HRT

recently bought an old stock LG laptop quite cheaply.

It was previously a high end model that did not sell because of its high price and they were oferring them at 300 euros. Although it was running Vista I grabbed the chance due to its highish spec

2.8ghz and 4gb ram as plus many other features.

However over the past few days I continually receive 'not responding' messages and it locks up. The only way to get it going again is to force it off and start again. It then might be okay for a day and sometimes it freezes on teh first application that I open. Today it has done it several times while browsing and even using Word, with no other applications open.

I have done the usual disk clean and defragment, but am stuck as to what to do next.

Need help as the missus is completing a Uni essay and lets just say that I am in the firing line each time it freezes.

Any ideas would be welcome. Replacing Vista with Windows 7 is an option, but obviously wnat to make sure that it is not a hardware or software conflict issue first.

Thanks

birchy2010

iTrader: (12)

Any noises when it stops? HD failure with disc crash is most common if it freezes dead, if you still have mouse responce could just be corrupt windows, 7 on a new HD would cure any software and disc related issue, only other symptom could be if its over heating, if when it goes off you go into BIOS (F2 on boot IIRC you can see stats and temps) which might indicate a problem.
hope that helps.

HRT

No noises. Just come up Not responding. sometimes the mouse continues working and you can use other applications, but even going into Task Manager you cannot close the non responding program. Sometimes it freezes totally and only way to get it back is to switch it off.

I will try viewing the info in BIOS and see what it shows. thanks

HRT

No noises. Just come up Not responding. sometimes the mouse continues working and you can use other applications, but even going into Task Manager you cannot close the non responding program. Sometimes it freezes totally and only way to get it back is to switch it off.

I will try viewing the info in BIOS and see what it shows. thanks

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Like with any new computer you should check teh RAM:

Download these two programs and install them on a bootable CD/flash drive and ensure they give a clean bill of health before even thinking about using a new computer : http://www.memtest.org/ or http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp

Do a full (extended) test and leave it run overnight (power connected)

Any errors, its a duffer (or at least one of the ram chips is).

HRT

I will try this tonight. Yesterday I downloaded Advanced System Care and since running this it has been fine (so far).

However I am confused with the amount of ram that I have. I have 2 x 2 GB, but on the Task Manager it shows Physical Memory Total 3065, Cached 1893 and free 59 and under Memory 1.38GB.

Also under ASC Utilities Smart Ram, it shows Free Physical 1650 of 3065, Free Page File 4708 of 6332MB.

Yet under Control Panel/System it shows 4GB. So is it 4GB or 3GB?

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

One or both of two things;

Most likely its a32bit version of vista. You need 64bit to address all the RAM

Second possible but much less likely issue (nowadays) is the Northbridge controller can only handle 32bit addressing (even though you have a 64bit CPU). Prime curlprit is the Intel 945p chipset. Its pretty outdated now, so unless its a really "new/old stock" sub-spec laptop, I doubt its this.

HRT

Hi

It is a 32 bit version of Vista. Why sell as 4GB Ram and then install an OS that cannot handle it??

Thanks. It seems to be running fine now. Will se how it goes over the next week.

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Don't ask...It started off as basically software/driver manufacturers dragging their heels with making proper x64 compatible software and drivers. Thing is, they've had well over five years to sort this for once and for all.

Today, there is no reason why an OEM computer manufacturer should supply their computers with 32bit. But many still do.

We've had 64bit computers for over 5 years now, and Windows has been 64bit capeable since XP (although XP 64bit was rubbish). Sadly its just the industry having its head stuck up its **** and not moving with the times (well, we still have a BIOS coding that dates back to the 1979, so its hardly suprising)

I've been using x64 bit operating systems on all of my new systems since 2006.

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

There are probably some tweeks you can done to release a few more meg, but it'll be pretty trivial and not worth the effort. You may hear something about "enabling PAE mode". This however should aready be enabled in Vista, as its used as part of those annoying "windows needs your permssion to run this program" pop ups.

I probably should explain a little more: Being a laptop, its probably sharing the RAM with the video card. So if your video card uses 512meg, then thats 512meg less for your system. This along with various other devices hogging the addresses that would otherwise be allocated to the RAM, this can be up to 512meg too (PCI bus, LAN controllers, sound card etc).

Basically its like having a street with 150 houses, but only 99 physical adresses to post mail to because the mailing system can only handle two digit numbers. Thats pretty much the issue. The maximum hex number 32bits can address is: FFFFFFFF, which in decimal integer is 4,294,967,295. Problem is the hardware and OSs need at least 500million of those addresss numbers for it own purposes.

So you have roughly 4billion houses, but only 3.5billion addresses to post to.

HRT

Thanks for the detailed info. I was used to working for a large bank, so whenever I had computer issues I just dropped it off with the IT guys and it was fixed. i was never interested in the why or how. Now though I work for a small company and sadly we have no IT dept, so any problems I now have are my own to fix. So despite using them since school and on a daily basis when I started work in 1988, I have never shown an interest in them. Have 20 years or so of catching up to do!

The graphics card is a NVidia 9600GT I think and yes it does say 512MB. I thought it meant it had its own dedicated RAM. I now see why its shows 1600mb or so being used just for the laptop to be on. Windows 7 64 bit looks more and more appealing.

Thanks again.