[salguod]

I'll run the HD tune and see what it finds. I couldn't tell if Check Disk found anything because the report screen wasn't up long enough.

This laptop was purchased with Vista Home Premium. I had intended to downgrade it to XP when I bought it but the IT guy at work advised not to as new hardware made for Vista machines doesn't always have XP drivers.

Most of the important data, all actually, is stored on a network drive installed in a desktop PC and is backed up nightly to a USB HD. There may be a few important files stored locally, but not many.

I'm wondering if it's not a networking issue. It connects wirelessly to the network and when this happens, I loose IE, access to that networked drive and Photoshop Elements image browser hangs and it's looking for the catalog on the networked drive. Should I try shutting down the wireless and running it plugged into the router? If so, how do I shut down the wireless?

Oh, and we already tried completely disabling all the power saving features, including shutting the monitor down. Didn't help.

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OK, I ran HD Tune and it found no errors.

I also decided to check HP's web site for updated device drivers (My laptop's a dv6605us, FYI). It found a bios update and a couple of updated drivers, which I installed. In the process, I also discovered that there was an error in one of the network devices, something called 6to4. It had a 'code 10' error. I did some digging and found that it referred to IPv6, which I shouldn't need. I right clicked on it and uninstalled it. I also went to my network properties (Control Panel -> Network and Internet -> Network and Sharing Center ->view status -> properties) and unchecked IPv6.

I was hopeful that was it, but it wasn't. I've had the problem again since. IE won't launch, no access to the network drive, laptop won't shut down.

My wife also reports (it's her machine) that maybe half the time she boots it up, it freezes at the progress bar during boot.

It's not a simple network issue. Outlook will still launch and will connect and send and receive emails. I installed Firefox and I can still browse the web with it. If it were only the web in IE, I'd just tell her to use FF, but not being able to access my data on the shared drive and not being able to shut down is a problem. Before IE locks up, the laptop will shut down fine, only when IE has problems does it not shut down.

What's next?

[salguod]

OK, I ran HD Tune and it found no errors.

I also decided to check HP's web site for updated device drivers (My laptop's a dv6605us, FYI). It found a bios update and a couple of updated drivers, which I installed. In the process, I also discovered that there was an error in one of the network devices, something called 6to4. It had a 'code 10' error. I did some digging and found that it referred to IPv6, which I shouldn't need. I right clicked on it and uninstalled it. I also went to my network properties (Control Panel -> Network and Internet -> Network and Sharing Center ->view status -> properties) and unchecked IPv6.

I was hopeful that was it, but it wasn't. I've had the problem again since. IE won't launch, no access to the network drive, laptop won't shut down.

My wife also reports (it's her machine) that maybe half the time she boots it up, it freezes at the progress bar during boot.

It's not a simple network issue. Outlook will still launch and will connect and send and receive emails. I installed Firefox and I can still browse the web with it. If it were only the web in IE, I'd just tell her to use FF, but not being able to access my data on the shared drive and not being able to shut down is a problem. Before IE locks up, the laptop will shut down fine, only when IE has problems does it not shut down.

What's next?

[skyhintack]

Salguod, I'm a bit stumped, so I'm going to see If I can't get someone else that might be able to solve this to take a look into your problem. It seems like it's a never ending battle.

[Broni]

Will it start, and shut down OK from Safe Mode?

[salguod]

Well, don't give up hope. It does seem that removing that 6to4 adapter has helped, but I'm not convinced it's solved. I haven't been locked out of IE, but my wife had issues connecting to the network drive all day. Now it's connecting again. I was able to successfully reboot it after being on all day (couldn't do so before), but upon reboot it indicated that Windows hadn't shut down properly, even though by all appearances it had. It took a long time to reboot too.

By all means, call someone else in that might know more as it seems better, but it's not quite right yet.

[salguod]

Will it start, and shut down OK from Safe Mode?

Yes. But, if I start it normally and then try to shut it down it will shut down normally as well. It's only after it's been idle that I have issues.

And the problem does persist. This morning it happened again, twice. To recap:

• Start up computer. Usually starts normally (sometimes will hang around the green 'progress bar' screen).
• Do some work, everything is fine.
• Leave computer idle for a period of time
• Return to work. IE won't launch, freezes with a white screen and the web address and Connecting... in the top of the window.
• IE is not responding, force it to close. If I check Task Manager an iexplore.exe process remains. Attempting to stop this process does nothing.
• Repeated attempts to launch IE have the same results with additional iexplore.exe processes in task manager that cannot be stopped.
• Trying to access the shared network drive, either through the mapped drive or browsing the network, fails.
• Try to shut down the computer through the start menu fails. Absolutely nothing happens. Have to force a shut down by holding the power switch.
• Upon reboot, I get the 'Windows didn't' shut down normally' screen. I choose to start it normally and everything is usually fine again - for a while.

The length of idle time for this to happen varies.

[Broni]

If that happens only after leaving computer idle, I suspect, that some power saving feature still kicks in.
Double check those features. Maybe you overlooked something.

[salguod]

I double checked them. The only thing that it is set to do is turn the display off. Every other power setting (and I went into the advancved setting and clicked on 'Change settings that are currently unavailable.) is turned off.

[Broni]

The only thing that it is set to do is turn the display off

Change this one as well, and see.

[salguod]

Done, and left it on overnight. Same problem this morning.

[skyhintack]

It probably wouldn't hurt to delete unnecessary files either, using CCleaner. I would try downloading and installing CCleaner, then run it and make sure everything but "Advanced" is checked. If anything, it will free some disk space.

My only other thought would be to reset Internet Explorer. To do this, go to Tools > Internet Options > Advanced > Reset.

Hopefully that might give us another hint towards your issue.

[Broni]

Restart computer in Safe Mode, and leave it idle for an hour, or so. See, if same thing happens. You may try it overnight.

[salguod]

My wife needs the computer all day today for school work, so I may try it later.

Oh, and the amount of time it takes for this to happen is variable. Sometimes it's fine even overnight, but that's pretty rare.

Lastly, I'm assuming that you want to restart in safe mode with networking? Without networking, the IE and network drive problem won't apply, right?

[Broni]

Safe Mode with Networking is fine.

[salguod]

OK, I started it yesterday in Safe Mode With Networking. Let it sit all afternoon and I was able to access the network drive and the web just fine. Let it sit overnight and the same was true this morning. I shut it down, and it appeared to be shutting down (which is more than it normally does) but never did. After a long time, it blue screened. I tried to take a picture of the blue screen error, but it disappeared before I could.

I dug into the event log to see if I could find the error (I could not), but I stumbled on the Reliability Monitor. Something seems to have happened around 10/19. As you can see, the system was very stable until then:



There are no program installs then or errors on that date. Two days before, there was an update of Windows Defender.