Laptop Freezes

[imported_DarkPath]

Hey, new to the forums here and I'm hoping someone out there might be able to help me with this.

I got a new laptop from ABS PC around two months ago and it's been hanging every so often. The model was ABS's zForce F2 which is actually an AOpen 1557G laptop. Specs are as follows:

Intel Pentium-M 1.7GHz, Banias core
1GB of DDR RAM from Kingston
ATi Radeon 9600 64MB
60GB 7200RPM Hitachi HDD
2.4x DVD+RW
Intel 2200BG Wireless mini-PCI
Windows XP Pro, SP1a

If anyone needs other specs, just ask.
*edit* Tell you what, here's AOpen's page with all the hardware specs, lol. Link

Now, as for the problem itself, the notebook will freeze every so often. By freeze I mean the keyboard, touchpad, USB mouse (if I have that connected), NOTHING will respond and I have to hold down the power button to force it to shut down. The screen stays as it is and all sound stops. I don't believe the problem is a program because I've had it freeze without running anything... just browsing through the harddrive. I believe the problem may have something to do with the power management and/or CPU scaling. The notebook will usually freeze on battery but just recently (10 minutes ago ) it froze while plugged into the wall... but the CPU at the time was scaled down to 768MHz or so because I had the power management set to the "Portable/Laptop" scheme. After I changed the scheme to "Always On", the CPU scaled back up to 1.7GHz and I've been running SiSoft Sandra's CPU and Memory burn-in's to see of that's the problem. Hasn't frozen yet and I'm on the 7th run through of the tests. For reference, the power scheme was set to "Home/Office Desk" most of the time and, I think, most of the time it's been freezing. On that power scheme, while plugged in, the processor is at 1.7GHz and scales only when unplugged. While I had the home/office desk scheme on, the notebook froze ONLY while on battery.

So there you have it. Apparently, every time my laptop's frozen, the CPU's been scaled down. I can't 100% confirm that, but for the moment that seems to be all I have to go on. Now, if the CPU scaling is the problem, then what can I do to fix it? Send in for a new processor? Any ideas, suggestions, just any kind of help would be appreciated!

 

[InlineFive]

If your laptop is only two months old the first thing I would do is see if you can get ABS to do something about it. The are NewEggs parent company after all and should be pretty helpful. And you could also try flashing the BIOS again.

 

[imported_DarkPath]

I'd prefer not to have to call tech support over this, but I may end up doing that. There's a BIOS update, but I've got no idea how to actually update the BIOS since the laptop doesn't have a floppy drive... I could burn the BIOS update onto a CD, but I don't know how to go about making the CD bootable so I could run the BIOS update.

 

[InlineFive]

I think this problem merits tech support and a possible RMA. Their support is all based in California so you shouldn't have too much of a problem understanding their accent.