Asus laptop problem

stulaunch

Hope somebody can help on this one.

Got a 6 month old laptop which is still under warranty.

Has been fine, but yesterday it was taking ages to start up, and then freezing randomly with programs not responding often.

I decided to use my backup disks to restore system drive, something I've done before without a problem. It restarted but a few minutes later had similar problems, seems after starting to install updates, freezes for long periods, sometimes on restart asks me to do diagnostic checks.
Tried loading fresh copy of window 7 but then the 1st lot of updates failed when restating.

I've not touched my data partition whilst doing these.

Does it sound like a hardware problem? Don't know what else to try?

jayme1

first thing to do is get an external hard drive or some blank DVDs or a thumb drive and backup all your personal data that you have on the computer, hell upload them to somewhere like dropbox or skydrive if you have to.

as for the problem your computer could be overheating, does it get very hot? how are you using it? ie on your lap or on a bed or couch?
if it is overheating is it because the fan outlets are obstructed? I have no idea if opening the laptop to clean the inside will void your warranty.

robmar0se

Sounds like a hardware problem to me. Obviously you want to confirm this and get your supplier to fix.

I would check a couple of things - (i) can you do a chckdsk /r (via the command prompt)? (ii) can you run memtest to check the RAM - http://www.memtest86.com/download.html - I'd put my money on the latter from what you have said.

These two checks will help with intermittant probs - it could also be the PSU but difficult to check without a replacement to see if it happens with another (psu checkers can't tell you if it is a "draw" problem),

stulaunch

Cheers robmar0se, I'll have a look at those tests tonight, not sure really what to do but I'll have a look.

Another thing, Laptop came with 3 gig of ram, which I increased to 4gig when I first got it. Will I need to change it back before sending it back? I still have original ram.

jayme1

stulaunch wrote: »

Another thing, Laptop came with 3 gig of ram, which I increased to 4gig when I first got it. Will I need to change it back before sending it back? I still have original ram.

I would yes.

stulaunch

Burned a copy of memtest, rebooted, memtest screen was up, left it running overnight but nothing happened it was still on 0 tests.
Must be doing something wrong?

stulaunch

Well I managed to run memtest86 last night, it ran 13 passes, but no errors.
I was sure it was a memory fault.

Any other ways of testing for hardware problems.

Laptop is running but taking ages to do anything, I'm in process of running updates for windows, some are installing eventually but then some are failing after reboot.

I would like to make sure its a hardware problem before returning Laptop.

GunJack

run it from a bootdisk, either hiren's bootcd or puppy linux. This will give you a good idea if it's hw or sw-related. Download either's .ISO image and burn the image to a cd using nero or imgburn (not all burning progs can burn an image to disk, these can), then pop it in the cd drive and reboot the lappy, ensuring you've set it to boot from cd drive first

robmar0se

Have you done a chkdsk /r? If not bootup either normal or safe mode, and start the command prompt, type chkdsk c:/r -
yes to the following question, then exit, and reboot, When it starts it should start checking/repairing the hard drive - if not then redo the previous procedure and try again - it should work.

You should see any errors it fixes as it goes through, at the end have a look at the bad sectors number - if its gretaer than 0 your hard drive is probably on the way out (sometimes it can be fixed with manufacturers' hdd progs, but then again sometimes only temporarily).

If okay, the next things to look at are first the psu and then the graphics (assuming you have a separate card). As a previous poster said the cpu may need re-seating, but then again you should then see a high temp in the BIOS info. Unlikely to be a cpu issue as it is so new, but then again it is a remote possibility.

Good luck

stulaunch

Thanks Robmar0se,Just running chkdsk now.
Its on stage 4 usn journal verification file data and its replacing lots of bad clusters in various \windows files

Is that a help?

robmar0se

Sounds like it is the hdd at fault..see whar it says at the end - whether it is able to repair all, or whether you have bad sectors.

If no bad sectors do a sfc /scannow in the command prmpt to repair/replace any damaged/missing files.

If you are unlucky, then it is a new hdd - you could fuff around trying to use the manufacturer's hdd utility, but usually it is not successful (for long).

In the latter case back up yr data, and get yr cd/dvds ready for a re-install.

Sorry, I forgot its only 6 months old: backup the data and print out the evidence of the bad sectors and take it to your retailer.