Random Vista lockups

[Mike]

Good day.

I have an HP dv9000 laptop running Vista premium SP1. Both before and after
installation of the service pack I have been getting occasional complete
lockups, with the mouse, and keyboard both inactive and the disk access
light off. The only way out is the power button.

The system is about six months old, has no malware on it, has the latest
BIOS installed and passes memtest. I have turned off folder indexing,
updated all drivers from the manufacturer and, except for this issue, the
system runs well and fast.

The lockups might occur once every couple of weeks --- usually, but not
always, when surfing. I have not been able to reproduce the problem and it
does appear to be truly random.

Does anyone have any ideas what I might try next. The only other thing that
happens is that when press the slash key I get his character: é or this one
in upper case: É. My keyboard is set to English.

Mike

 

[Rick Rogers]

Hi Mike,

Could be a minor hardware fault, memory, cpu, psu, or bad cap on the
motherboard. Could also be an overheating condition, something that is not
uncommon in laptops. making sure vents are kept clear is important. Might
also want to try one of the many available laptop coolers.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com

 

[Mike]

Thanks to all who answered.

I am pretty sure that this is not an overheating problem since SpeedFan
reports my temperature consistently at 35 to 45 and my core at 45 to 55
Celsius.

I am running Norton 360, and Spybot S&D in resident mode.

Mike

 

[Mike]

Thanks for the advice, Bob.

Before I uninstall Norton (which I rather like), can you direct me to the
source citing the existence the potential problems to which you refer? I am
only asking because I have just started my one-year subscription and would
hate to waste the money unnecessarily. It will also be a lot of work to do
the uninstall, and I wouldn't have some of the other features of Norton 360
that I like.

I really do appreciate your advice but would like to look a little further
before I take action.

Thanks

Mike

 

[David P.]

It's unlikely that you will find documentation of the EXACT kind of problem
you are having. It is common that the advice given is speculative in
nature, on newsgroups and websites like this. It doesn't mean that the
advice is necessarily wrong or ill-advised, but you take it at your own
risk. Norton is often blamed for problems and often there is no hard
evidence to back up the contention. Just like complaints about Vista
itself, I guess.