HP Pavilion 524w's hang ups/lock ups.

[Guest pavilion.524w@gmail.com]

 

 

Will be much indebted if a good techie/soul could give me useful

insights as to these endless hang ups/lock ups from my HP Pavilion

524w ... because I just can't function; PC is my CentCom.  Believe or

not, have been putting up with this crap for nearly three (3) months

now.  Argh! 

 

 

SYMPTOMS 

 

» The first sign of future hang ups --though these may still be hours

ahead-- is that after each boot up, the mouse pointer is jerky the

very first time one moves it.  It jumps anywhere from 1/4" to 2" or so

from its initial position (from wherever it landed after boot up) to

whatever direction I'm pointing it to.  Note it only does this one

time initially at the beginning of the session until the next boot

up.  From then onwards during any given session, the mouse is as

smooth as expected at all times.  This behavior occurs regardless of

the mouse used, either a Microsoft PS3 or a Microsoft wireless USB. 

 

» Freezings occur when using any software that needs to scan.  The

worst are antivirus online scanning but lock ups also ocurr when

copying large files say, above, 50 MBs. 

 

» Just as successful in freezing the machine is any software that

gets in the registry, such as various either online or installed

cleaning utilities.  Microsoft's Malicious Software Removal Tool sure

does it, for example. 

 

» Anything that uses ActiveX and/or web-rize bloated sites with Flash

this, Schockwave that, etc., like Huffington Post or eBay, for

example, can easily cause lock ups. 

 

» When lock ups get bad enough, sometimes there are checksum errors

on boot up in which case the default BIOS configuration is reloaded. 

 

» After repeated and increasing crashes, the behavior of disk

scanning when rebooting changes even in this semi-DOS environment. 

This is when running disk scanning from Start -> Run -> chkdsk c: /f

-- the bootup drive on the primary master, and chkdsk e: /f --a

logical drive on the same HD.  First one gets the standard full 10

seconds to escape if one wants, then suddenly it starts giving me only

5 sec., then ... no option to escape no matter how much the [Esc] key

is tapped on.  The text allowing the user to escape is dropped

altogether, gone, and repeatedly pressing the [Esc] key doesn't abort

it. 

 

» After repeated and increasing crashes, another example of changes

of behaviors is the sequencing of these check disks pass the BIOS

screen and about the time Windows itself begins to load. 

 

» The only way out from these hang ups is to turn the machine off,

patiently wait for a minute, then restart it.  After repeated and

increasing crashes, another example of changing processes is that the

machine restarting by itself, anywhere from a couple to 10 secs, to 30

to 40 secs later than powering it off.  When it happens repeatedly,

the only way to stop it from restarting all alone is power it off

after the lock up, then quickly unplug the power cord from the surge

protector.  My new power supply doesn't have an on/off button. 

 

» For short periods of time, PROBLEMS SEEM NON-EXISTENT (i.e.,

machine seemingly works regularly, even flies) after re-installing XP

Pro, which I have done twice already.  Soon enough, anywhere from 5

hrs to as much as 30 hrs later, freezings begin to ocurr and, from

that point onwards, things get worse at an increasing rate.  It is not

only the frequency of lock ups, but also how bad the machine

crashes. 

 

» ONE THING MAYBE POINTING TO THE ROOT OF THE PROBLEM IS FOOLING

AROUND WITH THE MEMORY MODULES though, by now, don't think it's got

anything to do w/ the modules themselves.  About 3 1/2 yrs ago

replaced the original 256 MB single module with 2 x 1 GB modules, also

PC2100 ... and this puppy took off, literally, right there and then. 

Modules worked fine ever since. 

 

» THE LAST OTHER THING MAYBE ... is fresh Win XP reinstalls.  See

also possible solutions below. 

 

» But the one telling bitty, every time around, is that jerky mouse

only at the beginning of each session until, in time, hang ups begin

all over again. 

 

   

BIT OF HARDWARE BACKGROUND 

 

» For reference, about a couple of months problems started,

successfully changed the power supply from the original paltry 200

watts to some 350 W, may a tad more, and the heatsink/fan cooler

assembly. 

 

» Moreover, when the lock ups first began, the original 57 GB Samsung

SV0602H hard disk drive was only reading and writing at half its specs

but, even then, appreciated HP putting in there.  It would simply not

quit, allowing more than enough time to research and get a

replacement. Equally importantly, it also allowed me to save all my

data intact on a logical drive on my current HD, a 115 GB Maxtor

6L120P0. 

 

Is it possible that not replacing it right away could have caused

these lock ups (or spoiled something at a very low level or upstream,

if you will)?  Because the state of the old hard disk was so bad, at

the time I blamed it all to the drive.  It never occurred to me that,

simultaneously, the lock ups were due to something else. 

 

   

POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS?/Other already tried ... 

 

The following 2 bullet points should narrow down whereabouts the

problem is but I'm unable to pin it down myself since I'm no techie; 

 

» First, whenever re-installing Win XP anew, things go very smoothly

for a a while. 

 

» Second, fooling around with the memory modules is another that

seems to take good care of things.  For a while, PC can't run any

better.  From about 2 1/2 months ago trying to narrow down these hang

ups, lately I pulled out the modules and then put them back in place. 

Also tried swapping them around, or taking of one or another and

leaving the other memory bank empty.  Just to make sure these two (2)

1 GB PC2100 were not the problem, replaced them both with the one

original HP 256 MB module.  Every time I fooled around with the

memory, the machine behaved as if there no problems at all, again even

flies, but only holds anywhere from 5 hrs to as much as 30 hrs.  All

three (3) modules passed Microsoft's Windows Memory Diagnostic test

tool with flying colors.  In the off the wall case problesh have

anything to do with memory timming specs differences, this week

changed to a new pair of 1 GB PC 3200 Samsung modules. 

 

 

OTHER SOFTWARE; 

 

» Already tried Microsoft's Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset. 

Problem is it relies on dump files it needs for analysis ... but my

system hasn't got any!  This is, when the machine hang ups, it just

hangs up, right there and then.  Have yet to see a single blue screen

of death.  Wish that was on the way down so, maybe, there'd be dump

archives around. 

 

» Independently, Dr. Watson informs me all is swimmingly well

whenever I run it. 

 

Machine was working fine indeed with old software when the lock ups

began.  Still, in the search for solutions updated some HP and VIA

software as follows (not being all inclusive here; there's a lot more

I have done); 

 

» The old BIOS was Phoenix Technologies version AM37307 but was

replaced with the package from HP and now is the AM37320 (08-01-23)

Phoenix Technologies.  When booting up it reads BIOS core revision

V6.0, BIOS revision 3.20 08/01/2003, system BIOS supplier: Award. 

The update no difference at all, not an iota, as to the freezings and

was sorry to run it because functionality to end users is even more

constrained than the old one.  For example, cannot turn off the video

shadowing. 

 

» Installed and run a couple of times the IDE Tool

VIA_IDE_MPD_V320b.zip found at; 

http://www.whitebunny.net/hardware/chipset_via.html/a>

leading to actual download page at; 

http://www.viaarena.com/default.aspx?PageID=420&OSID=1&CatID=1070/a>

Turns out that "retro" bit on the title is no mis-name.  Drivers were

older than a good many already in my system!  I guess it served to

prove that none of the newer drives I happen to have in my system --

via Microsoft updates beginning with XP SP2, I suppose-- were causing

the hang ups because ... they continued unabated.  Aargh!  Same

package can also be downloaded at; 

http://www.whitebunny.net/download?file=mbd_via_4in1_4.43v.zip/a>

the version recommended for my PC.  There is also a newer version

named mbd_via_4in1_4.55vp1.zip 

 

» Though my old Iomega ZIP 250 drive (still there for legacy

compatibility) has been disconnected for a good many months given all

these problems, I installed the VIA Latency Patch

mbd_via_ide_3.20b.zip listed at; 

http://www.whitebunny.net/download?file=mbd_via_ide_3.20b.zip/a>

You know the drill by now.  Made no difference ... 

 

» The last update package to be installed was the VIA Hyperion Pro

Driver Package via_hyperionpro_v515a.zip downloaded from; 

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=bph07941&lc=en&cc=us&lang=en&product=296667&dlc=en/a>

including picture and map from the motherboard, and more. 

 

If you kept reading this far down, bless your patience. 

 

 

H. 

 

Amsterdam 

Netherlands 

 

 

[Guest Malke]

Re: HP Pavilion 524w's hang ups/lock ups.

 

pavilion.524w@gmail.com wrote:

>

>

> Will be much indebted if a good techie/soul could give me useful

> insights as to these endless hang ups/lock ups from my HP Pavilion

> 524w ... because I just can't function; PC is my CentCom.  Believe or

> not, have been putting up with this crap for nearly three (3) months

> now.  Argh!

 

(snip the Great Dutch Novel) ;-)

 

I'm going to be very honest with you - there is no way I'm reading through

all that. It's just too long. I'm sure someone more patient than I will be

happy to go through it all. I did skim what you wrote. As for me:

 

New computer that doesn't work the way you describe = hardware issues,

probably the motherboard but it doesn't really matter. It's new. Return it

for replacement under warranty. End of story. No fooling around.

 

Malke

--

MS-MVP

Elephant Boy Computers

http://www.elephantboycomputers.com

Don't Panic!