Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

Question

Laptop help - Freezing

Mar 24, 2016 8:54AM PDT

Hey, Ive got this laptop http://www.amazon.co.uk/Asus-X550CC-XX478H-Intel%C2%AE-1800-GeForce/dp/B00EPB8GP6.
For 1 year now, it worked fine, but the last month its just terrible, it keeps freezing totally cant do anything, it also freezes with buzzing sound comming up from speakers, it freezes when I move with him, and sometimes when I touch the displays frame.
Today I also got 2 blue screens so far, one saying WHEA_Uncorrectable ERROR and the other one is CLOCK WATCHDOG TIMEOUT.
The laptop is still in warranty so Im wondering if should I send him back, or if its some software issue.
I have all the drivers updated, reinstalled windows 2x and 1 time upgraded to 10, still doing this. Also it sometimes just randomly disconnects me from internet, showing only this icon: http://imgur.com/LWr2BvJ
It freezes when Im playing or doing some work in Power Point, or just at starting screen.

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
Answer
Tell more.
Mar 24, 2016 9:05AM PDT

Are you keeping up with that monthly canned air on the vents?

When you get a range of errors it's usually heat or some nasty infection.

There's also that watchdog message. That's been traced back to failing drives. If the HDD is a Seagate I make a summary judgement and swap it out. These 500GB HDDs run well under 49 dollars so time spent tracking down Waldos is too expensive. Clone the drive and retest.

- Collapse -
Reply
Mar 24, 2016 10:27AM PDT

Yes Im cleaning up the air vents if You meant that, temperatures are 50-60 celsius on both CPU and GPU, and the Hard Drive is Hitachi HGST, dont know if it can be infection since Ive reinstallated my Windows that many times, could it be some hardware failure?

- Collapse -
Yes.
Mar 24, 2016 10:37AM PDT

I've seen this watchdog failure a few too many times. If a factory restore doesn't clear it up we swap drives. Remember I take your word it's the factory OS restore here. A clean install of Windows today is beyond most folk's experience.

- Collapse -
Reply
Mar 24, 2016 11:07AM PDT

Alright so I will look onto that HDD, BTW Friend of my just told me to check event viewer, and there is a Kernel-Power critical failure at the time when laptop crashed, but he dont know what is it triggering so here is the log, can You please look at it and see if You can find something in it?
- <Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
- <System>
<Provider Name="Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Power" Guid="{331C3B3A-2005-44C2-AC5E-77220C37D6B4}" />
<EventID>41</EventID>
<Version>3</Version>
<Level>1</Level>
<Task>63</Task>
<Opcode>0</Opcode>
<Keywords>0x8000400000000002</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime="2016-03-24T17:04:29.651550500Z" />
<EventRecordID>5485</EventRecordID>
<Correlation />
<Execution ProcessID="4" ThreadID="8" />
<Channel>System</Channel>
<Computer>DESKTOP-IR1D0OH</Computer>
<Security UserID="S-1-5-18" />
</System>
- <EventData>
<Data Name="BugcheckCode">0</Data>
<Data Name="BugcheckParameter1">0x0</Data>
<Data Name="BugcheckParameter2">0x0</Data>
<Data Name="BugcheckParameter3">0x0</Data>
<Data Name="BugcheckParameter4">0x0</Data>
<Data Name="SleepInProgress">0</Data>
<Data Name="PowerButtonTimestamp">0</Data>
<Data Name="BootAppStatus">0</Data>
</EventData>
</Event>
I googled it and it says some RAM, HDD or device that is connected to the laptop may cause the restart, but the only device I have connected is my mouse via bluetooth

- Collapse -
Yes. That's the consensus.
Mar 24, 2016 11:14AM PDT

It does not tell you which area that failed so you use your prior failures to guide you on your next move.

https://www.reddit.com/r/techsupport/comments/3b22u7/can_kernel_power_error_event_id_41_be_caused_by/ should be a common read here.

Notice "If it were hard drive related, I'd expect a lock up, egg timer or hang before a BSOD"

You got the watchdog which has been my clue to clone and try a good new HDD. The cost of the common 500GB HDD means you can't ignore this. Folk pay by the hour and since this is cheap and fast you try it and see if it clears it up. I am a little amazed how many times this fixed that one.

But there's the rub. Some folk want a more solid answer. Because of the nature of the error it only tells us that there is a problem. Not exactly where.

- Collapse -
Reply
Mar 24, 2016 11:23AM PDT

Alright, thanks so much, will write to the shop and see if they can switch the HDD, if not I will just buy a new one by myself, will send a reply if it fixed the problem.