Laptop Freezing Pattern

[upd@te]

Hello Tomshardware,

I am experiencing a somewhat freezing pattern with my new toshiba laptop. its a satellite, i7-2630qm, gt540m nvidia gfx card...etc

it is just almost 4 months old now. all drivers are up to date..etc

but my problem is..and its quite annoying, it freezes around 1-2 times a month. In the first month of its purchase, considering that there were lots of updates and changes, it froze around 5 times that first month. Ever since it froze only 1-2 the following months. The freezes are always after logging in. It shows my desktop then even after around 3 minutes, I cant click anything..the UI just freezes, I cant even to control+alt+delete...then, I just reluctantly press the power button every time. (90% freeze showing desktop, 10% freeze sometimes just stuck on the welcome screen where the windows 7 cursor spins around while loading).

Is this normal? Im a bit upset since its a pretty expensive laptop..Lots of my friends/tech salespersons/even college computer professors, safe that its normal and it does happen to them too. they say ''coz its windows''... Is this true? Is there no reason behind that?

Thank you

 

[lunyone]

Well it could be just "Windows". If you don't mind, you could back up your data and do a fresh install of the OS (without all of the bloatware, if possible). This would possibly alleviate any possible conflict that happens during your boot-up into Windows. Not sure this helps you any, but that is what I'd do. This would at least let you know if there is some other program (that you didn't install) was intermittently holding up your boot sequence.

 

[upd@te]

Yeah Im really not sure. Freezing is not uncommon for me on my past family desktops/laptops, though this is the first time it actually got annoying. The past freezing (on previous computers) were usually a result of low memory due to the number of opened windows, but Im quite surprised since this is a new laptop with a HUGE i7 quad core processor...however, I do think its maybe my RAM. its only 4gb...I heard/read that an i7 needs 6gb of RAM to fully utilize its speed. I dont know..also I have kaspersky antivirus..if you need the information.

About doing a fresh install, I dont think I can afford to waste my time doing that, cause Ive read forums with people STILL experiencing freezes even after the fresh install. Although my situation could be different, I dont wanna risk doing something that would not prevent the freezing.

Thanks for your advice! But I'd like to know, have you experienced freezing before and has it happened to you that you have to just turn off the power?

Thanks again!!

 

[lunyone]

I don't recall having "freezing" during boot ups from any of my systems (>20 in all). The only time I remember having boot up issues was with a laptop that the HD was going out. I ended up getting a new HD and no more boot up issues. Not sure if that helps, but it's some more information for you.

** Edit ** I tend to reformat my systems about every 6-12 months (depending on whose system I'm doing it on). This cleans up crap that the system gets bogged down with and also forces me to back up my data on a semi-regular basis.