[mo713]

I have a Lenovo ideapad 320 with windows 10, have been using it for over a year with no issues. About 3 weeks ago, it randomly froze (screen has a static image, mouse pointer is on the screen but doesn't move when you touch the mouse, keyboard has no effect). I had to manually power down the pc and start again. Then, almost every time it started, it would either freeze again within 10 minutes or so, or spontaneously reboot. It was becoming so frequent that I did a system restore, which initially didn't help much, but after about a half day, it seemed to settle in and did not mess up for about 2 full weeks. When it started freezing/rebooting again, I did another overnight system restore, which held steady for about another 1 1/2 days with no trouble. Now it started again, and I really don't know what to do.

 

It is starting to look to me like a hardware issue (like bad memory or cooling issue) based on how older systems behaved. But I am reading that windows 10 has these kind of quirks, so I don't really know. All I can say is it is random and very weird, not something that points to an obvious place or pattern.

 

Some more data points to note:

 

1. It first happened when I used the built in camera to snap pictures, and was able to reproduce it.... but after the restore, it stopped for awhile and I never turned on the camera again. ***** THIS MAY be a coincidence, but I thought I should mention it.

 

2. It other than the camera, it seemed to be when the system was idle, no input from me, like when it wanted to start the screen saver, it would freeze instead.

 

3. Today, it froze right in the middle of a youtube video!! It was a podcast (mainly audio) and right in the middle of the speaker's sentence, it just stopped, the screen froze, and the speakers just made a buzzing sound.

 

Please, Please, Please help me figure out how to pinpoint this and tell whether it is a windows problem or a hardware problem. Is there any kind of utility that can monitor and tell exactly what happened the moment before the freeze/reboot?

 

Or, hopefully this may be an "obvious" problem that experts can identify based on others experience ? I know that's a long shot...but I can hope!

[Advertisements]

Just an update- it happened again just now... a few minutes after I posted the topic question. I thought it was doing fairly well, but a walked away from the screen for a couple minutes, and came back and it was frozen. This is really getting annoying, and it is unworkable.

[mo713]

Just an update- it happened again just now... a few minutes after I posted the topic question. I thought it was doing fairly well, but a walked away from the screen for a couple minutes, and came back and it was frozen. This is really getting annoying, and it is unworkable.

[mo713]

I have started to get help for this on another board and it has been suggested that you should not have the same issue in multiple places at the same time. So I suppose I would like to put this request on "standby" while it is being worked on. But I do not wish to mark this closed just yet.

 

In the meantime, if someone has any late breaking info that strongly matches this issue (maybe a known windows bug or update issue that is giving the same problem to many), please comment here. I would really like to get this nonsense behind me.

[phillpower2]

Two possible causes come to mind one of which you mention, overheating and the other running low on free storage space on the hard drive.

 

I have started to get help for this on another board and it has been suggested that you should not have the same issue in multiple places at the same time.

 

 

Thanks for advising us of this and please feel free to come back here should you not be able to resolve the issue at the forum that is already assisting you.

 

Tip

If using a computer and not a mobile phone, please avoid adding multiple posts while waiting for us to reply to your OP, edit your opening post to include anything that you wish to add, when viewing the boards members/staff will always check out an OP that has no replies, if you reply to your own OP it can appear to others that you are already being assisted and your request for help could be overlooked, something that none of us want.

[mo713]

@phillpower2

Thank you for your response. I am making ssssssslllllllllooooooowwwwww progress with it, but learning a lot about the issue as each thing is tried. From what you mention, I don't think it is either of those 2 at this point because:

 

1. It happened when I tried a clean boot, and it does not happen at all if I keep active, moving the mouse, clicking, etc. When I leave the machine idle for a few mins it happens even if nothing is running. But if I stay with the machine I can open all kinds of windows (except photos/cameras) and do all kinds of work for many hours with no freezes. If it was heat or memory, it should happen all the time randomly, not just when it is idle (which should produce less heat).

2. The system is fairly sparse, only about 100gb of 1TB hard drive is in use, and I don't do anything heavy with this machine.

 

I have a lot more data that I have learned but I will save it for now, pending the other troubleshoot operation.

 

More comments are most welcome.

[phillpower2]

Thanks for the update mo713 

[mo713]

Please see the following post. This guy could be me. His description is almost identical to my issue. The only difference is he was using an outside video app, while I was using the built in Windows camera app when it first started. After that, exactly the same. Something smells fishy here.

 

 

https://www.tenforum...-left-idle.html

 

 

 

I only post this because I am hoping someone reading this will recognize a pattern and maybe they know of an obvious cause or a place to start looking. Or anything that has worked before.

Edited by mo713, 16 May 2019 - 12:01 PM.

[mo713]

Best Answer

I believe the issue has been resolved (still waiting and monitoring). If you want to read the thread, here is the link on the other forum.

 

https://www.bleeping...sible-hw-issue/

 

I suppose I will close this topic and mark it solved.

[phillpower2]

Glad you got it sorted and thanks for sharing the info so that it may help others