Laptop freezes after sitting a good while.....

[BearZDefect]

If the fan runs at high speed while laptop is sitting idle it is possible that airflow through the heat sink is blocked or reduced by lint and dust, so despite the functional fan, not enough heat is removed.

You can also leave Task Manager open on the Performance tab to make sure CPU usage is low while it is sitting idle.

 

[daves66nova]

Originally Posted By: PandaBear
Usually laptops have self test you can run before booting into Windows (BIOS based or at the boot loader level).(PassMark has a free software call DiskCheckup).

I've seen these on my desktop before, and most of the time it was bad power supply, bad ram, bad hard drive, bad CPU, bad fan, etc.
So, does it run the self test on its own or do i need to initiate it? Go to www.passmark.com for diskcheckup? i'm at work right now and can't access it.

 

[PandaBear]

Originally Posted By: daves66nova
Originally Posted By: PandaBear
Usually laptops have self test you can run before booting into Windows (BIOS based or at the boot loader level).(PassMark has a free software call DiskCheckup).

I've seen these on my desktop before, and most of the time it was bad power supply, bad ram, bad hard drive, bad CPU, bad fan, etc.
So, does it run the self test on its own or do i need to initiate it? Go to www.passmark.com for diskcheckup? i'm at work right now and can't access it.


After you go in there it should have a list of test and I'd recommend running all of them, a few times each, preferrably when your computer is on for a while already (to build up heat). They are like a stress test that check for borderline problems that may not always show up in Windows at idle.

 

[daves66nova]

One stick of ram gets pretty hot.The hottest that i can feel it,is after 4-5 seconds.the other one is a little hoter than skin warm.

 

[daves66nova]

well i ran both short and extended tests and all it says is "The last self-test routine completed without error" memory then?

 

[PandaBear]

Originally Posted By: daves66nova
One stick of ram gets pretty hot.The hottest that i can feel it,is after 4-5 seconds.the other one is a little hoter than skin warm.


that's a pretty good indicator that it is bad, electronics of the same design and batch running the same voltage and frequency should generate the same heat.

 

[LeakySeals]

Originally Posted By: daves66nova
I do have 1gb of ram. What i noticed yesterday that the metal cover over the ram was pretty warm.I shut it down quickly ,took the cover off and the ram was hotter than the cover.Also,the cpu fan is on high for long periods of time.
OK. Next step. Have you opened the laptop up, or cleaned the cooling vents? They get clogged with dust over time. By opening up I mean beyond the memory and disk openings in the shell.