Laptop freezing on startup (UPDATE: wtf is ati2dvag and why can't I fix it?)

[MK26]

Hey Computer Cafe, I've got a problem that could use some help to solve. My year-old laptop (an HP 6830s on which we replaced Vista with XP) just started to act up today. And by 'act up', i mean 'freezes every time i try to turn the **** thing on'. It'll get to the desktop, run fine for a minute or so, then freeze, whether i actually do anything or not. No error message on freeze nor dialog box on restart, nothing. The longest it's run has been about 5 mins, and the shortest has been about 30 seconds from showing the desktop.

I'm running it in safe mode now without any problems, so that's a good thing, right? Does anybody have any idea what might be causing this? Up until this point, it's had occasional problems, but nothing like this.

(btw, this is being posted from a mobile phone)

 

[adumbrodeus]

Had that once, might be a hard drive issue where you're hitting a bad sector, but since it's running on safe mode, the OS is more likely. Easiest option without knowing more is back up all your important data and reinstall the OS, if vista is still installed, you could try that as well.


Regardless of what occurs, back up your data, last thing you need is to lose everything from a complete HD failure.

 

[MK26]

yeah, that was the plan...if i could get the computer to go long enough without freezing to be able to back everything up...

and in safe mode, it freezes after a while, accompanied by a black screen.

EDIT: i just realized my ipod has about as much space as my hard drive...so ill be using that for my backup

EDITEDIT: no matter how much space is on my usb/ipod/whatever, the windows backup thing stops at 4 gb and tells me that the tape is full and to insert a new one. if i do insert a new one but dont change the drive letter, it tells me folder F doesnt exist and asks me if i want to create it (but does nothing regardless...). If i do change the new drive's name to F, it tells me the tape is full and to insert a new one (despite it being near-empty...). i'm sorry that i cant be more eloquent, but wtf is going on?

EDITEDITEDIT: seems i need to reformat it as ntfs and not fat...but that doesnt solve my first problem

 

[adumbrodeus]

Try linux, I'd recomend one of the tiny distros.


Tinymylinux is probably the best choice because it can run off Ram (even though it's size is larger then the similar distros).

 

[Zeroxius]

I'd say that if it starts fine is safe mode, it has to be either a virus, or a program that is starting alongside windows is causing havoc. Try deleting some of your startup programs.

Of course, you ALWAYS have the option of pulling your stuff onto a flash drive in safe mode and reinstalling windows. That will fix it for sure.

 

[adumbrodeus]

It could be, point right now is to play it safe, cause I actually had a hard drive failure where a similar symptonm was the first issue.


Backing up the hard drive is more complete inherently.



Though, try running this first , whether or not it spots infections/runs in the first place is a good indicator of what the problem is.

 

[MK26]

ok, so, everything is backed up, it isnt freezing as quickly as before, but it still does so, and it DOES freeze in safe mode as well.

i dont really think linux is an option at this point unless every important brawl hacking tool can be ported to linux... :/

and reinstalling windows is probably a last resort...i want to go to every other option first

i will check out that disk rescue, thanks for the link

 

[adumbrodeus]

No, the idea isn't to switch to linux, I'm suggesting you use it as a rescue tool, cause if it IS a virus, it's not gonna effect linux, hence why I suggested using a tiny distro.

Also, if you've got HD casing, treating it as an external HD would work.

So, get on linux using a live cd/usb and try to back your current hard disk up if the rescue disk doesn't get your system working.

Once everything's backed up, there's no reason not to reinstall the OS.

 

[Super_ness]

The might wanna check your msconfig too.

 

[MK26]

well...either kapersky doesnt work or there isnt a virus on my computer...

but the first time i ran it, it stopped partway through the check, showed some command-line stuff, then shut down...
and when i turned it back on, it said something along the lines of 'previous update canceled, reason unknown'

i o_o'd

 

[adumbrodeus]

Ok, the good news, it's almost definitely not a virus or something wrong with your files.


The bad news? I'm almost positive it's a hardware failure, most likely the hard drive.



You might be able to isolate the bad sectors by figuring out where the rescue disk stopped (you didn't happen to check did you?), and if you can run an OS out of just Ram without an issue that also would give me a clue, eh, but you're probably not a strong enough user to do that.


Honestly, try a new HD, and get an enclosure for your old HD so you can move what you can save.


If that doesn't work, might be motherboard.


Not much of a hardware guy though, so if that doesn't work, you need somebody who specializes more in that area.

 

[MK26]

You might be able to isolate the bad sectors by figuring out where the rescue disk stopped (you didn't happen to check did you?)

no, it happened too fast.

and no, i dont know how to run a computer solely off ram

thanks for your help, though

EDIT: i performed chkdsk and, among its output it said i have 0 kb of bad sectors. more stuff to rule out, i suppose.

 

[adumbrodeus]

Then your only option is new HD, and get an enclosure for your old one so you can use it as an external to retrieve what you can.


Sorry, I guess this just shows, always have a backup.

 

[Super_ness]

Hold on a bit. Try using Linux. Sure Tiny Linux would be Good, but just a normal ubuntu liveCD would work to. You'd just work in it for a while a see what happens.

 

[adumbrodeus]

He did...

The rescue disk is an isolated linux environment, so we've shown that linux doesn't work, which tells me the issue is hardware.


The only thing he could've really told me is if he could've ran the OS off of RAM, which would help figure out where the bad sectors are.


So no, Ubuntu won't help.

 

[MK26]

Then your only option is new HD, and get an enclosure for your old one so you can use it as an external to retrieve what you can.


Sorry, I guess this just shows, always have a backup.

:/

at least i managed to get the backup utility working without it freezing...

He did...

The rescue disk is an isolated linux environment, so we've shown that linux doesn't work, which tells me the issue is hardware.


The only thing he could've really told me is if he could've ran the OS off of RAM, which would help figure out where the bad sectors are.


So no, Ubuntu won't help.

...but i said chkdsk told me there arent any bad sectors...

 

[Super_ness]

Maybe Scandisk??

You might have some bad RAM. on a ubuntu live cd, run memory test.

 

[MK26]

chkdsk is the newer version of scandisk

 

[Super_ness]

Ahh. Well, there's still the ram possibility.

 

[MK26]

well, my computer finally decided to spit something out instead of just straight freezing. I just got a BSOD saying the problem is caused by a file called ati2dvag, which is, according to the internet, some sort of infamous computer-ruining hardware failure with a million ways to fix it but not one that works for everybody...

help?

EDIT: updating my graphics card drivers seems to be the first step...my driver is the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3430, but they dont seem to have a '3400 series' of drivers for update on their website.
Then again, i think i need to update my ATI Catalyst drivers...but wtf are those? Why is ATI's driver downloading system so convoluted?

EDITEDIT: the internet recommends the Radeon Omega drivers, so i downloaded and installed those. Is there anything i need to do after install? replace the old ones in the device manager? i'm crossing my fingers that this will work.

EDITEDITEDIT: nope. no change. anybody got any input?