topic Re: Vaio FX-640 - hardware freeze in PCs & Accessories

Vaio FX-640 - hardware freeze

cardosa — Fri, 27 Aug 2004 09:50:56 GMT

I have just been passed this notbook from my niece. Her compaints is that it froze all the time.
So thinking it was possibly the driver problem, I updated whatever i could and still the same problem.
I then reinstalled everything. Windows XP Pro. Haha, same thing. It would hang suddenly, and not even ctrl alt del would do anything..
I thought it may be the temperature seeing its using a hot duron? So i made it a point to lift it off the table providing ample ventilation, but to no avail.
I then installed sp1 and after 2 tries, it managed to load. Then I progressed to sp2 and it hung again. when i rebooted, windows was corrupted. So i am now in the process of reinstalling via cdrom using repair installation.
As you can inmagine, it means i will have to do the sp1 update again etc.

Can anyone tell me if they have similar problems? and if so, what logical options there are?

I tried to go to e-support, but it seems my email address is not in the database and i cannot go any further...

aaaarrrrghhhhh.

Re: Vaio FX-640 - hardware freeze

TygerTyger — Fri, 27 Aug 2004 13:11:20 GMT

E-support doesn't work, quite possibly because Sony Support is incompetent, or that's the impression I'm increasingly getting. It may be heat, but if it is freezing fairly quickly after you turn it on I would imagine it isn't, especially as Windows tendency is to restart rather than just shut down or hang when it gets hot.
What it might be is that your hard drive has a large amount of corrupted clusters on it. After you repair Windows and before you do anything else, run chkdsk. (Open My Computer, right click on your hard drive, click Sharing and Security, click on the Tools tab, click Check Now) If your hard drive is partitioned I don't know if it checks both, so look out for that.

Re: Vaio FX-640 - hardware freeze

kee-lo_ — Fri, 27 Aug 2004 13:44:04 GMT

SP2 is temprimental, some machines love it - others loathe it.
The best thing you can do is have a clean install, then add SP1, then SP2. If that doesn't work remove SP2.
Also make sure your download is complete, do not use unofficial SP2 releases or get it from anywhere else except MS.

Tyger, somedays I think we're the support, and the peeps in Sony sleep.

Re: Vaio FX-640 - hardware freeze

cardosa — Fri, 27 Aug 2004 17:16:20 GMT

OK here is the update.
1. i didnt do a clean install but after the sp2 installation froze, the windows files were corrupted and wouldnt start. So i reinstalled winxp and did a repair path.
2. Then i did checkdisk with fix and repair, then a defragment..
3. I instead of going through sp1 this time i did the sp2 install immediately. That completed rather surprisingly.
4. I have installed all other devices including the usb netgear wireless lan card, my ipod, my hp 4110 printer and my active sync for my O2 XDAII
5. I am pleased to report that i have not gotten a freeze so far and I am crossing my fingers for it not to happen again. I am now updating with msoffice xp's service pack after loading all my other appilcation software .

Phew, I pray that it doesnt freeze again. If you dont hear from me then it is confrmed that the freezing was a software matter (or at the least a harddisk fragmentation error (NTFS - no partitions)) and not necessarily the hardware. I pray that this conclusion is correct.

crossing my fingers now...

heheheheh
thanks for your ideas guys.

Re: Vaio FX-640 - hardware freeze

kee-lo_ — Fri, 27 Aug 2004 17:24:45 GMT

Good luck

Re: Vaio FX-640 - hardware freeze

TygerTyger — Fri, 27 Aug 2004 17:30:03 GMT

Ah excellent. I was curious to know if my suggestion would work as Windows XP has a bug which prevents me from running chkdsk so I can't see if it will fix my problems. Never occurred to me to go straight to SP2 that might have done the trick.

Thanks for letting us know anyway.

Re: Vaio FX-640 - hardware freeze

cardosa — Sat, 28 Aug 2004 12:40:35 GMT

Unfortunately it still froze yesterday as i was doing some work on itunes. Re-booted... As bad as a BSOD Vaio style... heheh

Re: Vaio FX-640 - hardware freeze

kee-lo_ — Sat, 28 Aug 2004 13:44:21 GMT

iTunes seems to use a lot of CPU cycles.

Re: Vaio FX-640 - hardware freeze

salk31 — Tue, 14 Sep 2004 12:27:35 GMT

Pre SP2 I had a "reliable" freeze narrowed down to hotfix 811493.

ie withit died few times a day without it very reliable. I was OK
up to SP2 (had to upgrade because without XP is way
too insecure).

My machine is dying again so I assume they have rolled
811493 into SP2.

NB 811493 was bundled into another bundle pre-SP2.

Regards

Sam

Re: Vaio FX-640 - hardware freeze

kee-lo_ — Tue, 14 Sep 2004 13:42:28 GMT

More than likely

Re: Vaio FX-640 - hardware freeze

johncirving — Sat, 18 Sep 2004 16:53:30 GMT

I've got a similar problem on my PCG-Fx705

After about 6 months of lockups (could be 10 mins, could be after a couple of hours) the machine gave up the ghost & would not boot.

I ran some disk interrogation programs & re-formatted it - no problems - reinstalled XP from the recovery disks. Installed SP2 (had to download the full version as the update would fail) - Norton Antivirus.

It seemed ok for a day, but then locked up.

I did spot some forums elsewhere that indicated the memory locators & soldering was suspect in the Viao's (dont use the second slot was indicated).

I've now downloaded a hardware sensor monitor (hmonitor from ab software) which allows me to monitor the mainboard & CPU temps.

I've also obtained sandra (SiSoftware) interrogation & testing/benchmarking software (also gives temp & voltage & this matches the other program).

After running the benchmarking software in 'burn in test' mode for a couple of hours (no lockups !!) - the CPU & motherboard monitors did not go over 30 deg C (the fan does spin up now & again, even in these temp ranges). The hard drive did go up to about 55/57 deg C (is that hot ?).

The voltage monitors indicate that it is running at 7.87V & 3.25V (is that correct ?)

I've spent the a couple of days trawling the net to find out the valid ranges for the CPU & motherboard & hard disk (CPU appears to be 85deg C max (on die monitoring) - no information on the m/board or hard disk & no information on whether the hard disk sensor is on the disk or external

(I have a hitachi disk (dk23da) & hitachi do provide full temp specs (max 55 at 10mm or 62 next to chassis)) - but cannot find where the reported temperature is obtained from ...)

I'm back to square one - have to leave the machine running until it locks up & see if there is a correlation between temp & lockup.....

I'll post an update if there is any news.