problems with my Optimus II freezing

[JaceDragal]

I've had this laptop for about 9 months now and not had any problems with it till last week. Last week while browsing the internet the browser just froze for about 10 seconds. At first I thought it was just a one off but then it started happening every few seconds.

I thought it was a problem with firefox at first but it happens on google chrome and IE. However this is no longer restricted to my web browser. Windows Explorer, VLC player and windows media player all keep crashing whenever i do anything with them. My system usually seems ok for the first half an hour after i turn it on but will end up causing me problems later.

I have tried running a virus scan but Bitdefender keeps crashing before it can finish.

This is getting frustrating and i have run out of idea's on how to deal with this, so any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[marsim]

Hi JaceDragal,

First thing is to determine if it's a hardware or software problem.

As it only started happening last week, you could try a system restore to roll it back to a point in time before then, this will rule out any Windows updates or other bits of software that may have changed since then.

After that, I'd try a Live Linux disc, Ubuntu is probably easiest. Boot from that and just use it for a while and see if the system freezes in a similar way to before... if it does freeze under linux then it's a hardware issue.

To diagnose a hardware issue there are a bunch of tools to test different parts of the system:
memtest for the memory
prime95 to test the CPUs (this will stress test it and put it under load, ensuring it's not flawed somewhere)
SpeedFan will help you tell if your laptop is overheating
DiskCheckup - or similar will give you a quick indication if you're hard drive is failing SMART tests (run the Disk Self Test option)

That's a start anyway, a bunch of these tools or similar ones are available on UBCD (ultimate boot CD)