I need help with a Laptop.

[varun706]

Hello all,
I've posted the same thread in the Systems Forum. I don't know which is more appropriate for the query I have. So, please bear with me.
I'm stuck in the process of troubleshooting my laptop which is a Lenovo Ideapad Z500.
The problem I'm having right now is the one I used to have about a year ago.

When I turn off my laptop,
The screen goes off.
But the LED on the power button remains lit.
The hard drive keeps spinning.
The CPU fan keeps spinning. It used to shut down completely after about 5 to 10 seconds. Now, though it goes on for a very long time.

So, I hold down the power button for 5 seconds to force shut it down. The next time I turn the laptop on, it takes ages to load completely. I use Windows 10 Home edition which is rough around the edges already. Coupled with the lag I get during start-up, it gets very frustrating to see that given my laptop's hardware how slow and non-responsive it becomes. Just this afternoon I ran CrystalDiskMark and my Sequential read was 16MB/s. That's really bad.

Once, when I entered my pin to login, it said that the user profile service couldn't be loaded and could sign me in.

This happened to me once before when I was using Windows 8.1. I now wonder whether my hard drive is going bad.
Should I go for an SSD? Should I check any other component in my laptop? I don't know and I would really appreciate the suggestions to my problem.

Thank You.

 

[naturesninja]

I recommend updating your BIOS to one compatible with windows 10 from Lenovo's website. Update appropriate hardware drivers for windows 10 as well from the same source. Check power profile settings as well.

 

[varun706]

Thank You naturesnunja for your suggestion.
I searched Lenovo's website for drivers for my laptop that work on Windows 10, there aren't any available. The one that is available is for Windows 8.1 and I had already installed the latest one. Should I download it again and try to install it? Will it damage my BIOS chip if I flash it with the same update?

There are no drivers on the Lenovo website. Even my laptop is not on their compatibility listing, still I have been using the laptop perfectly for the past month.

I checked this morning, the laptop takes around 4 mins to boot up completely. It takes 5mins 40secs to shut off completely. Other than those, all apps work as usual. I still think I should have my hard drive replaced. I'm already thinking of getting an SSD.
I keep my laptop in High performance mode almost all the time. I have disabled Hard drive power saver. Should I turn it on?
Again, Thank you for taking the time to suggest me something.

 

[DH1997]

Definitely sounds BIOS related though, you might want to check those settings.

 

[naturesninja]

If you've been having no problems running W10, that doesn't entirely surprise me, as I have actually went back to a 8.1 BIOS on one of my laptops running windows 10 and it's been more stable even using W10 hardware drivers. You may want to check with WD or Seagate, etc... (whomever makes your HDD to see if they have a driver specific for your model for windows 10). Your 16MB/s tests do show worrisome results, and I would recommend backing up your important files you have on your HDD, before attempting to transfer the whole OS onto a new disk. At the same time I have run into issues with super low read/write speeds that were either resolved with a driver change or setting the hdd mode in the BIOS to AHCI from IDE after changing it first in Windows Registry. I can't say whether this is your case or not, but definitely recommend backing up your important stuff first before transferring everything onto an SSD, since your HDD will be running full load and may decide to break down during that time.

SSD's are awesome, and you won't hear me trying to talk you out of one. I know Samsung has the majority share in this department, and I use them too. I have also had success with PNY's CS2111, that gives me a higher read speed in exchange for a slightly lower write speed over the Evo 850's, but cannot comment on long term reliability as they are fairly new drives.

One last thing to try is if you have a HDD caddy and another computer, is to remove your HDD from your laptop and test it in the caddy hooked up to another computer (USB 2.0 should allow up to about 35MB/s if 3.0 isn't available). If it's speeds are higher than your previous results, it seems like it could very well be a BIOS/driver related issue with your laptop. If not, well... sounds like an SSD might be a good option. But with 5 minute boots and shutdowns, an SSD sounds good anyways. Either way, good luck to you Varun!

 

[varun706]

I have five BSOD's in the past two days. It says "CRITICAL_PROCESS_DIED". I'm now considering faulty RAM. I shall do a thorough memtest and get back to you.

 

[varun706]

I checked the BIOS, the hard drive is in AHCI mode. There's no new firmware or any driver to download.

I did check the event viewer though. It said that the Nvidia Driver Helper was degrading the boot time. I installed the previous version of the Nvidia driver but it didn't help much.

I guess I should check plugging my hard drive to another computer and check if problem persists.

One more thing is that the UAC keeps notifying when I open an application, I usually keep that in Never Notify state. That's why I thought that my RAM's developing some fault. I shall perform memtest overnight and keep you updated. Thank You guys for helping. I have taken up this matter in this very forum before but there weren't any replies.
Again, Thank You.

 

[varun706]

I just discovered that the hard drive is connected to a SATA rev.2 port. And I don't think there's a SATA3 port in the laptop. So, considering that Should I go for the SSD or not?

 

[naturesninja]

If you're sure it's only SATA II you can still go the SSD route, but you'll be limited to about just under 300MB/s rate. So, SSDs that are rated higher than that won't be fully realized. That may help with your pocketbook though. Crucial shows their line of SSD's being compatible with your laptop (they also state yours is SATA 3 though), so I imagine a BIOS update was not needed to run an SSD as I have seen some not work as boot drives due to the manufacture not having mobo compatibility or a BIOS update available.

I would recommend the Sandisk PLUS or z400 as decent budget SSDs with read/write speeds around SATA II max throughput. The Kingston V300 is okay too, I just don't personally support them for recent fishy activity. You may want to look into Seagate's hybrid drives as well, they are pretty good in my experience and can be had for $55-80 for .5-1TB options if you need good storage space. They should get you to near SSD boot times after using for a little bit.

This article I came across looking to confirm your SATA II finding describes a SSD swap into a z500 where the gentleman's boot time went from the same 4-5 minutes you were describing down to around 30 seconds: http://www.gadgetcatch.com/lenovo-z500-ssd-upgrade/ So, even at SATA II you'll likely be pretty happy.

As for the Critical process died, that is usually an indication (not always) of hardware failure, so running the memtest is a good idea. If it shows you're good to go, HDD is likely on it's way out, and I'd slap that baby on something cold while backing up your important files to be safe since you've been getting BSOD's. I wish you luck!

Edit: Nice Triskelion BTW!

 

[varun706]

I have two good news.
1. There's absolutely no fault in my RAM. Did 4 passes all evening, nothing came up.
2. I used HWinfo32 or so app and found that my SATA port is capable of doing 6Gb/s.

Another thing is I usually remove all application start-ups that do not concern with any device on the laptop. The laptop takes 4mins to load up completely. But, when it does load up, it works in a normal fashion. The drive speeds hover around 30MB/s during file transfers. All the games,applications load up properly albeit slowly.
There hasn't been any loss of my data as of yet. I still do not get why the UAC which usually retains my preferences, ask me when I open up an app.

I'm going for the Samsung 850 EVO as it is the only reputable one I get here and is reasonably priced. I was thinking of maybe doing a clean install of Windows on the SSD. Is there anything I should keep an eye out for? I mean, I upgraded onto Windows 10 Tech Preview and then installed Windows 10. I have the registered key for Windows 10 which I found using BelArc System Software. Will that be enough to install Windows as I cannot purchase a separate copy of Windows. I know I can clone the Windows I'm having now but I'd rather go the clean route. What do you say?

Oh and Thank You that's the Razer logo.

 

[naturesninja]

I would definitely go the clean route to avoid old drivers and programs cluttering your registry and possibly causing conflicting errors. I would have your laptop drivers on hand on a separate usb from the OS for at least your network devices just in case. You may or may not want to change your Windows sync settings before you start so it doesn't start automatically putting stuff on your fresh install you don't want. If you don't have the media on hand: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10 You may not need the key as it's supposed to be tied to your motherboard, I can't say absolutely for sure as one of my computers prompted me for it after a clean install, and the others did not. I would also test your boot device order first, to make sure you'll be able to boot from usb or a dvd without any issues so you won't waste your time finding out you put the Windows 10 media on a usb only to find out it won't boot from it.

 

[varun706]

Hello all,

This post is just to update the situation of my laptop and to serve as a solution to others who might have the same/similar problems.

I uninstalled the Bluetooth driver, apparently the Bluetooth module on a Lenovo Ideapad Z500 is buggy and causes the problems found in the above posts.

I sincerely thank naturesninja for all their support and inputs which helped me solve my issue.