Glenn Angel

New Member
Joined
Apr 24, 2011
Messages
100
Hi pplz,

this is for my DADS computer (not this one) as his is completely un usable at the moment!

He has a toshiba satellite, i5 with a GT 330M (geforce) and 4GB RAM (specifics i can find if needed - sorry)

His issue is that over the last 5 days the laptop turns on slowish (not the end of the world) but the main issue is constant freezing (generally involving the little spinning blue circle cursor)

If left for about 8 seconds it un freezes and get working agian then starts as soon as you open a document/folder/start menu anything!

It has not had ONE BSOD
the event viewer shows warnings for slow boot/slow after standby but no major criticals recently. There was one past critical for ACPI driver for NT but that was a while ago.
There was also a shutdown error on8/7/11 from unkown file name, driver _iu14D2N.tmp

He runs trend antivirus (real paid version)

Also runs registry blue (i think thats the name) real version, but only recently to try and fix issues.

If you look in task maanger, during the freezes, whichever folder is currently selected goes from running to not responding for the freeze.

Even whilst shutting down the device, the "logging off" screen does the freeze for a few seconds and the circle doesnt spin.

Perfom / check analysis showed no errors

Attached is a Drriver view txt doc.

Finally, he has mentioned his "hdd light" at the base of the lappy is permanently on, whereas it used to just blink a bit when you started doing tasks.

He ran a chckdsk /f a few weeks ago and said it had been playing up but that seemed to get it running better, but running chckdsk now is saying its got about 4 bad blocks and /f wont run.

Any further ideas?

I appreciate your help

Glenn and Phil (dad)Link Removed
 
Solution
Your hard drive is in need of replacement. If 4 blocks cannot be repaired then any data written to them cannot be accessed. If the lappie is under warranty I'd go down that route and see if they will replace it as you have only had it for a short while, yes?
Hi Glenn and Phil,

Sounds like the drive is starting to fail I'm afraid.. If ckdsk won't repair the corrupted data blocks then you might try reformatting but it's usually time to replace the drive.


Bad Sectors on Hard Disk
 
hmmm ok thanks for the response.

The whole lappy is only 3 months old and has pretty much just been used for word and excel!

Before we contact toshiba, is there any chance it can have something to do with windows updates?

The problem seems to amplify when opening windows update and when it shuts down it the updates try to install but fail. Bringing up the windows update page almost freezes the cmputer totally each time. One of them seems to be a recent 64x windows 7 update (not service pack, thats already installed)
 
I should try a 'clean' or custom install. This will allow you to reformat the drive and repair or mask over any corruption.

You could certainly try windows updates but I doubt any significant changes would be forth coming. Make sure the lappy has all updates including bios and firmware. You can check this by going to Toshibas actual site.
 
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mmm true ill try that this weke then if symptoms persist!

Hes got backups, its just a pain in the *** to-install all the programs etc :S
 
ok interesting progression:

Dad today noticed that if WIRELESS and ETHERNET are both off it works FINE.

The hdd light blinks as usual and the lappy works normal.

If he then turns on the internet and accesses the windows update, the whole system goes nuts (as described before!)
He says the update is a windows NET framework update, but the other day it was having a fit when updating KB........ something, which was a security update

Will anyhting fix this update service or can we manually download/turn them off etc?

Any suggestions before having to clean install?
 
Glenn would you try something for me?

Please turn off the internet as before and then run chkdsk making sure the boxes are ticked to repair broken sectors. You can access this by going to computer, rightclick on 'C', choose properties, Tools and then error checking. Tick relevant boxes and then reboot.

Let's see if the HDD is actually corrupted..
 
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thanks again,

Ive phoned him and hes going to do that. Although i know its good to start from the start and check all bases, he has told me that after many tests it is definately windows Update that keeps the freezes occuring (rather than the it being internet/ethernet/wireless driver related)
It happens to all 6 of the updates that are listed (eg. its not just ONE of them that has the issue, but windows update itself)

He has trend installed and he turned it off in case it was interferring and still no luck
 
Hmm... it does sound like more and more that a clean install would be the best option. Other than that I would say try a system restore to a point before the updates started messing things up but I'm not sure that this is a viable option.
Whenever I do a clean install I first install the os followed by windows updates followed by drivers. I do not allow it auto download. I change the update setting to 'check for updates but let me choose whether to download and install them'. This allows you more control over what is actually going on the machine. Like when i run through it I take out all the driver updates as I prefer to install them myself.

Lastly try running the file checker. Rightclick on cmd prompt and run as admin. Type:

sfc /scannow

Press enter and let the scanner run through. Check results.
 
ok so... progress and lack of progress.

We have found it is 100% the windows update.

Tried a chckdsk with no internet and 4 blocks cannot be repaired.

Saw a link to a 'fixer' and tried but got

"Service "Windows Update" (WUAUSERV) failed to start verify that you have sufficient privileges to start system services."

When i searched microsoft they said do this


After sending this to dad he said:
some parameters incorrect, apparently some files don't exist. Also access denied in some cases

Sooooo my opinion is clean install but b4 we do, have you heard of any other way of 'fixing' windows update?
 
Your hard drive is in need of replacement. If 4 blocks cannot be repaired then any data written to them cannot be accessed. If the lappie is under warranty I'd go down that route and see if they will replace it as you have only had it for a short while, yes?
 
Solution
wow tht bad... i thought 4 blocks inst the end of the world.

Ill tell him and get him to call toshiba tomorrow. hes only had it 3 months max