So recently my old Toshiba laptop started freezing at random points -- as in, the sound would suddenly cut off, the cursor frozen in its tracks, and the only thing it responded to was the DVD-ROM tray (opening and closing; not reading) and the power button. At first I thought it might be software/virus/malware related, but I have come to the conclusion that it is hardware related. Long story as to how I ruled out software related issues. And long story short:
Battery and power cable plugged in: freeze at random points, sometimes on start-up, some times it gave me a little time to do a few things.
Battery and power cable plugged in, boot in safe mode: instead of freezing, it simply shuts down.
It seemed like there might be some connection with heat and frequency of freezes, but it was definitely never overheated.
Battery in, power cable not plugged in, normal start-up: instead of freezing, it shuts down. Hmmmm, idea:
Battery out, power cable plugged in: starts up fine, and doesn't freeze. After a solid hour or two, gaming and youtubing, it still didn't freeze. Hooray! Problem solved -- or so I thought. Because then it froze on me again. I restarted immediately, and it froze on startup. I restarted immediately again, and it worked for a good 10-15 minutes before freezing.
Ok, battery in, power cable plugged in, normal start-up: boots up fine, I spend a few minutes staring at the background, tentatively moving the cursor just to check that it hasn't frozen... all seems fine. As soon as I try an application, however, it freezes upon doubleclick.
I'm not really looking for a solution, here. It's an old laptop and I'm getting a new one, but I'm still curious: this is hardware related, right? I know that faulty batteries can cause laptops to freeze just like mine did. But then why did it freeze when the battery was out? Granted, after 1-2 hours, but then I had booted with the laptop nice and cold. So it does seem like it's at least partially temperature related.
Silly laptop.
Battery and power cable plugged in: freeze at random points, sometimes on start-up, some times it gave me a little time to do a few things.
Battery and power cable plugged in, boot in safe mode: instead of freezing, it simply shuts down.
It seemed like there might be some connection with heat and frequency of freezes, but it was definitely never overheated.
Battery in, power cable not plugged in, normal start-up: instead of freezing, it shuts down. Hmmmm, idea:
Battery out, power cable plugged in: starts up fine, and doesn't freeze. After a solid hour or two, gaming and youtubing, it still didn't freeze. Hooray! Problem solved -- or so I thought. Because then it froze on me again. I restarted immediately, and it froze on startup. I restarted immediately again, and it worked for a good 10-15 minutes before freezing.
Ok, battery in, power cable plugged in, normal start-up: boots up fine, I spend a few minutes staring at the background, tentatively moving the cursor just to check that it hasn't frozen... all seems fine. As soon as I try an application, however, it freezes upon doubleclick.
I'm not really looking for a solution, here. It's an old laptop and I'm getting a new one, but I'm still curious: this is hardware related, right? I know that faulty batteries can cause laptops to freeze just like mine did. But then why did it freeze when the battery was out? Granted, after 1-2 hours, but then I had booted with the laptop nice and cold. So it does seem like it's at least partially temperature related.
Silly laptop.
