Sony Vaio Laptop

[rjwolfe3]

I have a question for those that own this brand of laptop. Every 30 seconds or so it acts like it freezes. The keys won't respond and the mouse won't click but will move around. This lasts for 1-5 seconds and then it's fine. This laptop has always done it and it is barely a year old. It is running Windows Vista. No viruses or spyware detected. I used to play games on it and it would freeze the game for a couple of seconds all the time as well. It's annoying because in the time it took me to type this it froze around 15 times. Any ideas on how to get rid of this?

 

[gerryr]

Which version of Vista?
How much memory is installed?

 

[rjwolfe3]

Windows Vista Home Premium and 2 gigs of RAM

 

[DCBluesman]

Make sure you are upgraded to SP1 and that you have downloaded all other updates. That sucker should be just fine with 2 GB of ram.

 

[rjwolfe3]

Lou

I thought I had auto updating on but where do I check to see if I have SP1 for Vista?

 

[CSue]

If you go to the Windows Vista website and have them scan your computer for needed updates, it'll tell you whether or not you need the SP1 update. And offer it if you do.

I have the Auto update on mine (Sony VAIO) but sometimes it works and some times I need to check it like that.

 

[rjwolfe3]

Thank you CSue, just checked and it is installed allready with no other available downloads. I also checked to see if I needed to upgrade any drivers and they were all good. So I'm getting frustrated because it takes twice as long to post anything with all of these pauses.

 

[DCBluesman]

Lou

I thought I had auto updating on but where do I check to see if I have SP1 for Vista?

• Right click on Start and select Explore
• Right Click on Computer
• Select Properties
• All of the major info about your computer will be displayed, including the operating system and version

 

[kcordon]

Rob,

What anti-virus are you running? If it is McAfee or Norton, they are notorious Resource hogs. I would look at a different AV program.

 

[rjwolfe3]

Nah, I'm too cheap to pay a subscription so I use CA Security Center which comes free from Time Warner. My wife has the same laptop that we bought at the same time and she says she doesn't have this problem. I have very little loaded on this computer as I am trying to use it for just my business purposes.

 

[les-smith]

Rob,

What anti-virus are you running? If it is McAfee or Norton, they are notorious Resource hogs. I would look at a different AV program.

I think Kevin's on to it. I think you have some sort of auto update or spyware/anti-virus kicking in every now and then.

I've got a Vaio and had the same problem. How I fixed I'm not sure.

 

[maxwell_smart007]

I had to get rid of CA, because it slowed my computer right down...try uninstalling that, and see what happens...

Sounds like your processor's getting bogged down, though...

 

[Blind_Squirrel]

I would upgrade the OS to XP

 

[TribalRR]

Does your laptop have a wireless card and your accessing the internet through a cable? If so, turn the wireless card off otherwise it will constantly search for a connection and that could cause the pauses your experiencing.

 

[randyrls]

Nah, I'm too cheap to pay a subscription so I use CA Security Center which comes free from Time Warner. My wife has the same laptop that we bought at the same time and she says she doesn't have this problem. I have very little loaded on this computer as I am trying to use it for just my business purposes.

Rob; Unfortunately, CA is the "bottom feeder" of the computer world. They purchase mature products and then market the h_ll out of them to companies as software packages. But they don't upgrade the programs to keep them current.

The problem may be that your machine's network settings are misconfigured. The problem you are having sounds like an IP Address conflict.
This will cause your computer to freeze for 30 seconds or so every 5 minutes or so.

The suggestion to check the wireless connection is a good one. If you have not already, make sure you have WPA (?) security enabled. This prevents others from using your internet connection.

To check for viruses, go to the Mcafee web site and use their free scanner tool. To check for Spyware or Adware, download the latest AdAware FREE! program and run it several times on your machine. I have used both of these products and they are excellent.


Mcafee: http://www.mcafee.com/us/

Adaware: http://www.lavasoft.com/


PS. I started in computers before there was an IBM PC! Before I retired, I worked in Network Administration and Network Security. Paranoia is a job skill / requirement for this position!

My system Setup:
1. Zonealarm to keep the nasties off my machine.
2. Turn off the Windows auto update and update my machine manually. Some updates will break other software. I snapshot my hard drive before making any major changes.
3. Firefox is my web browser, and Thunderbird is my email client. I do not use either Internet Explorer or Outlook. Either of these programs is like wearing a sign that says "KICK ME!"

 

[jkinosh]

I work in IT for an Aerospace company in Cleveland, and I get asked the same question at least twice a week. I usually tell people to do the following:

1. Remove all Antivirus and spy-ware detectors that you have installed.
2. Install AVAST Home edition (www.avast.com) Home edition is free to register
and the registration is good for 14 months, it connects to the internet everytime you
computer is rebooted and downloads updates. I have it running at work and at home
and have never had a problem.
3. Install Ad-Aware. (www.lavasoft.com) Best free spy-ware removal and detection I
have found, it even got removed things that Symantec and McAfee,
(doubleshudder), missed.
4. When all else fails reload the Computer With Windows XP Pro, and all problems will go
away. XP Pro was one of their better OS's in my opinion, right after Win98SE.

Jacob

 

[rjwolfe3]

Thank you for all of your suggestions. I am going to stick with Vista because honestly I like it. I have Windows XP on both of my desktops and can't stand it. But I really don't want to learn Linux or Mac. I only use the built in wireless to access the internet. Looks like people's opinions on virus checkers are as varied as opinions on finishes so I will stick with CA for now. I may take it off and see if it helps. I did finally install SP1 and it has helped. Thanks again.

 

[W3DRM]

Rob,

I agree that your system with 2GB of memory should be running smoothly without freezes. However, randomly stabbing at your problem most likely isn't going to solve it. All of the suggestions are good ones but it may take a long time to finally determine the true source of the freezing.

I would suggest running "taskmgr" to see what process is taking up your CPU time and locking up the sytem. To get taskmgr running, just left-click on the "Start" icon (lower-left corner of the screen and looks like the Microsoft logo). In the box that says "Start Search", type in "taskmgr" (without the quotes). It should find the program under the Programs heading. Select that program and hit the Return key. Taskmgr should pop-up with the "Processes" tab highlighted and a list of the processes running. Double-click on the CPU column heading. This will sort the process list by CPU usage with the process taking up the most CPU time at the top. Watch this for a while and see if a particular process is at or near the top of the list when your system freezes.

Also, at the bottom of the taskmgr page, tell us what it says. There are three items listed:

Processes: 63 CPU Usage: 10% and Physical Memory:56%

The numbers above are what I see on mine at the moment. They will change as you run more or less processes.

NOTE: This may or may not indicate the routine causing the problem but it's worth a shot anyway.

 

[rjwolfe3]

Ah I believe it is Google toolbar that is freezing. At least that was the process that was running when it froze briefly.

Processes:104 CPU:54% Physical Memory:51%

(Note: this is what shows when Google toolbar is the number one process, otherwise cpu is less then 5%)
:bananen_smilies104:

 

[gerryr]

Get rid of the Google toolbar. Uninstall it and don't let anything install it again.

 

[W3DRM]

Ah I believe it is Google toolbar that is freezing. At least that was the process that was running when it froze briefly.

Processes:104 CPU:54% Physical Memory:51%

(Note: this is what shows when Google toolbar is the number one process, otherwise cpu is less then 5%)
:bananen_smilies104:

Wow, 104 processes! That seems like a large number of processes on a system that you said isn't running anything. I would suggest downloading a couple software packages that will verify the integrity of your system. Both of them are FREE but very dependable and safe programs. I run them on all of my systems periodically to ensure all is well. They are as follows:

The Ultimate Troubleshooter (TUT). This program analyzes your system and looks for known problem causing processes running that you may not be aware of. The link to it is:

http://www.answersthatwork.com

Belarc Advisor. This program gives you a report that shows your complete system hardware configuration as well as all installed patches for the operating system. Lots of good info. The link to it is:

http://www. belarc.com/free_download.html

A CAUTION NOTE: Both of these programs can be rather daunting to a novice so do not attempt to deinstall or disable programs unless you are certain you know what you are doing. Get someone who is familiar with your system to help you if you have any questions at all.

By the way, I run the Google toolbar on all of my systems (both XP and Vista) and have never had any problem with it. Whatever is hanging up your system is something that is cyclic, based on your description of the problem. I would more suspect a process that for some reason runs every 30-seconds or so that is causing the problem. Remember, just because Task Manager shows a current process running it may not be that exact process that is causing the problem. The culprit process is most likely also hanging up the Task Manager process too so you may be seeing the last or next process in sequence to be running while the culprit may never show on the screen.

Take a look at the taskmgr screen and click on the "Performance" tab. Then look at the graph under the CPU Usage History. Does it ever show 100% usage? That would indicate that one or more processes are hogging the CPU thus causing you your problem. The trick is to figure out which one(s)!!

 

[beck3906]

You may check zdnet.com for free versions of software that checks adware and other malicious software installations. There may be something happening to track you keyboard use. There's a lot of free software that can supplement your antivirus.

Rick