[Troubleshooting] Looking for some help with laptop freezing problem

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Ddrakon

Veteran XV
Hi TW,

I have an old laptop that has been running fine for years. Couple days ago, it started acting out. My gut feeling is that some windows updates started the problem since some were installed around the same time I started having the problems and I didn't install anything new or used the laptop differently recently.

As far as I can see, the problem is that the laptop will freeze whenever something tries to access the hard drive. Whether it's copying files, trying to download something from chrome or when dropbox is running, it will just freeze and the only way to shut it down is by holding the power button.

Additionally, safe mode will hang for a long time on the "crcdisk.sys" driver before finally opening.

So far, I've tried uninstalling updates from the last couple days, tried the System File Checker in safe mode (sfc /scannow), Startup Repair, sandpaper... I've also tried running "chkdsk /f /r" but I get a message saying a process is already trying to access the HD so it can't run.

Unfortunately, I do not have an earlier system restore point I can use.

My laptop is an old HP Pavilion dv9500 running Windows Vista (I know, I know)

While I'm not even close to being an expert, this doesn't feel like a hardware issue, more like a corrupted driver. Quick google search shows a lot of people having very similar issues, though I haven't found a solution yet. At this point, I just want to be able to backup my files so I can do a clean format.

Thanks a lot for any help.
 
sounds like some bad sectors on the hard drive.
try running a magnet over the hard drive in a counter clockwise rotation to realign the bad sectors.
 
yeah the drive is fucked

if you go to eventvwr you will probably see ntfs/hd errors
 
can you check your event viewer?

if it's a software problem that is locking up the system there should be a log of something going wrong somewhere in the windows logs.
 
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Checked Event Viewer, I see a lot of errors with the Source being "Servicing", "EventLog", "Service Control Manager Eventlog Provider" and "DistributedCOM" for the last 7 days
 
when I look at the System log, I see a bunch of Information logs, most of them about Services

couple errors about Servicing not able to package some Updates

tried scrolling down more but Event Viewer crashed... awesome
 
could be a memory issue then. you could try running memtest (you'll need to dl it and put it on a cd/usb, boot off it).

chkdsk should give you the option to check the disk at reboot, or you could boot a windows disk and do it from the recovery console. but if it is a memory issue, you will likely get false positives from the chkdsk
 
so I was under the impression that a recovery disk would give an option between repairing or doing a clean reinstall

this one seems to only be about reinstalling so far so I guess my files are fucked

oh well, I'll have to buy a new one pretty soon anyway
 
isn't there an option with windows disk to just reload system files? i think i've done that before.
 
looks like the recovery disk did have a formatting step since it seems like windows isn't installed anymore, can't boot normally. since it failed to complete the installation, it looks like i'm royally fucked
 
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