[q_lil_grl]

Hi, I have a 2-year-old Sony VAIO VGN-CS laptop on Windows Vista. There was a previous issue that was recently fixed with the help of this forum ( link to thread ) and this issue is similar but definitely not the same.

Rather than freezing after opening a browser (and having disconnection issues - which has since been A LOT better after my old thread), my laptop has been freezing right after my desktop loads. It doesn't seem like Network Services is causing the freezing now.

Once the desktop loads, and I try to click on something a tab/browser will pop up but will not load, and the mouse arrow turns into that circular loading symbol. The screen will eventually be whited out (hard to describe - it's not completely white and blank, it's almost like a translucent sheet has been placed over the screen/desktop) and the mouse arrow will remain the loading symbol. IF I press Ctrl + Alt + Del before the whited out screen, the screen will eventually go completely black. I have no choice but to manually shut down.

The laptop works fine in Safe Mode with Networking Services (which I'm using now). The confusing thing to this is that it only freezes sometimes, and not with every Normal startup. I currently only have Sony VAIO Assistant and a couple chat programs like AIM and MSN disabled in Services and Startup.

Please help!

[Advertisements]

You either have a driver problem or something is starting at boot that is causing the problem. From the other thread it sounds like you use AVG. If so I would recommend you use Revo Uninstaller Free (make sure you get the Free version) to uninstall it then install Microsoft Security Essentials in it's place.

Run with that for awhile and see how things go. If still problems then follow this procedure and see what you find:

Use msconfig to determine what is causing the problem

These are good tutorials on using msconfig in XP, Vista or Windows 7:
How to use msconfig in Windows XP
How to use msconfig in Windows Vista
How to use msconfig in Windows 7

Click on Start then Run, type msconfig and press Enter.
Click on the Startup tab, record what is currently starting then click the Disable All button.
Reboot and see if it runs better.
If yes then use msconfig to enable several items at a time till you find the culprit.

If no, start msconfig and click on the Services tab.
Check the Hide All Microsoft Services box, record what is currently starting then click the Disable All button.
Again, do a regular boot, see if it runs normal.
If yes then use msconfig to enable services till you find the culprit.

Once you've found the culprit, uninstall it or find out how to eliminate it from your system. Simply disabling it in msconfig is a temporary fix at best.
Enable everything else you disabled.

[Ztruker]

You either have a driver problem or something is starting at boot that is causing the problem. From the other thread it sounds like you use AVG. If so I would recommend you use Revo Uninstaller Free (make sure you get the Free version) to uninstall it then install Microsoft Security Essentials in it's place.

Run with that for awhile and see how things go. If still problems then follow this procedure and see what you find:

Use msconfig to determine what is causing the problem

These are good tutorials on using msconfig in XP, Vista or Windows 7:
How to use msconfig in Windows XP
How to use msconfig in Windows Vista
How to use msconfig in Windows 7

Click on Start then Run, type msconfig and press Enter.
Click on the Startup tab, record what is currently starting then click the Disable All button.
Reboot and see if it runs better.
If yes then use msconfig to enable several items at a time till you find the culprit.

If no, start msconfig and click on the Services tab.
Check the Hide All Microsoft Services box, record what is currently starting then click the Disable All button.
Again, do a regular boot, see if it runs normal.
If yes then use msconfig to enable services till you find the culprit.

Once you've found the culprit, uninstall it or find out how to eliminate it from your system. Simply disabling it in msconfig is a temporary fix at best.
Enable everything else you disabled.

[q_lil_grl]

Hello, thank you for helping.

I downloaded Revo Uninstaller and AVG wasn't listed in the list of programs it detected, in fact it only detected 91 programs but I checked my program files under Control Panel and there are 114 programs. So I uninstalled AVG the usual way and then went on to download Microsoft Security Essentials and it said I should have any antivirus and antispyware programs uninstalled before continuing, so I also uninstalled Spybot (using Revo Uninstaller). (Is it safe to have Spybot around with MSE?)

I finished downloading MSE and upon restarting after the download, the computer froze when the desktop loaded but resumed after a minute. MSE did a Quick Scan when I opened it and no threats were detected.

I'll give this a couple days before I try that procedure.

And just wondering, if it is a driver problem will I have to take it back to Sony to fix? Thanks again.

Edited by q_lil_grl, 30 October 2011 - 11:43 PM.

[Ztruker]

Follow the procedure I gave you first. If that doesn't help then we can look at updating your drivers to the latest available from Sony. This is nothing you would need to return it to Sony for.

If nothing else, you can always save your data (you should be doing this anyway) then restore to Factor state or reinstall from a install DVD.

[q_lil_grl]

I disabled all the applications under "Startup" but the laptop still froze when I restarted in Normal mode. Then I hid all the Microsoft Services, disabled all the applications under "Services" and the laptop worked, for the 10 minutes I was using the Internet. After I thought maybe the laptop wasn't going to freeze, I exited Chrome and then hit Start and typed in msconfig, but it was taking a long time to search for it and so I clicked on the desktop background and found out it froze.

Should I consider this as working fine after I disable the apps under Services? I haven't tried checking to see if any of the apps under Services is making the laptop freeze.

[Ztruker]

Sorry but I'm a bit confused. I think you said disabling Startup items had no effect. Disabling non-Microsoft services did for awhile then it froze again.

If so then I'd say none of them are the culprit and we need to start looking at updating device drivers. Need the complete model number. You said VAIO VGN-CS, but the models area actually VGN-CS108D, VGN-CS108DQ, etc.

With that info we can check the Sony support site and see what drivers are available.

[q_lil_grl]

Yes, that's right. The model number is: VGN-CS390JDV.

Thanks!

(Also I have been using Normal Mode for the past half hr or so and it hasn't frozen yet. I still have everything but the Microsoft services disabled.)

[Ztruker]

I hope you recorded what was started in Startup and Services before disabling them.

Go ahead and enable everything in Startup that was there before.
Run for awhile.
If okay then start enabling the ones in Services and run for awhile after each one (maybe do a few at a time) until you find the one that is causing the problem.

You don't want to run without any Anti-virus which is what you are doing now if all Startup and non-MS Services are disabled.

[q_lil_grl]

Alright, I think I narrowed down the culprit. The application "hp digital imaging - hp all-in-one series" under Startup freezes my laptop for sure. I also currently disabled everything else that's related to my HP printer under Startup: "hpwuSchd Application" and "hpqSRmon Application".

Should I uninstall my printer and then reinstall? Or is there a way to fix these without having to go through that?

[Ztruker]

None of the HP stuff is needed for your printer (other than the spooler) to work so you could try leaving everything disabled and run for a while to see what happens.

If it were my system I would try uninstalling everything HP in Programs and Features from Control Panel. Reboot then reinstall and see how things go. HP installs a lot of junk so even after reinstalling, it wouldn't hurt to disable most of it unless you find something you need.

Same is true with my Brother printers. Most of what is running is totally unneeded but every once in a while I need to start the Brother Control Center as that is the easiest way to access my cameras flash card which I plug into the printer.

[q_lil_grl]

My laptop was working fine until today, it froze right after startup (as AIM was automatically trying to sign me in). I disabled AIM on Startup and noticed under Services, there are two more HP-related apps: hpqcxs08 and HP CUE DeviceDiscovery Service. I found this on HP Cue. Do you think it's safe to disable that? Apparently hpqcxs08 is needed to run HP Solutions, but I never use that. Should I disable it too?

Also, my laptop has been taking longer to load my desktop and icons since the freezing started back in July. After I enter in my password on the Windows screen, I get taken to a black screen with the white mouse arrow visible, and then 10-20 seconds later the bottom menu bar will show up, and then another 5-10 seconds later my desktop and icons will show up at once. Is this normal?

[Ztruker]

From what I can see, it's not needed. Disable both and see if it freezes again or not. If not, I would try what we discussed earlier. Uninstall everything HP, reboot then reinstall your HP Printer software.

[q_lil_grl]

My laptop did a disk check right when I turned it on today; it said it fixed some files but I didn't catch the list of files.

I also just disabled both of those services, I'll report back in a few days or earlier if something else happens.

Thanks!

[q_lil_grl]

Hi! I think it's safe to say my laptop isn't freezing anymore. It did freeze once while I was using Chrome but unfroze itself after a few minutes.

So is there nothing wrong with my desktop taking longer to load than usual?

[Ztruker]

By Desktop, you mean the Desktop on your Laptop, right, not another computer?

What do you currently have disabled in Startup and Services via msconfig? If you've re-enabled pretty much everything, go back to msconfig and start disabling them again to see if any are the cause of the slow startup.

How much free space do you have on your hard drive? Have you ever cleaned out temporary files and other unneeded files that accumulate over time? If not, see these:

IMMEDIATE - How to clean up your hard drive to increase free space
LONG TERM - How to free up space on your hard drive