Having recent problems with laptop. Possible RAM or HDD problem.

[FearoftheNight]

Hi guys hope someone can help me with this. I have a laptop from late 2007. What's been happening is that lately when I'm gaming (SC2/LOL) the game will hang for about 1-2 minutes. During this time my screen will hang and the last music or sound effect will loop for the duration. I also have some lag / delay after a fresh reboot on the desktop lately when I am switching between firefox and chrome which leads me to believe that it's not an overheating or gaming problem. One odd thing is that there was one day I was encountering this problem while gaming while on Ventrilo and that was working fine (i could talk and hear them just fine).

Things I've Tried or Observed:
I thought that it was a probable overheating issue so I got a cooling pad....alt tabbing during game indicated temperatures at about 80 degrees for gpu and the 2 cpu cores which seems to be in the acceptable range.

The second thing I found out was that I only had 1 gig of hdd space left and it might have been a problem with the page file. After clearing up 12 gigs of space the problem persists.

Most of the system was replaced in June 2010 (Mobo/CPU/GPU) and based on the symptoms I'm seeing I suspect that it is a dying HDD or RAM.


I'd like some input from you guys. Thanks in advance.

Update: Just ran Prime 95 (Blend-Lots of RAM) for 20 min with 0 errors.
Update: MS Security Essentials Check
Seagate Seatools: Pass (SMART/Short DST/Long DST/ Short Generic/ Long Generic)
Malware Bytes: Pass
Chkdsk: Pass
Smart Reporter: Pass


I just had a similiar hang in desktop here is event viewer message:
Windows (2608) Windows: A request to write to the file "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Search\Data\Applications\Windows\Windows.edb" at offset 6225920 (0x00000000005f0000) for 8192 (0x00002000) bytes succeeded, but took an abnormally long time (61 seconds) to be serviced by the OS. This problem is likely due to faulty hardware. Please contact your hardware vendor for further assistance diagnosing the problem.

 

[Sephire]

Run anti-virus.

 

[FearoftheNight]

any ideas?

 

[Davidh373]

you can run Check Disk and Memtest. That would tell you if it's a problem there. You could try running AV also. You could try reinstalling the game. Then as a last resort back up your files and restore windows.

^These, could probably take two to 3 days, so keep us posted. If none of these help, get back to us and we'll figure things out from there.

Update: MS Security Essentials Check

uhh... try a real AV?

 

[mfenn]

I'd suspect the HDD, you can get those symptoms if it is having to do a lot of retries on a bad sector. Grab the drive manufacturer's diagnostic utilities and run a test.

 

[Lanyap]

Download, install and run Malwarebytes
Run CHKDSK /R
Download, install and run Defraggler

What brand and model laptop is this?

If the mobo/CPU/GPU was replaced I wonder if something is loose or if they put enough thermal paste on the parts.

Update: MS Security Essentials Check

uhh... try a real AV?

It is a real AV and gets high ratings.

 

[FearoftheNight]

Apple Macbook Pro

Download, install and run Malwarebytes
Run CHKDSK /R
Download, install and run Defraggler

What brand and model laptop is this?

If the mobo/CPU/GPU was replaced I wonder if something is loose or if they put enough thermal paste on the parts.




It is a real AV and gets high ratings.

 

[FearoftheNight]

Windows (2608) Windows: A request to write to the file "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Search\Data\Applications\Windows\Windows.edb" at offset 6225920 (0x00000000005f0000) for 8192 (0x00002000) bytes succeeded, but took an abnormally long time (61 seconds) to be serviced by the OS. This problem is likely due to faulty hardware. Please contact your hardware vendor for further assistance diagnosing the problem.

 

[FearoftheNight]

The performance counter explain text string value in the registry is not formatted correctly. The malformed string is Frat宜亮n谀扨ys定亮C蠀. The first DWORD in the Data section contains the index value to the malformed string while the second and third DWORDs in the Data section contain the last valid index values.

 

[Davidh373]

Apple Macbook Pro

No wonder you're having problems. Mine has been nothing but a problem since I got it...

 

[Sephire]

Back up your important files.

Reformat and reinstall windows.


BTW you are using MacBook Pro with Windows OS?

 

[TheStu]

Back up your important files.

Reformat and reinstall windows.


BTW you are using MacBook Pro with Windows OS?

You can dualboot them. He probably has it for either gaming, or a piece of software that doesn't perform well under virtualization. Though I suppose it is possible he has gone straight Windows, no OS X, but the trackpad drivers are so crummy under Windows that you might as well sell the Mac and buy an HP or something since the trackpad will be about the same at that point.

OP, you had one of the 8600m models right? I can't remember if that was around the time of the bad hard drives from Apple or if it was the previous year, so consider running a SMART test as well.

 

[FearoftheNight]

Are you guys saying it's a windows install problem? Or a problem with the hard drive?

And yes I do use windows for my gaming. The hdd is something I upgraded myself after buying the laptop.

 

[mfenn]

Windows (2608) Windows: A request to write to the file "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Search\Data\Applications\Windows\Windows.edb" at offset 6225920 (0x00000000005f0000) for 8192 (0x00002000) bytes succeeded, but took an abnormally long time (61 seconds) to be serviced by the OS. This problem is likely due to faulty hardware. Please contact your hardware vendor for further assistance diagnosing the problem.

Yep, I'll bet your hard drive is crapping out. Backup any and all important data right now and run the diagnostics. Since you bought it separately from the laptop, you should be able to RMA through the HDD manufacturer.

 

[FearoftheNight]

Yep, I'll bet your hard drive is crapping out. Backup any and all important data right now and run the diagnostics. Since you bought it separately from the laptop, you should be able to RMA through the HDD manufacturer.

what if it passed the diagnostics? see my op for the specific tests i

 

[TheStu]

what if it passed the diagnostics? see my op for the specific tests i

OP, if you have OS X still installed, download SMART Utility, it is a pretty good test that gives you more than just Pass/Fail, a drive can have a few aspects in failing status but still pass overall.

Have you run CheckDisk yet?

 

[mfenn]

what if it passed the diagnostics? see my op for the specific tests i

I'm surprised that it passed SeaTools to be honest. You could run a chkdsk to see if any bad sectors are found at the OS level.

 

[FearoftheNight]

Guys. I have ran chkdsk twice. Where can I find a log of the results? It just runs and boots into windows. I have both options checked for scan/repair ect.

edit: i also ran smart utility for osx and everything passes. all tests completed 0 errors/bad sectors. the only flag i can see is that it said airflow temperature celcius was high at one point in the past

 

[mfenn]

Guys. I have ran chkdsk twice. Where can I find a log of the results? It just runs and boots into windows. I have both options checked for scan/repair ect.

edit: i also ran smart utility for osx and everything passes. all tests completed 0 errors/bad sectors. the only flag i can see is that it said airflow temperature celcius was high at one point in the past

I believe it's logged to the event viewer.

 

[TheStu]

Alright then it sounds like it probably isn't a hardware problem with the drive. Backing up and data and starting fresh might be the way to go.

 

[FearoftheNight]

guys i checked the chkdsk again and everything passed...are you guys saying it could be a software problem taht could be resolved by a fresh reinstall?

 

[mfenn]

guys i checked the chkdsk again and everything passed...are you guys saying it could be a software problem taht could be resolved by a fresh reinstall?

Possibly.

 

[Davidh373]

Possibly.

:thumbsup:

We can't really tell you exactly what it is without process of elimination. We've eliminated that it's a bad HDD, now onto the software side of things for the time being.

 

[FearoftheNight]

hey so is it safe to conclude that it's not a bad hdd since it passed the tests? or is there still a chance it is some kind of undetectable hdd degradation?

 

[TheStu]

hey so is it safe to conclude that it's not a bad hdd since it passed the tests? or is there still a chance it is some kind of undetectable hdd degradation?

If no test is detecting anything then I think you are safe, certainly safe enough to copy all the data off and try a clean install of Windows.