Hey should I be afraid my computer is dying?

[Blitz]

For a few reasons:

1) Freezing a lot. Now this is happening in Firefox, so I'm not sure if it's the program or what. It seems to follow pretty much the same pattern. Will happen within the first half hour of me turning my computer on. Usually, when I go to a new webpage, the tab will say "connecting"', then it will go into not responding mode. This will last for 5-10 minutes. At first I can go to other programs, but then the whole thing seems to freeze up. Then it will go back to normal, then freeze again for another couple of minutes. Then back to normal till I turn the computer on again.

2) Audio has been weird lately. Random crackles. And some weird digital crackling kind of thing sometimes.

3) Video card is maybe fucking up, because some of my text looks like this now:
http://i.imgur.com/bIiJk.jpg

Also seems like it's maybe been running a little hotter than usual/using the fan more? Whenever I do anything intensive, like gaming, I use a cooling pad. So dunno.

Solutions/feedback to any/all of these problems will be rewarded with rep/potential oral sex, depending on your gender.

[El Fangel]

If anything save your important stuff on a flashdrive or something. Looks pretty odd to me honestly.

[#BROKEN Hasney]

Either the PSU or motherboard is dying. Prepare the credit cares for a new part (or laptop of you're rocking one of those.)

[#BROKEN Hasney]

Could be just the GFX card, as modern ones have hooks into the sound card too. Have you got a spare to try?

[#BROKEN Hasney]

Oooh, or RAM. This one you can check without replacing spare parts.

Use this: http://www.memtest.org/

If it flashes up with errors, the RAM needs replacing.

[El Fangel]

Was going to say video card until you mentioned the sound problem, but I originally suspected the motherboard as well.

Also could it be possible that a stick of ram is loose/dusty?

[Blitz]

Yeah it is a laptop. Restarting it fixed the text thing so maybe it was just a glitch. If the RAM is loose or something,really don't wanna go to the trouble of opening this thing up.

The freezing thing is realllllyyyyy bugging me. Dunno what to do. Though oddly, it hasn't happened today yet.

[Matchbox]

Check your virtual memory. If you have your HDD filled up it starts infringing on the VM and will affect your Video cards memory swaps as well. Transfer files to a memory card or external HDD. Then run Disk Cleanup and defrag

It could be a physical problem such as your cooling fan is full of dust or has stopped turning all together. Laptops run hot already and needed all the cooling they can get. Heat will affect performance.

If rebooting helped then you could have had a lot of background processes running.

Go to start - run - msconfig and see if there's anything you can eliminate on startup. IF you don't know what something is you can Google it and several sites will advise on if it's necessary to run at startup.

IF you have multiple toolbars on your browser, search helpers, etc. Get rid of them, most are unnecessary.

[tjmidnight420]

Still need help with this one? Judging from the OP this is a pretty old laptop. I'm gonna guess it came with Vista and 1 GB RAM, so my suggestions will be based on that. Hasney was pretty brilliant with suggesting memtest. Matchbox's ideas are spot on as well, So I'll starting with those. If the memtest popped up even one error, your RAM will have to be changed. As for your virtual or swap memory, you can find the properties panel by right clicking on Computer on the start menu and clicking properties. Click advanced system settings on the right. Click the first settings button under performance. Click advanced tab and finally change. Set it to at least 2GB. On the fan, if it looks clogged from the bottom intake vent or the side exhaust, it will have to be taken apart. If said clog is there removing it will have an effect almost like adding more memory, except without the benefit of having more memory. Alright, once you've taken care of the msconfig mentioned before we're ready for the next step. Remember in msconfig you'll only have to uncheck boxes under startup. Next up, download and run CCleaner or some other lettered cleaner. Run the cleanup util with the settings that are checked when you load. Next is the Reg tab. Scan, click fix and it'll ask you to back up your Reg before it changes anything. Do so just in case you can't trust that bastard TJ. Finally click Fix all. By now you should be seeing some kind of improvement. Run your AV scanner (mostly because it'll run so much faster since you just deleted all the temp files with CCleaner.) Also, CCleaner always tells how many Mb of temp files it cleans, as well as how many reg errors. I'd like both numbers if you don't mind. Consider it for diagnostic purposes.

[Blitz]

Yeah no this is not an old laptop. Got it about a year ago, it's running Windows 7 with 8gigs of RAM.

I did all the standard stuff, IE virus scans, memory cleanup, defragging, etc. before I even started this thread.

[El Fangel]

Anything specific you do before it freezes?

[tjmidnight420]

Yeah no this is not an old laptop. Got it about a year ago, it's running Windows 7 with 8gigs of RAM.

I did all the standard stuff, IE virus scans, memory cleanup, defragging, etc. before I even started this thread.

What brand is it? I worked on an XPS with win7 and 6gb that seemed to have the same problem. Turned out the GPU was overheating because the thermal past hadn't been applied properly and had cooked off. I know you don't want to take it apart but it's worth a look. If the goop under the heat sync looks hard or burned clean the heat sync and the reflective part of the chip with alcohol and apply AS5. Also could still be that one of the RAM chips isn't seated properly.

[Requiem]

If you're not opposed to it, I would just back up all your important data and do a format/clean install of Windows with the startup disc they probably gave you with the laptop (since they usually don't give you an actual Windows disc. Unless they did, in which case that is great and use that). Do that, then make sure all your chipset/drivers are up to date as soon as it's up and running.

Sounds like you're having some pretty serious issues with the constant freezing and graphical issues. You could first attempt a simple 'repair' using the Windows disc. Not an install, but just a repair. Maybe some critical files are corrupt and causing the issues. Barring that, I'd try the 'backup and clean install' method prior to taking it to a shop.

Always been wary of buying a laptop for exactly these reasons. I can tear into a normal computer and find things wrong, but I just don't know enough about laptop hardware to feel comfortable opening one up. Seems like replacing bad hardware would just be a bitch, not to mention slightly more expensive.

[tjmidnight420]

Always been wary of buying a laptop for exactly these reasons. I can tear into a normal computer and find things wrong, but I just don't know enough about laptop hardware to feel comfortable opening one up. Seems like replacing bad hardware would just be a bitch, not to mention slightly more expensive.

It's not really so bad once you've pulled a few different kinds apart. You kind of get a feel for the way different brands come apart. Once you get inside it's pretty much the normal things you'd find wrong with a desktop hardware- wise, just alot more compressed. Is a pain in the ass putting some brands back together though.