Windows 8 gremlins

[GMan]

Best buy seemed to think that the reason my computer was crashing was due to an optical drive failure. It apparently didn't work (although I haven't had any problems in Windows 7 since getting it fixed).

Impossible theory on their part. I don't want to put down a company or its hard workers, so I'll simply say that they tell customers things they want to hear. A faulty optical drive will not stop error a machine. The worst that would happen is the drive doesn't read discs.

 

[freelancer91]

I spoke too soon. I just went over the check on my laptop and it was frozen. Back to square 1.

When you say frozen - do you mean permanently until a reboot or frozen for only a few seconds or a minute?

Something that can not hurt and only help: Open an elevated (ran as admin) command prompt. Type this and press enter: chkdsk /r

Then follow the simple instructions on screen.

Edit: Good stuff fafhrd. The system won't allow me to rep ya again. heh

When I say frozen, I mean that whatever was on the screen when it froze is stuck there until I reboot. If sound was playing, then whatever happened to be coming out of the speaker at the moment it froze will continue to play, resulting in a very annoying glitchy type roar (if that makes any sense). The only thing that responds when it has frozen is if I had the keyboard backlight set to light up when a key is pressed, it will react. Other than that, it will stay frozen in perpetuity until the device is reset by holding the power button.

As for chkdsk /r, I can try it, but I have already run Dell's desk error checking program as part or several extensive diagnostics that I have already run.

 

[nbulp]

Too bad it froze again

About overheating... I have both W7 and W8 on the computer. It works on W7, but freezes on W8. It must be something else (I've also tried apps that place heavy load on the CPU and the GPU and I've gotten very high temperatures, without problems).

By the way: I just saw that there was a new GPU driver on Windows Update (released just a couple of days ago).

 

[GMan]

Did you check for a minidump folder in C:\Windows

Maybe it made one and did not reboot because you set it not to, like zigzag's post said.

 

[nbulp]

Crap. Mine just froze too :-\

 

[freelancer91]

I'm running chkdsk but it's taking its time. It has been on 27% for the last half hour or so. It hasn't frozen yet because the animation is still playing...

 

[nbulp]

28 % yet?

 

[freelancer91]

OK, I walked away from the laptop for a while and when I came back, I was at my lock screen. No indication that anything went wrong so I guess we can rule out a disk problem.

 

[nbulp]

I wonder if it would freeze (while being actively used) in safe mode... and if it will ever freeze if just left alone, without use.

 

[freelancer91]

I'll try it in safe mode. If it freezes then, I've got problems...

Secretly, I'm hoping that it is a hardware issue, because if I can convince Best Buy that it is a deep hardware issue (something with the motherboard, CPU, etc) then I will get my device replaced with a newer model with similar specs....

 

[nbulp]

I bought mine in 2008-09 or so, so I'm out of luck on the warranty department

I'm hoping it's something simple, like the touchpad driver...

 

[fafhrd]

You see, right now, my laptop is only crashing in Windows 8. Overheating, if it were the problem, would surely happen in both OS's. Plus, I just got my laptop back from Bestbuy, where they replaced the Optical disk drive. Surely they would have cleaned the dust out. Best buy seemed to think that the reason my computer was crashing was due to an optical drive failure. It apparently didn't work (although I haven't had any problems in Windows 7 since getting it fixed).

No, it may overheat if the driver for the CPU causes extra processing cycles through any one or multiple cores in one OS and fewer in another. For instance, one newer OS might take advantage of a raid controller that an earlier OS had no ability to utilize - but you don't use raid, so the processor does extra work for nothing, thus getting hotter in the process. An Intel driver for Intel Rapidstor technology is certainly implicated in some overheating cpus.

An analogy might be the graphics driver - if we get a graphics driver that is flakey, we either rollback to one that worked or update it to one that has fixed the issue.

I don't know if the Bestbuy technicians cleaned it out or not - the OD is probably a one-screw removal and pop the drive out like it is on my Acer Aspire, whereas the fan requires 4 screws, a panel and then the fan housing before the heat exchanger is exposed. Optical drive failure is certainly common - they are electro-mechanical devices and so prone to failure on many levels, including operator error and wear and tear.

It's worth downloading a core temperature program like CoreTemp or SpeedFan and comparing windows 7 and 8 to convince yourself that there is nothing wrong, and familiarizing yourself with simple maintenance operations like cleaning the lint from the fan and airways - it will save you money in the long run.

Google xps 1340 overheating for some other user's experiences - there's 18000 hits - some also mention a bios update, and that the Dell has to have a complete disassembly to clean the fan

 

[GMan]

Freelancer's bios is the latest. Not sure about nbulp since I didn't look ant any logs.

So, I am guessing, Bestbuy did good by that.

 

[johnpombrio]

K, this may be a wild ass guess but I was having hangups also, once every few hours. It was not until I got sleep to work properly before the hangups went away. Try
http://www.eightforums.com/installation-setup/4890-how-get-win8-cp-sleep-properly.html
and see if that fixes anything. The BIG mistake that I had done was unselecting the Let the computer turn off the network ports. When I let the network ports be turned off, both my sleep issues and my hangups seemed to have disappeared. Of course, it mihgt have been the 1000 other things I have changed in my computer lately...

 

[freelancer91]

I have been running my computer in safe mode since yesterday evening. It still hasn't frozen. However, safe mode isn't a solution. It does, however, point to a driver problem (assuming I haven't just been lucky).

 

[nbulp]

Good to hear! You've been using it actively?

Hmm. What does the device manager show, during safe mode? What drivers are loaded (and which one are not)?

 

[freelancer91]

K, this may be a wild ass guess but I was having hangups also, once every few hours. It was not until I got sleep to work properly before the hangups went away. Try
http://www.eightforums.com/installation-setup/4890-how-get-win8-cp-sleep-properly.html
and see if that fixes anything. The BIG mistake that I had done was unselecting the Let the computer turn off the network ports. When I let the network ports be turned off, both my sleep issues and my hangups seemed to have disappeared. Of course, it mihgt have been the 1000 other things I have changed in my computer lately...

I took a look at all of those settings and none of them seemed to apply. My computer didn't offer sleep options in the BIOS, it didn't provide any power settings for the built in keyboard or touchpad, and the settings for the network adapters either didn't exist or were already set that way. The control panel's power settings were also already set that way.

 

[freelancer91]

Good to hear! You've been using it actively?

Hmm. What does the device manager show, during safe mode? What drivers are loaded (and which one are not)?

No, I just put it on safe mode and let it run over night. When it freezes normally, it doesn't even need any input to help it do so. I took it out of safe mode to edit the settings mentioned in my previous post, but I will put it back into sleep mode once I am done.

 

[fafhrd]

Just the cynic in me, but this week did have a patch Tuesday in it.

Since I participated in this thread I have had my main machine freezing at random on every Windows version, 7 and 8, I have started on it, but after a reboot from a CD with Windows 7 recovery on it, all seems to be working again without issue.

Maybe it was Gremlins after all!

 

[freelancer91]

My machine has been freezing in this manner since almost day one of the developer preview. I'm still running my laptop in safe mode and it hasn't crashed yet. However, the moment I switch back to "unsafe" mode, my device will likely freeze again....