exinated Posted January 30, 2013 Report Share Posted January 30, 2013 Hi All!I'm new to the forum and decided to join to get some support for an issue I've been facing the past week with Windows 7.Lately, I've been facing random freezes on the computer in which the keys LED will not respond, the mouse stops moving and the whole OS freezes up leading me to do a hard reset. I've gone through all kinds of troubleshooting steps yet the same issue occurs, I've even done a restore to an out-of-box state for my laptop, reinstalled all my software and drivers and the same issue occurs.I'm currently using a HP Envy Beats 14 Laptop running Windows 7 SP1 64bit, Intel Core i7 Q740 @ 1.73GHz. 6GB of RAM.Got this in Nov 2010 and been using it with no issues till now.I'm using the computer mainly as a music production laptop (I'm mainly a songwriter/composer) and essentially using Presonus Studio One 2.5, ProTools 10.3.2, NI Komplete 8 and various other software synthesizers. I've got a Presonus AudioBox 44VSL acting as my soundcard. On the left of my laptop there is two USB 2.0 ports in which I've connected a Belkin powered USB hub with my mouse, keyboard and MIDI keyboard controller running through it, I've connceted my soundcard to the USB port next to it. I have a eSATA/USB combination port on the right side of the laptop which is used to connect USB sticks and portable harddrives for backup if needed.It all started last week when I was attempting to open up a ProTools session and the whole software froze on me, my soundcard failed and the computer went into freeze mode. This occurred a couple more times and thinking that it's my soundcard that was causing the issue, reinstalled the drivers to no avail in which then I've proceeded to contact my soundcard manufacturer, they lead me through a complete uninstall of my soundcard driver and install to the latest drivers and everything worked fine for 2 days and the same thing happened. Did a bit of troubleshooting and suspected that my Wacom Bamboo pen tablet which I was using then was conflicting with my audio driver thus I've uninstalled it and went back to using a normal wired mouse.Still this didn't solve the issue, after which I suspected my anti-virus was causing the issue, uninstalled it and installed AVG 2013 free. This time round, I had my soundcard unplugged and it continued freezing randomly. This led me to restore the computer to factory settings and the same thing happened. After a bit of searching and looking at Windows Event Viewer, I concluded that it was my anti-virus, even visited AVG's forums with people complaining about the same issue of the AV freezing up the OS. Uninstalled it and installed Avast. Was working well for a while but it froze again, this time round I was watching a flash video in Google Chrome and I had my soundcard unplugged. Did a bit of searching and there were mentions that Chrome's Flash player is unstable and could cause freezes. Stopped using Chrome and went over to Firefox.The next freeze was when I connected my external powered harddrive to my powered USB hub to transfer some files. At this point I had my soundcard unplugged, ejected my harddrive, plugged my soundcard back in, played music for a while via my soundcard and it froze again.I've done memory checks and Windows Check Disk utility with no errors whatsoever. Everything's updated to the latest drivers, I'm currently at wits end to what's causing the freezes and am close to purchasing a new computer.Would be great if someone could point me in the right direction of what to do to resolve this. Thanks for taking the time to read this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bludgard Posted January 31, 2013 Report Share Posted January 31, 2013 If it is the original drive, test it with manufacturer specific drive diagnostics tool. What was the drive make/model? May want to consider backing-up any and all dearly beloved data: Pronto! I deal with faulty (just a little bit) drives all day. They can make an OS do strange things.... Prepare to reinstall on a new drive in the near future. Get yer programs and drivers lined up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MANEMAN Posted January 31, 2013 Report Share Posted January 31, 2013 I deal with faulty (just a little bit) drives all day.Someone actually gave you a job in IT ?The Grace O'Malley has dropped anchor ? Nice to see you back Cap'n. Missed Ya. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
exinated Posted January 31, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 31, 2013 If it is the original drive, test it with manufacturer specific drive diagnostics tool. What was the drive make/model? May want to consider backing-up any and all dearly beloved data: Pronto! I deal with faulty (just a little bit) drives all day. They can make an OS do strange things.... Prepare to reinstall on a new drive in the near future. Get yer programs and drivers lined up. Hi Bludgard,It's a SAMSUNG HM640JJ.I've been running all the diagnostic tools the computer/manufacturer had to offer and nothing showed up. Been running the HP advanced diagnostic tools at startup as well and everything's in the green. I recently downloaded the updates from the HP Support Assistance which included updated graphic drivers, BIOS UEFI (no idea what's that) and various other software updates.I've already backed up all my data. Always did, learnt it the hard way many years back when my computer crashed on me and all my data was lost, with no chance of recovery. I have an external 2TB harddrive that covers all my data and I'm going to purchase another one soon to do a redundant backup, just in case. Can't be too safe.I've been observing the Event Viewer in Windows lately and the last "signs" of the computer about to freeze, I took a look at the event viewer and the only changes I saw were the Windows Auditing service, it had logged on and off ... what, I'm not sure. So I've created an admin account this time round (was running off the admin account prior to this) and started using a standard user account, only logging in to the admin account if i have to do updates or any changes to the system.It's a Samsung Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bludgard Posted February 1, 2013 Report Share Posted February 1, 2013 It's a SAMSUNG HM640JJ.Download SeaTools For Windows:--->. After installing, run a short test (and maybe the long test if there are errors found) on the Samsung drive. As Seagate has taken over the Samsung department; this would be the best free diagnostics software for the drive. Seagate also offers a DOS version if interested....If the drive passes the SeaTools test(s), I would move on to other diagnostics of RAM, CPU and the power supply/charger. That passing I would disable start-up programs and/or completely uninstall any and all software that is not used (especiall those that are causing grief).This "freezing" could be caused by corrupt software or drivers: Or a million other things. Let's start with the SeaTools testing, eh? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bludgard Posted February 1, 2013 Report Share Posted February 1, 2013 I deal with faulty (just a little bit) drives all day.Someone actually gave you a job in IT ?The Grace O'Malley has dropped anchor ? Nice to see you back Cap'n. Missed Ya. :) I'mma make a little video for ya this weekend of the workstation. Total madness.And, no: Grace is in high winds and running the waves more aggressively than ever,See ya soon, Bro. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
exinated Posted February 1, 2013 Author Report Share Posted February 1, 2013 It's a SAMSUNG HM640JJ.Download SeaTools For Windows:--->. After installing, run a short test (and maybe the long test if there are errors found) on the Samsung drive. As Seagate has taken over the Samsung department; this would be the best free diagnostics software for the drive. Seagate also offers a DOS version if interested....If the drive passes the SeaTools test(s), I would move on to other diagnostics of RAM, CPU and the power supply/charger. That passing I would disable start-up programs and/or completely uninstall any and all software that is not used (especiall those that are causing grief).This "freezing" could be caused by corrupt software or drivers: Or a million other things. Let's start with the SeaTools testing, eh?Hi Bludgard,Did as you asked and the Short DST returned green. I've also ran HP's own hard drive test at the BIOS startup using both Short and Long DSTs and all came back positive with no errors. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MANEMAN Posted February 1, 2013 Report Share Posted February 1, 2013 Take your time on this one. All music charts both sides of the Atlantic have been put on hold until you can get back to work.Other Songwriter/Composers have been told to back off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bludgard Posted February 3, 2013 Report Share Posted February 3, 2013 Hi Bludgard,Did as you asked and the Short DST returned green. I've also ran HP's own hard drive test at the BIOS startup using both Short and Long DSTs and all came back positive with no errors.If the drive passes the SeaTools test(s), I would move on to other diagnostics of RAM, CPU and the power supply/charger. That passing I would disable start-up programs and/or completely uninstall any and all software that is not used (especially those that are causing grief).This "freezing" could be caused by corrupt software or drivers: Or a million other things....Opened it up and cleaned the cob-webs out? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bludgard Posted February 3, 2013 Report Share Posted February 3, 2013 Take your time on this one. All music charts both sides of the Atlantic have been put on hold until you can get back to work.Other Songwriter/Composers have been told to back off.[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=manxPVTLth8&feature=player_detailpage Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
exinated Posted February 3, 2013 Author Report Share Posted February 3, 2013 Hi Bludgard,Did as you asked and the Short DST returned green. I've also ran HP's own hard drive test at the BIOS startup using both Short and Long DSTs and all came back positive with no errors.If the drive passes the SeaTools test(s), I would move on to other diagnostics of RAM, CPU and the power supply/charger. That passing I would disable start-up programs and/or completely uninstall any and all software that is not used (especially those that are causing grief).This "freezing" could be caused by corrupt software or drivers: Or a million other things....Opened it up and cleaned the cob-webs out? Did that a couple of weeks back when it started freezing occasionally. Wasn't that dusty to be honest, used a pressurised airspray can to take care of that. It has been pretty good the past 2 - 3 days, I THINK the user account did the trick. Then again I shouldn't take chances. What other steps can I take to ensure it's not a hardware issue? I've done the hard drive test. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
exinated Posted February 4, 2013 Author Report Share Posted February 4, 2013 Hi!My computer froze again today and this time round I was doing some heavy downloads. Nothing was plugged in except for my USB hub that has my mouse and keyboard.My laptop has a Broadcom 43224AG wireless adaptor that came with the computer and it hasn't given me any issues till now. Was running it in a normal user account and it froze, started up in safe mode with networking, restarted my downloads and it froze again. Now I've disabled it and went onto the ethernet connection; disabling the adaptor. Anyone know of any solutions around it? I'm running the latest driver from HP for the wireless adaptor.Just seems to happen when I'm doing heavy downloads. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MANEMAN Posted February 4, 2013 Report Share Posted February 4, 2013 Please Click HereHP have got a separate forum for such things !!!Seems that you are not alone. It could be the way to go for you if HP are experiencing enough problems to set up a speciality forum.It says to me they have probably had a higher than normal amount of feedback in this particular area and want to address it.325 pages of similar problems to peruse, and you may also ask questions.Before you go off to the HP forum you may wish to arm yourself with a little knowledge of "Process Explorer" first. As many hangs and freezes are caused by handles & dll's, this is just the tool for you to be able to make your very own diagnosis with little or no external help.You can download Process Explorer here: http://technet.micro...s/bb896653.aspxShyam Sasindran, MVP (AKA. Captain Jack, and now Captain Debugger) has written an excellent tutorial for the use of Process Explorer when troubleshooting or diagnosing problems.You can find that Here: http://captaindbg.co...ocess-explorer/Please also use the video guides on our own forum here by Mike Halsey MVP: http://forums.window...showtopic=48409 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
exinated Posted February 4, 2013 Author Report Share Posted February 4, 2013 Hello! Thank you everyone for pointing me in the right direction.I've given up on trying to figure out what's wrong. I've forked out cash to buy a Macbook Pro instead, really need to get back to my work and just leave this behind.I'll probably do a out-of-box reinstall again and use this laptop as a barebones entertainment laptop. Cheers guys. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MANEMAN Posted February 4, 2013 Report Share Posted February 4, 2013 Yep ! Throwing money at a problem usually works too. :)For anyone thinking of turning their operating system into a dedicated music workstation. Here are a few tweaks that may come in useful.The first is a batch file script which can be easily customised by the user: Primarily used for DJ's it doesn't take too long to see that it doesn't require much customisation to make it really useful.http://themixtrain.w...udio-optimizer/The second a custom made job for those who crave a GUI and are not comfortable messing with scripts:http://www.windowsxlive.net/fidelizer/http://www.windowsxl...-new-year-2013/ A visit to "Black Vipers" website gives a greater understanding of what is behind the scenes when you start to tweak. http://www.blackviper.com/Here is a video with details of the first mentioned script.[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ey-YiiXpwoM&feature=player_embedded Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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