Topic: Big Problems with Vista Laptop

[Garden Manager]

Unfortunately i need to update this thread since the problem has recently returned. Since i last posted on this topic i have upgraded the machine to windows 7 and for a long time afterwards it worked fine without the problem reoccuring. To recap the machine startis making a clicking or stuttering sound, iam certain through the speakers/sound card not from the hard drive or other components directly. At the same time it 'freezes up' and needs turing off by the power switch regardless of what it was doing before the problem starts up. On restarting it gives the usual options to run normallly or go into safe mode (which can help but does not aid determining the problem). Rebooting normaly seems to cure the problem for a while and it can be days, hours or minutes before the proble occurs again. But it does occur.

I am begining to wonder if the problem is some thing software related and i have found that cleaning out the internet cookies can temporarily cure the problem. I am thinking that it could be a 'bad' cookie that is if not causing the problem but at least triggering it. it would have to be one that regularly comes onto the PC though. Other theories are conflicts caused by windows updates or some form or virus. I have an up to date subscription to Norton internet security (2010 version i think), which should stop any viral problems, however i have noticed on another Win7 machine running Norton 360 much more in the way of attacks being detected and fixed. I am concerned that for some reason Norton IS is missing something that is harming the laptop PC. Would upgrading the laptop to norton 360 help? Not sure.

When i last had this problem i found i had to completly reset the laptop back to factory settings, something i will do if it is needed but not happy about doing, particulaly if it is still likely the problem will arise again in the future. I am also concerned than since the machine was bought with Vista and later upgraded that this will cause problems resetting it.

This is a real headache for me. The machine is primarily my father's and he enjoys using it to watch films on the internet. I do not want to stop him doing this, particularly as he is about to retire from work. However i do wonder if this activity might be harming the machine in the first place. Some of the sites used to access the films do not seem particularly 'clean' of potential virus infections. I know antivirus software should stop it but it is still a worry.

Can anyone help please.

[BarriedaleNick]

Very tricky to diagnose from afar but IMHO clicking noises normally come from the hard drive and normally indicate some sort of failure.  Try taking a lead out of the sound card to a stereo to see if is an audio issue.  Or disable the sound card for a while and see if you hear the clicking.
If you had  the same sort of issues under Vista as you are having now on the same hardware then to me it would mean that the hardware is the issue.
Does it get over hot - that will cause the machine to crash?  A blast of canned air can do a world of good for a hot lappie!
I would not bother upgrading to Norton 360.  In fact I would ditch Norton for something more lightwieght if you dont need all the bells and whistles that is has..
Cookie - mmm unlikely to cause an issue of this sort esp as the lappie does this randomly.
Upgrading from Vista to 7 is not ideal - always best to do a fresh install - that way you can be sure there are no Vista related issues but you are where you are I guess..

[Garden Manager]

Thanks for reply. Have investigated further and can give more info. I was wrong about the clicking being from the sound card. i turned off the sound and it still happened. No the machine does not het hot when the problem occurs, so cant be the fan. I did upgrade my norton to 360. I was already subscribed to it with another PC and its not my decision to ditch it anyway!

I agre it would be a cookie directly, but could it be a deep rooted virus that is somehow activated by certain cookies? If cookies arent involved then could it still be a deep rooted virus that the antivirus scanner isnt picking up and is affecting the registry?

When you say do a clean install of 7 rather than upgrading from vista, do you mean completely formatting the hard drive before installing 7? I upgraded as i didnt want to do this and wipe all my data! However if it might solve the problem I suppose its worthwhile doing.

Thanks for the help.

[greenfists]

Having read all your posts I would be inclined to suspect that there is a problem with the hard drive. It may be that the heads are sticking when they are being parked. I would make sure that you regularly back up everything.
Hard drives are mechanical and as such can wear out. Also if the laptops been dropped or banged it may have caused some damage to the disc.
Unfortunately I would imagine that the only way to check is to replace the drive. Easy on a PC, not so easy but perfectly doable on a laptop.

[Garden Manager]

Having lived with the problem for a good while, and the machine continuing to work well enough with no other problems, things came to a head recently. After doing its 'clicking' hiatus several times within a few minutes (stopping then starting again quite quickly) the machine was rebooted. Now it will not not boot up, it tried to fix itself a couple of times but repeatedly kept coming up with a 'shell' error message (an important file missing it reckons) before reaching the user login. Am now going to run system recovery see if that fixes it, failing that a clean install of windows. i still feel it is a windows problem rather than a HDD problem. Of course it if i do all i can and it still wont work than it will have to be looked at professionaly.

The machine is actualy my dad's machine. He uses it a lot and gets great pleasure from using it. He is rather 'lost' right now.

[BarriedaleNick]

I would still say hard drive failure.  If the drive is failing in some way then it is often the case that a system file get lost or corrupted.
My wife's Pc recently did the same thing or something similar.  Normally in this case I would remove the HD, scan for errors and pop it back in the original machine and 9/10 it works.  However it is often the sympton of a failing drive - sure enough my wife HD died on Saturday.
It is well worth having a stab at formatting and reinstalling as it could just be a windows failure but IMHO windows boot issues are normally caused by file corruption which is, in turn, a sympton of HD failing..