x0000007B while doing virus scans. Its running Vista Enterprise very very slowly.

When I try to access my usb stick it freezes, it will freeze in general anyway. I've tried to do some virus scans in safe mode, it will either freeze or BSOD. I have also pulled the hard drive and tried to scan it through my machine. It will either freeze my computer or make everything very slow to use.

At one point I did a chkdsk on it and I got the message the request could not be performed because of an I/0 error. It also has frozen while doing the chkdsk.

The only other thing was it was saying at one point a star force driver wasnt compatible? No idea if that is relevant.

Can anyone please help.

Thanks

[Dencandy]

Given the nature of the problems you mention (unable to scan with a-v in safe mode, etc), it does seem like a hardware problem. However you mention the highly controversial Star Force protection software, which many people say causes problems. Here's a link about how to remove it: STAR FORCE. If it's a pirated version that may be impossible and you will have to re-install Vista.

If uninstalling Star Force doesn't solve the problem, then since your friend's son has had the machine since the beginning of the year, it must still be under warranty. Take/send it back to the supplier for checking the hard disk and RAM.

[Mlaningham]

Zoidberg,

Usually these types of errors mean one of two things. The RAM needs to be replaced (Sometimes just reseated), or the Video card on the motherboard needs to be replaced.

In this case since your testing the hard drive shows that it is probably the culprit. When you receive the 0x00000xxx error, does it have an error message right before it reports the error codes? That can sometimes help determine the problem.

But like Dencandy said, it should be under warranty and theres no reason not to just get the hardware replaced, but in this case, my guess would be 99% chance its hardware related.

Hope that helps!