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Laptop hp nc6220 freezes randomly (Win XP & Mint 6)
Hello all,
I bought my laptop, a hp nc6220, about a year ago, it was installed with XP pro, had 2GB DDR2, a centrino 1733MHz cpu, and a 40GB ata harddisk. First thing I did was buying a new harddisk, a Western Digital WD2500BEVE Scorpio Blue 250GB. Then I decided to dual boot XP and Linux Mint 6. This laptop has always been a loyal comrade, he played music and movies, ran some office applications and school software without any complaints. But about a month ago he started to hang. I did several checks: -HD Tune: 0% damaged sectors -memtest: no errors -AVG: no infections -I defragmetated the windows part - cpu & hd temperature are mostly around 40°C I even vacuumcleaned the interior - I must say the cpu-fan was quite dusty, but I cleaned it all. The freezing was completely random, sometimes at startup, or sometimes after several hours of intensive work, for both Windows XP and Mint, so I believe it is a hardware problem. Does anybody know this kind of hanging? Is my laptop really dying? I have here a part of a dmesg (after freezing for more than an hour): Code:
[ 32.858054] NET: Registered protocol family 17 |
I'm an old hardware guy, so I found your problem rather interesting. I don't think there is any fast answer here. First off, all you have already done all the right things, memtest, checking the HD etc.
I have some suggestions of things to try. Since this is a laptop, does it ever fail when on battery power only? If yes, then you can eliminate the external power as a source of the problem. I was thinking you could have a noisy power source. If it never fails on battery only, then look into the point you power it from. There are a lot of ACPI errors logged. I did a google search on ACPI, and there are a lot of fixes for specific ACPI errors. In fact this area of the hardware on some systems is not good at all. However, if the system was stable, and now is not, with two OS's then I wouldn't think this type of fix would help much. Suggestion, get yourself a live CD, boot the system and see if it fails then. If it does fail, then it isn't anything on your HD. That won't pin point the problem, but will get you away from looking for ACPI fixes. How about the BIOS level? Check to see if HP has any updates for the system. Hope this helps... |
Thanks for the reply. I did already try another adapter and battery only, but the machine still freezes.
I just downloaded and flashed a new bios, and till now no problems... But the weird thing is: I've been working with this notebook for about a year without any problem, and I see no particular reason why it would now suddenly get the habit of freezing. At least I did nothing wrong :) |
...Again a freeze. This time I was using XP. In the System-eventviewer there were starting from the point of freeze - 10:18 - until 11:04 every minute tcpip-events, with description:
Code:
The system detected that network adapter \DEVICE\TCPIP_{016766FE-D2CF-48DF-8335-37DCBB1A187C} was connected to the network, |
Does this system eventually resume some type of operation? Or are you forced to hard boot ( power off and boot the system ). ? It well could be the nic that is locking things up. What type of card is it?
I don't know if it is possible, since this is a laptop, could you try running it with another nic? There are wired and wireless nic's that plug into your PCMCIA card slots. If you can find one, for linux, see if you can find one with Antheros chip set, if you need a wireless card. There are a lot of them around, and they work with linux. They will work with windoze as well. Almost any wired card should work with linux and windoze. |
The laptop always resumes after about an hour, and since I know that, I always leave him alone for that period of time when the freezing starts.
The laptop has ethernet and wireless, but I only use wireless. Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 2200BG [Calexico2] Network Connection (rev 05) Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5751M Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express (rev 11) I have a D-Link DWL-G122 usb adapter, I will try thisone and disable the built-in controller. Anyway thanks for the replies! |
Ok, it has nothing to do with the wlan: I just started windows, turned the wireless off, launched songbird and ... hanging started!
I'll give my puppy live usb a try, but I think that's my last option. What else could it be than the harddisk? |
Now something strange happened: I found out someone formatted my puppy usb, so I decided to make a new one. I booted from the puppy 4.2 cd to my hp laptop. All went well: I installed puppy on my usb without errors. I wanted to reboot and suddenly the screen went black (with little dark gray rectangles) and it stayed that way. I was forced to hold down the power button for a while to power off. A little later when I started the laptop, it hang at the Hp Invent startup screen.
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Sounds ugly. The symptoms are changing. Have you got any warranty left on the laptop? If yes, then I would let the hardware support have a look. I think you will need some parts to diagnose, fix it.
FWIW, I have never seen a HD casuse this sort of symptom. Usually you see errors reading files. |
I don't have waranty on the machine, I got it from someone else.
I've found the original harddisk (40GB) and changed it for my new 250GB WD-harddisk. I've been able to boot two times without any hanging or freezing. I hope it continues, we'll have to wait. |
Well sorry if I'm unhelpful but I'm in repair business and recent (last 4 years) hp/compaq laptops are frequent motherboard replacement candidates. In machines in question the freezing time shortens as the problem progresses and eventually machines fail to POST and produce any video.
Here's a thing to try though, you mentioned that you have a lot of NIC related events logged, and you said you only use your wireless NIC. Your NIC is probably a mini PCI Express type, so pull that out and see if you are still having the problem. If you don't have the problem, go from there (new NIC perhaps?). |
Thank you, r00tb33r, I detached the wireless card (I found it underneath the touch pad), but the machine froze after a while. I also tried my old 40GB hard drive, but again a freeze.
Is there anything else I can check? Or is r00tb33r right, is this a motherboard problem? If so, could it be repaired or should I buy a new motherboard? |
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I have visually inspected the motherboards but there are no obvious clues as to what the problem is. Most likely some chip has a bad connection underneath from heating and cooling cycles, however that's almost impossible to repair. |
So I guess I have to throw away this laptop? Where would I find a motherboard for this (old) model? And if this freezing is a common problem on hp machines, a new motherboard could crash too...
It is really a pity. I used this laptop for a long time, it was well-suited for me, and now, out of the blue, there is this hangingproblem without a solution. I guess I'll have to buy a new laptop - any suggestions? And could I clone my system - there are several licensed programs which I really need - with Clonezilla or something? |
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Could this happen again? Yeah. HP/compaq places their part# labels on the board so you should be able to find the right part# to buy once you open your laptop. If you go with a new laptop your old one is still good for a good bit of money in parts if its in good condition. People break screens and lose keyboard buttons all the time, its just what they do. |
OK. I gave it a last try by cleaning the fans and the heatsink. I saw there was very little coolpaste between the cpu and the heatsink - is that really important? After the cleaning I was able to use the laptop for a few days flawlessly, but then again a freeze.
I don't know if this is good, but then I put the laptop in the fridge, and after 10 minutes I took it back out: the laptop was responsive (touchpad, keyboard) for a few moments and froze again. Could overheating be my problem? A weird detail I haven't mentioned yet: after a freeze sometimes the mouse right click and left click reverse, and the keyboard stays unresponsive for a while. After that the laptop works perfectly. |
jass,
If you decide to try and replace the system board, you should be able to find instructions on Cpmpaq's ( HP's ) web site. Most manuals can be downloaded. I taught people how to do a lot of that kind of thing, the manuals are necessary. They will show you where the screws are, and the best order to remove and replace parts. I used to tell my students you need the eyes of an eagle, and the hands of a brain surgeon to work on laptops. After their first experience, no one argued the point. |
Okay folks, I know this is an old post, but I recently found out you could stop the freezing by tilting the laptop in a weird position. When you turn it back in its normal (horizontal) position, the freezing continues! Does this sound familiar to someone?
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Interesting. It indicates to me something is moving, and causing the problem. It is guess work at this point. Heavy items like the battery, or hard drive are possible candidates.
I would guess the weight shift is causing a broken, or a made connection. Battries and HD's are easily removed, and re-installed. Do one at a time and see if you can isolate the problem. Sometimes just the re-seating of the component will make it work better. Other than that, have a careful look at the wiring inside the system. You are looking for pinched wires or cables. |
I checked all the cables, removed the hard disk (I have already tried without battery: it froze) , and tried my puppy live usb, but still a freeze.
I just installed some diagnostic tools from the hp website (they only work with win xp), and something weird happened. The diagnostics were running (10 loops) , but there was an error concerning the dvd-drive (no media found) so I cancelled the tests and inserted a dvd (I also plugged in a usb and an sd card) and suddenly the system froze. I normally leave the laptop for an hour and the freezing would be over, but now I had to do a hard restart after about 12 hours... But after this reboot I was able to start the diagnostics again, and now it's running for 10 hours without a freeze!! And there are no errors at all! |
It froze again. I've got nothing to do, so I'll spend my time trying to repair this laptop :)
Now I removed everything till I could see the whole motherboard - see this photograph. I booted and waited until the system froze again, and by accident I pressed somewhere and the freezing stopped! This could explain why the laptop stops freezing when you tilt it. I tried pressing everywhere and it's really astonishing: when you press somewhere on the motherboard the hanging stops, but when you release it the hanging starts over again! I found out pressing on some spots could stop the freezing, while others won't. I indicated it on this photograph: red for working, green for no difference. So I think the culprit should be on the bottom of the picture, or on the backside of the motherboard? I also had some problems with the screen: I recently got (while freezing) these little stripes on the screen and the laptop suddenly turned off... |
I suspect you will have to replace the system board. Pressing on various parts of the board cause problems, probably because the wiring on the board is poor. Printed circuits are moving when you press. It could also be cold solder joints o the board. If the system is worth salvaging, change the system board.
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"Okay folks, I know this is an old post, but I recently found out you could stop the freezing by tilting the laptop in a weird position. When you turn it back in its normal (horizontal) position, the freezing continues! Does this sound familiar to someone?"
Umm you've got to be kidding. Yes, like i have been fighting this one for a week. I took it apart yesterday and found the wifi card was missing and the cable ends dangling dangerously close to the edge connector for the wifi card. I figured that the antenna wire ends had brushed up against the wifi edge connector and thats why tilting the laptop (usually tilt to the right) would get the thing working again. I started getting problems with the USB dropping out.. My keychain would unmount itself. Then the network started disappearing. I use a pcmcia card. I love this laptop as I like the trackpoint which are hard to find these days. Although the thinkpad trackpoint is easier on the finger. Starting to sound like a bad BGA chip that would need to be HOT-AIR reworked for a permanent fix. (( look up BGA and XBOX 360 )) BTW in windows my network connection would randomly show 4.9 billion packets rec'd and then flexing the base of the laptop would reset the number to 311 or 3000 etc... Linux would freeze.. never had it come back. I was able to get the network to stay on for a little while by scaling back the cpu to 800 mhz or conservative. But eventually the PCMCIA slot would fail and wouldn't comeback.. dmesg would show failure to power up pcmcia. Anymore clues? I am probably just going to get another one off of ebay and use this one for parts.. I am going to be getting a 250 watt hot air station anyway maybe I'll give that I try at some point.. argh.. Duane |
Duane,
I recently found a new motherboard for this laptop, and replaced the old one by it. This worked for a few months, and then... the laptop started to freeze again! I think the problem is the laptop gets damaged when transporting, since I mostly take him along in my backpack and the laptop is quite flexible. I also posted this on the HP forum: http://forums13.itrc.hp.com/service/...readId=1077508 Even with this new motherboard it started to freeze after a while, so I think the motherboard gets damaged when loaded, and nothing can be done about that - except a new mobo. |
I have purchase another NC6220 off of ebay.
I believe the BGA chip(s) have failed, causing the intermittent connection problem. I've seen enough of these kind of chips fail on consumer type goods. My son picked up a Xbox 360 last summer for $30 that had the Red Ring of Death. He first tried the 'wrap it up in a blanket and run it trick" that worked for a while but was still intermittent he has since used a heat gun to 'reseat the chip' and now has extra fans keeping the case cool.. The links below explain it better than I can. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ball_grid_array http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8o6awjbWZw When I get my rework station I will be reseating the chips to see if that helps.. |
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