DELL M170 just freezes. I thinking hardware failure what you think?

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Kirika

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Aug 10, 2006
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My Old Dell m170 just freezes in windows. No blue screen just freezes my mouse doesn't move keyboard doesn't respond. This happens randomly. Been happening more often recently. I cleaned out all the fans with canned air. Still no dice. Nothing shows up in event viewer either.

Thinking something hardware related is broken.
 
Could be RAM. I'd run Memtest86+ for a couple hours (2-4 minimum). Basically, if you get more than one error ever then it's the RAM.

Could also be the pagefile (aka Virtual Memory). Put it to a static size (IIRC the recommendation is 1.5x RAM size) rather than a dynamic size (resize as needed). If that doesn't fix it, try disabling it entirely.

If you hear a clicking noise and the HDD light is on, then your hard drive is failing, but that (I think, not 100% sure) tends to show up in Event Viewer.
 
Forgot to mention that Memtest86 4.0a just freezes on boot up without starting the test. Memtest86 3.5 actually runs the test but freezes after awhile between 9 and 17 minutes out of the three times I ran it. No errors are reported by Memtest it just freezes.
 
Never overclocked. It does run kinda hot always did. Keyboard would get warm ever since I got it. Doesn't seem any different though.
 
Hmmm... had one like this awhile ago, but IIRC the problem was a dead chipset and I don't want to say that.

Try replacing the RAM if you have spare.
 
Does the lockup happen with a fresh load of Windows or Linux? You can also try TIMing the chipset and/or processor to see if that helps. Have you looked into that yet?
 
I was going to suggest a LiveCD boot of Ubuntu or something but I stopped myself short.
 
Kirika said:
My Old Dell m170 just freezes in windows. No blue screen just freezes my mouse doesn't move keyboard doesn't respond. This happens randomly. Been happening more often recently. I cleaned out all the fans with canned air. Still no dice. Nothing shows up in event viewer either.

Thinking something hardware related is broken.
Click to expand...

Air may not be enough (sometimes it can make it worse). Open it up, replace the TIM..and try again. Shouldn't take you more than a 1/2 hour to do (maybe an hour if first time).
 
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