Asus UL30A - freezing/locking up periodically

[safzx]

Hi all. Newbie here.

I have an Asus UL30A laptop (over a year and a half old).

Specs here: Asus UL30A X32 13.3" 3GB 320GB HDD Laptop Windows 7: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

It has recently started to completely freeze/lock up completely periodically for round about 2-3 minutes a time. It seems to happen when I'm running media (either listening to music or watching videos (whether streaming online or direct from the hard drive)).

I've managed to put a video up of what frequently occurs.

ASUS UL30A freeze, freezing, crashing, soundloop, bug - Help or advice? - YouTube (approx 43 seconds in) (Warning, do put the volume down as it is a terrifying noise (not Lady GaGa herself!)!

I have no idea whatsoever what is causing it. Nothing appears in the event viewer or error logs. I did carry out a factory reset and the laptop seemed to be working well but the problem started happening again recently. I assume it is a problem with the sound card and/or graphics card. Any help or advice would be most welcome.

Thanks!

[gavinzach]

Hello safzx and welcome to TSF,

Does your computer get warm while running videos?

First thing to do is to make sure the cooling system is clear of dust... Grab a can of compressed air duster (available at most office supply stores). Keeping the can upright, blow the air into the cooling vents located on the bottom and rear of the computer.

[safzx]

Hi Gavinzach,

Thanks very much for your welcome.

It does get warm when running videos and/or music but I didn't think this was anything out of the blue. I've taken your advice and bought some compressed air duster and applied some to the cooling vents. I will give it a few days to seek if the problem re-occurs.

Aside from that and from what you (and/or anyone else) has seen on the You Tube video I've posted below (crash takes place approx 42 seconds in)

ASUS UL30A freeze, freezing, crashing, soundloop, bug - Help or advice? - YouTube

do you think the source of the problem could be from anywhere else?

Thanks so much for your help again.

S

[gavinzach]

I cannot watch the video from my current location. I won't have a chance to look at it until tomorrow afternoon at the earliest.

[safzx]

Just bumping this back up to see if anyone had any further thoughts?

[gavinzach]

I am sorry, I completely forgot to check back in on this thread while I was at home.

I am, once again, at work and cannot see the video.

Has the computer been running any cooler?

[safzx]

Hi Gavinzach,

No worries at all. Sorry, when you say cooler, do you mean airduster? If so, yes, I have applied it and so far the incident hasn't recurred however these episodes are quite unpredictable.

Thanks for all your help,

S

[gavinzach]

What I meant was, since you used the air duster, has the computer been running cooler?

I am glad that the incident has not presented itself again. I hava a feeling that if the problem was not caused by the heat directly that it was aggrevated by the heat.

If I do not post back that I watched the video in the next 24 hours, please send me a reminder PM or post back to this thread.

[filination]

I had the exact same problem for months till I noticed that the problem doesn't occur when I'm not connected through Wifi. Turns out it had something to do with the newer UL30A wifi drivers. I rolled back to an older version (ASUSTeK Computer Inc. -Support- Drivers and Download UL30A) - Version V13.0.0.107 - and everything went back to normal.

Hope that helps.

Fili

[gavinzach]

Originally Posted by safzx

do you think the source of the problem could be from anywhere else?

Thanks so much for your help again.

S

The problem could, definitely, have been caused by overheating. (or the computer just got a little excited! )

Keep us updated as to if you have the problem again.

[safzx]

Hi Fili, Gavinzach,

I rolled back the driver and unfortunately no joy. The problem has re-appeared over the course of this week.

I've also applied the air duster regularly to no avail.

Any inspired ideas would be most welcome!

S

[gavinzach]

Cleaning the vents regularly is good... but you don't need to do it regularly.

Download and run HW monitor... Let it run in the background for a bit then take a screen shot and post it in your reply.

CPUID - System & hardware benchmark, monitoring, reporting

[filination]

Originally Posted by safzx

Hi Fili, Gavinzach,

I rolled back the driver and unfortunately no joy. The problem has re-appeared over the course of this week.

I've also applied the air duster regularly to no avail.

Any inspired ideas would be most welcome!

S

Wait... if the problem disappeared for a short while and came back again this means it was working for a while. When you connect through LAN but not through Wifi, do you still have this problem?

My hunch is that although you rolled back the driver you have Windows Update installing updates automatically and that it reinstalled the new driver which brought back the trouble.
First - test to see what happens if you're not using Wifi but only using LAN. I think you'd be surprised this doesn't happen anymore.
If that's true ... I suggest disabling auto updates on Windows Updates, rolling back the Wifi driver to the previous one, and when needed - manually updating the drivers that are not related to ASUS drivers.

Hope that helps.
Fili

[pikapp22]

Tried turning off overclocking. Didn't help.I have a Atheros AR9285 Wireless card on my UL30A.

Trying this based on other comments:
1. Right click on your wireless network connection and click Open Network and Sharing Center.
2. Click Change Adapter Settings on left side.
3. Right click on wireless network connection and click properties.
4. Click Configure
5. Click driver tab
6. Click Uninstall
7. Make sure you check the box that says "remove driver files"
8. Reboot.
9. Upon reboot, your wireless card will reinstall. You may need to turn your wireless back on (FN + F2) and reconnect back to your network.
10. Go to start menu, type Update into the search bar and select Windows Update.
11. Click Change Settings.
12. If your computer is set to Automatically Install Updates, change it to "Download updates but let me choose whether to install them". *** if not,your computer will automatically update your driver from the 2009 driver that works to a newer driver that doesn't. The driver that works is dated 6/9/2009 and is version 2.0.0.74.

If you see an update to the wireless card driver (which I did right away), you can hide it by right clicking on it and selecting hide.

It's only been one day but it seems to work so far.

[safzx]

Thank you very much for your suggestion pikapp22. I will give it a week or so before reporting back but fingers crossed it does the trick!

Thanks again.

S

[pikapp22]

No worries. I've watched probably at least 20 youtube videos and no freezing so far. It used to happen in Chrome a lot more than in firefox and I've been watching them all in Chrome. Touch wood that this resolves it.