Another 'is it the hard drive' question

[sorcerer]

I've currently got an HP Pavilion G6 laptop on the bench, running Win 7 Home Premium x64 on a Pentium B960 @ 2.2GHz with 6GB RAM and a 750GB drive.

It initially came to me because of wifi connection issues. It connects to the internet ok for a minute, maybe two at the most, and then flips over to limited connectivity. However, I've not really been able to work on that issue properly because it keeps randomly locking up and freezing, the only way out being to hit the power button for 4 seconds.

Things I've tried:

1. Ran Memtest 86+ for a full 24 hours - ok.
2. Ran GSmartControl extended test on HDD - completed without error and no previous errors logged either
3. Malware scans with ADWcleaner, JRT, MBAM, Rogue Killer and three or four other things found some problems but successfully rectified them
4. Ran Tweaking.com's all-in-one Windows Repair (including SFC and chkdsk) three times - no change
5. Stripped it down to get at the fan. Cleaned airways, checked fan was working alright (it is), cleaned heatsink/cpu and put new thermal paste on

I took the drive out, slaved it to my bench machine and ran HDTune, results below. Does it look alright or would you be changing it out?

 

[Diggs]

You can't boot so you can't see what the event viewer shows? May be time to pull everything with FABs and N & P. You could struggle for an answer for a long time. HDD info looks OK to me. (Although I thought speeds go up with large file sizes, not down.)

(Rhetorically speaking - How do you read the event logs of a drive from a problem with one computer in another? I've never done it.)

 

[ComputerRepairTech]

Is it likely the hard drive? no
Is it impossible for it to be the hard drive? no

 

[Markverhyden]

What happens when you boot from a *nix disc? You should keep both a laptop as well as DT drive around. Unlike Windoze, you can toss it into pretty much any machine and have it work fine. What happens when it has no battery and only AC?

On the WiFi issue. There have been numerous comments around about those having driver issues depending on the chipset. If you can get it stable try some older versions. Updates do break things.

 

[sorcerer]

You can't boot so you can't see what the event viewer shows? May be time to pull everything with FABs and N & P. You could struggle for an answer for a long time. HDD info looks OK to me. (Although I thought speeds go up with large file sizes, not down.)

(Rhetorically speaking - How do you read the event logs of a drive from a problem with one computer in another? I've never done it.)

No, sorry, my fault for not explaining it better. It boots alright but then randomly freezes and locks up. Could run for two minutes then lock or it could run for two hours then lock - just completely random timings, but it makes it impossible to run any tests properly. I took the drive out to image it and run tests on it, that's all.

I'm obviously having a bit of a 'stupid' day because I forgot about looking at the event logs Will do that if it'll let me, cheers.

 

[sorcerer]

Thanks Mark, will try with a *nix disc and see.

 

[Sky-Knight]

What brand hard disk? The larger brands have test utilities you can use to see if the disk is OK.

HP's love to overheat, make sure she's on the most recent firmware.

The live linux isn't a bad idea.

This behavior is consistent with a viral infection as well.

 

[nlinecomputers]

It initially came to me because of wifi connection issues. It connects to the internet ok for a minute, maybe two at the most, and then flips over to limited connectivity. However, I've not really been able to work on that issue properly because it keeps randomly locking up and freezing, the only way out being to hit the power button for 4 seconds.

So have you tried replacing the WiFI card? A card with some kind of hardware fault could cause all the above issues.

 

[sorcerer]

So have you tried replacing the WiFI card? A card with some kind of hardware fault could cause all the above issues.

I didn't realise that so thanks. I've got a spare wifi card here so will try that immediately, cheers.

 

[nlinecomputers]

I'd try it without the card at all. If the lockups continue then the wifi card isn't at fault. It still could be a hardware problem in that devices path such as a faulty Southbridge or a power supply problem.

 

[lcoughey]

My suggestion is to get a full sector-by-sector clone of the drive and then boot from the clone, assuming that you don't encounter any read errors from the drive. If the issue sticks around, you know that it isn't the drive. If it goes away, it is the drive.

At the very least, this process will help ensure that you have everything backed up, just in case Murphy shows up.

 

[GTP]

I've had this problem a few times with Atheros Wifi drivers mostly but sometimes with Broadcom drivers as well. I've successfully fixed the issue by completely removing the wifi drivers and let it reboot and find a driver online.
Sounds simple but worked for me.

 

[sorcerer]

Just to put this one to bed - it was the wifi card at fault.

The layout of this model of laptop is such that the main 'heat-generating' components one would think of aren't anywhere near the wifi card, so I missed a small localised area of 'hotness' on the bottom of the case where the wifi card is. There must be a short circuit or some other problem within the components of the wifi card itself because man, that thing was HOT (85C according to my contactless IR thermometer). Took it out, replaced with a USB wifi dongle, one happy customer!

Kudos to nlinecomputers for pointing me in the direction of hardware problems with the card, but thanks also to all of you for taking time to reply and offering help - it's always much appreciated.