Hi, this is my first post here, but i have all but run out of ideas about what could be causing my laptop to randomly keep freezing?

The lockups are totally random and the only way to continue is to restart via the power switch, it has no problem handling RAM, CPU or hard drive intensive tasks usually, and its is well cooled.

I have tried new RAM and it keeps happening.

I think it started happening around the time I changed my Seagate ST9500325AS 500GB 5400rpm SATA Hard drive for a Seagate ST9500420AS 500GB 7200rpm SATA one. Obviously I then assumed the drive was faulty so I had Seagate send me another, only to have the same problem. I assumed an incompatibility with my laptop and purchased a different brand hard drive, a Hitachi HTS725050A9A364 500GB 7200rpm SATA.

Now the only thing I can think is that my laptop is incompatible with all 7200rpm hard drives, is this possible? Or does the problem lie in a different area? I don’t have the option of putting the original drive back in to test as I have sold it, so I will have to buy another 5400rpm on if that is the case.

I have included my PC spec below.

Sony VAIO VGN-FW51MF
Operating System Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Platform Intel Centrino 2 Processor Technology
Chipset Mobile Intel® PM45 Express Chipset

Processor Name
Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor P8700
Processor Manufacturer Intel®
Processor Speed (GHz) 2.53
L2 Cache (MB) 3
Frontside Bus (MHz) 1066
Number of Cores 2
Memory Size (GB) 8
Memory Speed (MHz) 800
Memory Type DDR2 SDRAM (2x4GB)
Graphic Card Name ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 4650 Graphics
Total Graphics Memory Total available graphics memory of Approx. 2790MB* with dedicated GDDR3 Video Memory of 1GB

And the various Hard drives I have tried are listed above

Thanks in advance

Pellow

and its is well cooled.

Heat is the first thing I thought of. What are your temps? Unfortunately, notebooks are notoriously hard, if not impossible to keep clean of heat trapping dust and dirt.

I have a hard time believing it would be the drive. It seems to me, if it was, you would not be able to boot. You say random, but is it? Does it some times run for hours with no problems?

thanks for replying.

It sometimes runs for days without freezing, but then again it can do it twice in an hour.

I thought of heat as a possible cause too, but ive used a cooling pad pretty much from the day I got it.

Cooling pads are great and I recommend everyone use one, preferably one with an external power supply. But even with a pad, if there is dust build up or the internal fan or fans are not spinning at full speed, a pad will only delay overheating.

If it some times runs for days, then I don't think it is a compatibility issue. Did this notebook come with 8Gb of RAM? Or did you add some? Have you tested your RAM? Have you scanned for malware?

It came with 6GB originally (a 2GB and a 4GB) and I have since replaced the 2GB with a 4GB. I have tried running it with just 4GB, and when that continued to crash I replaced it with the other 4GB stick, which also continued to crash. I have tested the RAM using the windows 7 memory test utility, and I scan for malware a couple of times a week with spybot and ad-aware

I have tried running it with just 4GB, and when that continued to crash I replaced it with the other 4GB stick, which also continued to crash

Well, that's pretty conclusive it is not the RAM.

I still would not rule out heat, but it is looking like it may be something more ominous. It could be power related, or sadly, a failing motherboard. Any chance it is still under warranty?

thanks, its only 10 months old so it should be. The problem I have is that I can't re-create the problem at will, and even if I could, I assume they will just blame it on the upgraded parts I have installed to put the liability back onto me, if you get me.

Then restore it to the default configuration and see if it happens again. And when it does, call them. You need to be on record this is happening.