Laptop freezes and makes buzzing noise while watching movie with full screen

[Chitaranjan Thoudam]

I have read many similar threads in this forum and done some steps already but I still have this issue, so wanted to explore more options.

My laptop is Sony Vaio VPCCW17FX model, you can see the configuration details in this link. It is about 4 years old, I have tried the below,

Upgrading RAM to 8GB
Cleaning FAN
Formatting and re-installing everything
Ran cleanups and systems checks provided by Sony and Microsoft but no findings.
Ran prime95 and furmark for CMU & GPU test, all gets pass

Please advice if I have to check any other portion or software?

 

[Boogieman_WD]

Hey there, Chitaranjan Thoudam.

Have you checked the HDD in any way? I'd recommend that you backup your important data, just in case. After that go ahead and download the HDD manufacturer's diagnostic tool (or a 3rd party diagnostic tool if the manufacturer doesn't offer one), so that you can test the drive and see if any errors or bad sectors pop-up.

You could take a look at this article for HDD diagnostic tool options: http://pcsupport.about.com/od/toolsofthetrade/tp/tophddiag.htm

Please let me know what are the results of the test.
Boogieman_WD

 

[Chitaranjan Thoudam]

My HDD is toshiba, since I could not find the toshiba diagnostic tool I tested with Seagate SeaTools. Short DST was passed and long was failed with 2 errors. It says "failed in important diagnostic test, possibly caused by problem sectors which are difficult to read". I couldn't get the log filed saved in my system due to the " Error reading from drive A: DOS area: sector not found".

Please let me know if you have any suggestion, I don't mind changing HDD but my worry is whether the issue will be resolved or not, so wanted to find out what is actually wrong. Shaould I consider running the CPU & GPU test again?

 

[Boogieman_WD]

If this is the case, then it really seems like the drive might be at fault here. If it has bad sectors or other errors, freezes like these are a pretty common thing when you run games from that HDD, watch movies etc. You could still try a 3rd party diagnostic tool just for good measure.
As I've mentioned in my previous post, you should backup everything if you haven't done that already. If your drive has bad sectors, it would be best if you can get a new one and replace yours. When bad sectors start to occur, this will continue until the drive eventually dies. Unfortunately it is not possible to know when this is going to happen - it could be days, week, months or even a couple of years before it completely dies. The bottom line is that a hard drive with bad sectors should not be trusted with important data.

 

[Chitaranjan Thoudam]

I agree, I am experiencing this from past one year and 5 yrs life for HDD is long enough I guess. I have already taken complete backup and kept it from some time.

Just to add, freeze normally don't occur when I browse or using office or Photoshop, very rarely happens. But watching movie from HDD or online is the worst, it will happen so often these days.

As you suggested, I am going run one more test and if I find the error then I will replace it. I haven't done HDD replacement either and I am planning to buy this http://amzn.com/B00N1S46SA and going to clone the HDD which seems much easier when I do some research.

And I really don't know which HDD to choose, I don't want to spend lot of money as well because my laptop is 5 years now, thinking about one from the below two, suggest if you have any input. thanks

http://amzn.com/B00ISKS416
http://amzn.com/B0091HZMRY

 

[Boogieman_WD]

Well, I'm a Western Digital representative, so unfortunately, I can't really commend the differences between those two HDDs. However I'd say that even if your laptop is a bit old, depending on your storage capacity needs, it wouldn't hurt to get a 1TB drive instead of a 500GB if it fits your budget and you plan on keep using this computer. At the end of it all, the HDD you're going to choose depends mainly on your personal preference when it comes to its brand and what you want from your drive in terms of storage capacity and RPM.

As for cloning your system, here's a link which might prove useful when you get to that: http://www.howtogeek.com/199068/how-to-upgrade-your-existing-hard-drive-in-under-an-hour/

Cheers.

 

[Chitaranjan Thoudam]

I have replaced the HDD but sadly issue continues. I just checked the CPU usage immediately after freeze stops and I saw at 100% and physical memory at about 40%. Any idea I should do next?

 

[Chitaranjan Thoudam]

I ran prime95 again giving more on FFT, during this process CPU was always at 100% but did not freeze, this make me my head scratch, please advice.

 

[Boogieman_WD]

This is very odd having in mind you've done a ton of things and nothing seems to work. When you've mentioned that you've upgraded your RAM to 8GB, did you replace your old RAM stick/s or did you just add a new one/s?
I know you said you've run systems checks, but I'd recommend that you update your anti-virus program's database and run a full scan to see if it finds any threats.
If nothing works, then I'm afraid you might have to bring your laptop to a service shop to see if the technicians can find out what's the issue.

 

[Chitaranjan Thoudam]

For the RAM, I have purchased the two new sticks (4GB each) and replaced the old ones (2GB each). I have Kasperky antivirus, I will try re-installing.

One more think I noticed was "system interrupts" was on average of 4.3 when I have movie streaming is on but looks pretty low as 0.8 when I close the streaming. Something is not right I guess

 

[Chitaranjan Thoudam]

I tried removing few software but didn't help, so done factory reset yesterday. I have been watching couple of movies after that and so far no freeze. I am going to keep an eye on any installations or updates, may be one by one and test, it will be tedious but I think this may be the way I can get rid off this.

 

[Boogieman_WD]

Having in mind everything else you've tried, I guess that this is the way to do this in order to be able to isolate the problem and figure out what is causing it. If you are having no issues as of now, it really sounds like it might have been due to a software issue. Nonetheless the important thing is that you're not experiencing this issue anymore.
Please keep me posted if you manage to figure it out, I'm really curious about what could've caused this.