Laptop boots up as normal and then freezes
I have a HP laptop and whenever I turn it on, it seems to boot up fine. All the icons appear on the screen. Then I try to click on any icon and nothing happens. I cannot access the start menu either. Its like everything is frozen.
I usually have to turn off and on the laptop about 6-8 times before it actually boots up and can work normal.
I have never had a problem like this and I am scared that my laptop is dying.
There could be a few different possible problems with your laptop.
First of all, this might be a software related problem. Test if your laptop freezes in Safe Mode. Turn on the laptop and press F8 as soon as HP logo appears on the screen, select Safe Mode from the menu. If the laptop freezes in normal mode but works fine in Safe Mode, most likely you have some kind of software related issue. I’m not going to troubleshoot any software related issues because it might take hours and bring no results. In this case backup all personal data from the hard drive and reinstall the operating system from the recovery disc.
If the laptop freezes even in Safe Mode, I would run diagnostic tests on the hard drive and memory. You can test the hard drive with Hitachi’s DFT test and memory with Memtest86+. Links to both utilities are located in “Useful Links” on the right side of the website.
If the hard drive fails to pass the test, replace the hard drive and reinstall the operating system.
If the memory fails to pass the test, replace the memory module.
Also, try removing the wireless card and modem one by one and run the laptop without them. A faulty wireless card can freeze up the whole system.
August 19th, 2009 at 6:27 am
i have similar problem.i have toshiba satellite a205-s4577 series model. my laptop hangs up/ freezes if the ac adaptor is plugged.i had a technician look at it and he said its the mother board problem.but im not sure if he is right.he said it could be the IC or the vga.i tried reformatting my laptop same problem occured.but while working on safe mode..the plug works..but after sometime, it also hangs.
im really desperate to have my laptop get back from working how it used before.
hope you can help me.thank you for your time..
August 8th, 2009 at 2:41 pm
Hi, my hp dv4 laptop freezes anytime i boot it .I tried on safe mood it works perfectly on the first time ,i trie booting for the second time it freeze,i took it to safe mode it freezes.Now when you boot it it doesn’t come on screen.please help me with my problem.
THANK YOU.
July 17th, 2009 at 12:06 pm
Hello. I have an HP laptop with Windows Vista Home Permium…I was cleaning my room yesterday, looked over, and my laptop had apparently started to shut down on it’s own! Now it will not load up windows vista. I gets stuck on the welcome screen, and sometimes freezes even before I can type my password in. I had my sister look at it in safe mode…but we’re not sure what to do to fix my Laptop. Please help ;(.
July 11th, 2009 at 1:18 am
Hey,
Just got an Acer Aspire 4736z. I ran it the first day and it was smooth. The next morning it turned on, and then froze. Couldn’t even access it to shut it off.
It does the same on mains and the battery as well as in the safe mode. What should I do???
April 29th, 2009 at 1:29 pm
Hi. I would be so greatful HELP.
NEW HP pavilion dv4 Ent. notebook pc
The toolbar/start bar at the bottom of my screen is frozen im still able to you the desktop shortcuts but nothing on the bar will work.
Meaning i cant shut down or restart etc.
Or reach any programs other then whats on the screen. I cant open programs im using ( anything i’ve minimized) and they also dont show. Please help.
I tried removing the battery
and using the ctrl
Esc and window logo bottons.
No success.
April 27th, 2009 at 12:03 am
Hi, I have a Dell Inspiron 1545 and after login in it freezes on my desktop. I can move the cursor around but it won’t load anything. Tried restarting several times in safe mode and attmepted a system restore, which failed due to an unspecified error. Any ideas on how to fix? I’ve had it less than a month.
April 22nd, 2009 at 5:13 am
I have an HP Pavillion zv5000 laptop. When I start it, it boots up normally. However, it shows only the desktop background and does not show any icons on the screen. Also, it does not show the start menu. The cursor is there and can be moved but right/left clicking will not show anything. What seems to be the problem? Will I bring it to a laptop repair shop or just to a software technician? I appreciate to anyone who can help me with this. Thanks a lot.
April 18th, 2009 at 4:36 am
Hello, I have an HP laptop which started actign weird recently. It sort of hangs- I can usually move the cursor but cannot click on anything. If I try to close some programs which are running or open task manager, it freezes completely and the screen goes a whitish colour. I have tried 2 system restores and a recovery and the problem was not solved. That was on normal mode. Then I tried using safe mode with networking, this seems to be working much better, although being slow. If I try now to get on normal mode, the laptop hangs as soon as I put my password in. I cannot even restart it having to use the power button to shut down n switch back on. A virus scan with norton cannot be completed and this applies both to normal and safe mode. At some point, it continues processing but without progressing. I ran memory test and HDD test. Memory was ok but I received #1-07 fail error for HDD test. In summary,
1. laptop was hanging on normal mode
2. Now cannot even access normal mode, freezes after putting password in
3. Works better on safe mode, but slow
4. Cannot run virus scan to completion
5. HDD test failure:#1-07
Any sugestion as to whether this is a hardware or sofware or OS issue?
Thnk you.
April 16th, 2009 at 2:09 am
laptopfreak:
i have a toshiba P-15 S420 that is having power issues. it is not the solder connection that is broken as is the issue with most toshibas. this is what it does; i plug in the ac cord and both led bulbs on the front of the laptop light up (there are two; one showing that the ac cord is plugged in, and one showing that the battery is either charging [red light], or fully charged [green light]). if i then open the power utility, it shows what percentage full the battery is, and that it is charging. now when the battery gets to 100% charged, the led bulb showing that the ac cord is plugged in stays on, but the led showing that the battery is either charging or full goes off. and when i open the power utility it shows that the ac cord is plugged in, but the battery is discharging. it will discharge all the way down to zero and shutoff. then when i turn it back on, it starts the whole process over again. any suggestions?
March 12th, 2009 at 6:30 pm
hello,
i have a Dell Inspiron 2200. The other day it had fallen off the desk and now the computer boots but runs really slow and if i click on an icon it sometimes freezes. I noticed the fan hasn’t kicked on either, could that be the problem?? If you have any other input i would appreciate it!!
March 3rd, 2009 at 6:05 pm
I have a similar problem with my Sony Vaio VGN-NR11Z/S. Sometimes I turn it on and it’s fine, whilst other time I turn it on and all the icons will load on the desktop but not on the toolbar, and the google sidebar will either freeze or not load properly. So frustrating, and then normally have to turn it on and off about 5 times before it all loads! Any help would be much appreciated
February 9th, 2009 at 10:58 am
I have a slightly older (2003-04) Compaq laptop, which freezes a minute or two after switching to battery power. It did it with the old battery so a new one was purchased. The battery is brand new and holding a charge. In safe mode I can start it up no problem, navigate around and it stays running. In normal mode it can’t even make it all the way through start up. I was thinking a hardware conflict maybe? Any thoughts are very appreciated. Thank you.
February 8th, 2009 at 11:42 pm
justin,
Could be bad hard drive. You can test the hard drive with Hitachi’s drive fitness test, it works well even on non-Hitachi drives. I linked to this utility in “Useful Links” on the right side.
Make sure to run the advanced test.
February 8th, 2009 at 8:38 pm
i recently bought a used toshiba satellite P15-S420 from a friend. he warned me that it had some odd power problems. and here’s what they are- first i reformatted the computer with a new copy of xp that i had bought and never used. installed the drivers from toshiba’s web site. and installed sp3 for xp. everything works fine, but when i try to shut down or restart the computer it gets all the way down to “windows is now shutting down” (after “windows is saving your settings” and freezes. i can still shut it down by holding down the power button for five seconds, and it starts up fine and runs fine. i did notice that it gets quite hot. checked the fans, and both work. blew them out with compressed air. but they are only located on the left side of the computer, and the right side (where the battery is) gets quite hot. idk. any suggestions?
January 18th, 2009 at 3:51 pm
Hi, i got a Toshiba R100 up with installed Ubuntu cause i don’t like MS products at all.
So my problem is that i boot the laptop without problems. After being started up, if i push any key (really, could happen with any key) the laptop freezes (gets a kernel panic). The Laptop is able to idle for a few days without any freeze until hitting some keys and it freezes again.
I don’t think that it is a software failure rather a hardware one…
have u got any suggestions for me how to deal with that issue or what i can do to prevent those freezes?
December 17th, 2008 at 4:55 pm
I need help trying to fix my laptop. I’m having a very similar problem to you. But it takes longer than usual to boot up, then everything appears. I try clicking on an icon, and nothing happens at all. I try going to the start menu, and still the same problems occur.
Yesterday my laptop was working perfectly, and I shut it down properly. This morning, I turned it on and found it took a while to boot up. Then the problems occurred.
I NEED HELP :[
October 9th, 2008 at 8:19 am
Amazing webiste and tones of infrmation.
I have a Toshiba A85 laptop when i turn it on it freeze the desktop screen and i can heard fan noise buit after a 20 seconds or so fan stops and screen become blank.
none of the keys on keyboard works. checked on back fan stops working.
try to reboot again and agian nothing work.
Do i need to change the fan or check memory module.
Please help me out.
Thank you
September 26th, 2008 at 3:22 am
Last year i have spilled a drink on my laptop and had my keyboard changed by my official dealer, and my laptop has been working very fine, recently my laptop started to freeze on me when booting up. I have reinstalled evrything again it worked fine for a couple of days, then started again the same problem. i think it is related to the net at least that is my impression, the problem is that i have sent my laptop again to my official dealer and they said everything is fine, but they had found some traces of liquid spill on my motherboard, suggestimg me that i should repair it.
i really don’t feel there is a kind of relationship between the motherboard and the freezing…\
any advises??
thanks a lot
September 19th, 2008 at 6:45 pm
Hai All,
I am using a laptop of Dell Inspiron 1525 series with VISTA Operating System from past 4 months. Now i am facing a problem of keep shutting down my laptop suddenly without any reason. Again when i am switching on, itz giving a recovery notification that asking me to run in SAFE mode. So i tried that one also. But, there is no result. Same thing was happening Oftenly.
Plz suggest a solution…..Thank you……
September 13th, 2008 at 12:53 pm
after repairing of my laptop(power on/off problem),my mouse cursor stop to work after 1min. Or less.but it work in safe mood.i reinstalled window xp again.but it has the same problem.give me a solution.thanks
September 4th, 2008 at 1:09 am
Hi,
I have a similar problem with the original question poster.
I usually have to turn off and on the laptop about 6-8 times before it actually goes to BIOS. If I make a change on BIOS it freezes, sometimes it lets me save it and goes to windows but unfortunately this time it freezes on windows welcome screen, or if it passes that it freezes on main desktop screen in 2 or max 3 minutes.
When I unplug the AC adapter and run the laptop on the battery power, it freezes, and also it freezes when the AC adapter is unplugged
I testes in Safe Mode. It freezes up in Safe Mode as well.
Basically it freezes in windows and also in Bios. I put a new HDD same problem. I formatted my existing hdd still same problem.
This problem is killing me. Any help would be appreciated.
August 2nd, 2008 at 3:14 am
Can you help please? I have a laptop that literally will only work when on your lap! It’s an HP6325 – when the a/c adapter is used unless the machine is actually sitting on your lap the pointer freezes and will not move. On your lap it works OK.
The machine is also pretty slow generally. I have tried to start in safe mode but can only go so far before it hangs.
Any suggestions welcomed, thanks, Mike
July 17th, 2008 at 12:25 am
Great site! My wife recently purchased an HP dx6650us pavilion. Has had this problem from the beginning: On power up, everything goes fine until just after the Vista welcome screen. A black screen with nothing but the “pointer” comes next. This screen sometimes lasts for over a minute. You can move the pointer with the mouse, but there is no indication the PC is doing anything else. Then suddenly, the little circle appears next to pointer, and the desktop pops up! So its not locked up, just pauses. The weird thing is, this is about 60 to 70% of the time. Other times, black screen is a couple of seconds, then goes right to desktop. My concern is something is going bad already, and this will get worse. I have a lower dollar Lenovo I just purchased, and it runs much faster at startup, and is overall quicker. One other thing; this black screen has stayed on over 10 minutes one time, and my wife had to shut it down. When PC is put into sleep or hybernate, this does not happen at all. I’ve “pruned” all the start up programs I can, and ran an optimizer software. Laptop is 2 months old, what’s up? Thanks to all for any help.
July 6th, 2008 at 9:46 am
Hello,
My Toshiba A85-S710 freezes anytime I attempt to move the laptop. It boots perfectly, and works fine as long as its sitting stationary on a table. I’ve been reading some blogs on your website and others on the internet, and im wondering if something might be loose.
Do you have any suggestions??
Thanks!
June 24th, 2008 at 12:41 pm
Stan W,
Actually, updating the BIOS is not that radical. If you follow the instructions, there should be any problem. It’s possible that your laptop has a know issue and Sony has a fix in the latest BIOS. If they suggest updating the BIOS, I would definitely try it, just make sure to follow the instructions.
That could be software or hardware related problem. You can try reinstalling the operating system first. Back up all personal files and run the recovery disc, it will reinstall everything back to factory defaults. If you still experience the same problem even after reimaging the hard drive, most likely you problem is hardware related.
June 24th, 2008 at 12:26 pm
First of all, what a great site.
You are my last hope as I have called Sony Vaio customer service and they are useless. I have a Vaio that is several years old running on Windows XP. Lately, even when in AC mode, after a few minutes idle the screen gets dim like it’s trying to save power. Then, about 50% of the time the cursor will freeze and I can only restart it by using the Windows key. After I reboot, it’s fine but the same thing keeps happening. Sony wants me to do a Bios Update but I am nervous to do something that radical. Any thoughts?
Thanks!
June 20th, 2008 at 11:53 am
I was on MSN with my friend and we were playing UNO on the IM.`Suddenly, my computer froze up but came back and the microphone we were talking on hung up. I tried calling her again but it gave me an error that the messanger wasn’t working. I exited out and tried to chat with her again. In the middle of typing my sentence, it froze again then closed all my MSN windows out. I tried to close out my internet that was up and it froze too. After that I became fed up and I turned it off. I then tried to turn it back on and it took longer to get past the WINDOWS loading bar. The backround came up and my cursor sat in the middle of the screen. I still would not load after and 3 times of turning it on and off with the same problem. I’m really scared that I killed yet another computer. Please help me or my Dad is going to be so mad!
June 18th, 2008 at 2:21 am
Sir,first of all id like to congratz u for a great site.well,my problem is regarding a acer 5710 laptop.
first question is if i keep the laptop running for 24 hours on ac power will it harm mmy laptop in anyway by over heating or any other means ?
second problem is when i turn on my laptop,the ON indicator glows but there is no display ,not a word.i usually have to try 10-15 times to get my display on .
this problem started at first my display was freezed .mouse didnt move and keys didnt responded .at that time i was on AC power .
the above problem still persist. it sometimes workds sometimes not so everytime i open my laptop i have to pray for my luck.
Please kindly understand my problem and give your expert opinion .thanking you.
March 4th, 2008 at 8:28 pm
Eric,
What if you unplug the AC adapter and run the laptop on the battery power? Will it freeze when the AC adapter is unplugged?
Did you test in Safe Mode? Will if freeze up in Safe Mode?
Do you know if the laptop freezes only in Windows? Access the BIOS setup menu and test your laptop in there. Will it freeze up while running the BIOS setup menu?
March 4th, 2008 at 9:46 am
I have an IBM thinkpad that freezes when I power it up. Sometimes it makes it all the way to the main screen but even then it locks up. I took the battery out and plugged it into the AC and everything works fine. Does this mean that the battery is bad and I should simply replace the battery or could something else be wrong? I dont want to spend the money on a new battery if its not the problem!
thanks,