Help! Randomly crash/freeze during and after startup, even in safe mode with networking while idle

[Ksumi]

Yesterday I started having serious issues with my laptop and I'm not savvy enough to solve this problem so hopefully you guys can help me out. I have a Sony VGN-TZ298N (Windows Vista) that constantly crashes and is nearly useless.

At first, it started freezing every hour or 2 but now it's freezing during the startup or soon after the computer has started up. By crash/freeze I mean that I can't move the mouse, can't ctrl+alt+del, and have to shutdown by holding the power button.

As of right now, the computer will crash as the computer is starting up OR it will successfully start up and crash anywhere from 1 minute to 1 hour later. I've successfully booted the computer, let it sit idle without touching it for an hour, and then it will crash without me doing anything but move the mouse. When loading in safe mode with networking capabilities, it runs into the same exact problems and crashes during or after startup. In safe mode without networking, it loads perfectly fine and it does not freeze or crash. I've tried to turn off all startup programs to diagnose if this is software based and it still crashed during start up in normal mode. I always selected the option to restore the computer back to the last point at which it correctly booted/shutdown and this temporarily fixed the problem but it is now back. I've also used Trend Micro to scan for viruses and clean the registry (both in normal and safe mode) but this didn't do anything. Any suggestions on what I can do to fix this? PLEASE HELP! This is driving me crazy

If there are any other specific specs that will give you more information about the problem then please let me know. Other than this, I have not had any issues with this computer and I have not seen any error messages.


Thanks!

[Shikhar]

Well, its really a very strange problem. No good results even after so many troubleshooting The only final solution left is reinstalling windows to get fixed but still we can give it one more try. Try to uninstall all applications that you have installed recently. Also, checkout the following articles. Hope you can get some help from here.

[Ksumi]

Thanks for the response. The only thing that I've installed in the last 2 weeks was a windows update. I initially thought there was a problem with the update but i restored it to a point prior to installing the windows update. No luck.

What's strange is that I'm staying at a hotel right now and the problems didn't start until the day that I plugged the hotel ethernet into my laptop. Prob
just a coincidence.

[Expertz]

It sounds to me that your laptop is overheating or something. If in safe mode, it is running properly then try to uninstall every drivers and then boot in normal mode. It seems to be a problem with device drivers, hardware or software. This problem can be solved by uninstalling new software, updating device drivers and making minor configuration changes. Do some disk clean up as well that can be found in all programs>accessories>system tools.

[Ksumi]

I checked this morning to see if overheating was the problem but the computer was stone cold and still crashed 30 seconds after start up. How do I go about uninstalling and re-installing all drivers in safe mode? I cannot access the internet to download updated drivers so I will have to fix this offline.

From a google search I read about a scan that shows drivers that do not have a 'signature' and this scan did not bring up any unsigned drivers. Also, I ran the Memory Diagnostic Tool and the RAM is OK. Not sure if this is useful information but I thought I'd throw that out there. Is there a way to scan all drivers to test for failures?

I will try some disk cleanup tonight and see if that helps the problem.

[Ekpah]

Before checking for any software failure it is better to check for the corruption in Windows File System. Just get into the Command prompt and run the System File Checker Command i.e sfc/scan now and this will run on the system and detect the corruption that is causing the issue with the same. So if you can then run the same and see whether this is working for you or not.

[zgokee]

I'm having the exact same problem as KsumIi did. I have a Dell Inspiron N5010 running on Windows 7 and the issue has going on for a few days. It will boot up normally and randomly freeze anywhere from five minutes to about two hours. For some reason though, it also crashes a few seconds after I connect to my university wireless. I can tether the wireless internet from my phone to the laptop just fine and any other wireless works fine which is weird. Problem started, coincidentally like Ksumi. Connected to hotel wireless which worked great, but then problem occured after coming home. I've done registry cleaning, and disk defragment, as well as virus scan. No luck. Works fine in safe mode but crashes in safe mode with networking. Memory test was fine and I watch for overheating but had none. Anyone one have any suggestions?