Sager NP9170 (P170EM) Crashing Every 5-10 Min - - > HDD Failure?

[Fumferknuckle]

Hey guys, Fumferknuckle again. (TLDR at bottom) 

 

So, I have a Sager NP9170 I've owned for a few years, with a i7 36something or similar AND the Infamous 7970m.. It's given me problems, like 3 failed HDDs, driver issues, glitches/bugs, and screen dots/lines being discolored or bugged in red/blue/green flashing in some games. My real question is about the Hard drive I believe. 

 

I recently got Windows 10 to install on a new (used drive) HDD (WD of course) and installed Windows 10 Educational (I dislike Cortana and it's free, I'm a student) and I was stoked I got it working. But I now have a PROBLEM - - > where the screen flickers once after about 5-10 minutes of on time (idle or doing any type of work) like a graphic driver updating, then a few seconds later it freezes. No error message, no blue screen, it literally just freezes. No mouse movement, no ctr+alt+del, no Windows key. No animations or screen changes, just freezes entirely. I've Googled the problem for hours and have been messing with this for 3 days now. Does anyone have any idea what's wrong? 

 

I've tried all of these:

-turning off Superfetch and Windows Search (had a very high disk usage, caused crashing, or so I thought)

-doing multiple restores (I do them as soon as I could and when made progress, like checkpoints)

-reinstalling Windows multiple times (at first the system would just freeze during boot, it would get past the splash screens, get past a please wait and get stuck on a black screen with spinny dot wheel)

-safe mode with networking (it doesn't crash, but I can't install any Windows Updates, it just continuously loads but doesn't give me any options, the other tabs load. I know I need a handful of updates, maybe important ones that would fix this but can't get them installed fast enough..  (7970m and Intel HD 4000, other small ones) 

-other things related to Googling freeze after flicker, high disk usage, sager problems

 

NOTE: so as I said, it doesn't freeze in Safe Mode w/ Net. It runs buttery smooth and the windows start menu runs good, however in regular boot it is sluggish and typing take between 15seconds to a minute for it to appear on Windows start menu, on YouTube it's fine.

 

VERDICT: I can only assume the hard drive is bad. I'm going to try and get a hard drive and try installing on that but it's all I can think of at this point. Are any of you experienced with a problem similar, or know a solution? Perhaps you know if it's the HDD or motherboard? It's my secondary rig (my girlfriend uses it as her computer at home and we play minecraft/Sims ect, but I'd like to take it with me to college for video editing and work outside of the lab) so being that it's not my desktop it's not end of the world, but I paid good coin 2-3 years ago and would like to get it running smooth if I'm going to sell it to upgrade my fx 8300 to match the 980ti I have (then girlfriend can use 8300 and 960gpu for games ect), or if I just want to use it when away from the big rig. 

 

I apologize for the long post, not many ways to condense it. Any and all help would be appreciated. I can give more specs if needed. 

 

TLDR = HDD(?) keeps crashing/freezing after a screen flicker, tried multiple solutions (above) but can't fix it. Any help is appreciated. 

 

P.S. The only thing I have tried is the Windows event thing I read about. I'd have to safe mode network download it, which I'm going to try if a restore and immediate update doesn't fix it. At one point it wasn't crashing (1 time) so I downloaded steam and 1 small game, made a restore point, tried the game and it ran great but no audio (issue I've experienced but can't fix, a restart fixes it usually) so I restarted and it begun freezing again. Restore froze at spinny wheel every time. Thought I'd mention it. Thanks again. 

[Veninblazer]

I think it may even be the RAM.

[Fumferknuckle]

8 hours ago, MasontheDeathbat said:

I think it may even be the RAM.

I'm kinda worried it's a more main component. I found another good HDD so I'm giving that a go, hopefully it won't give me problems. 

EDIT: Well. Bad news I guess. I successfully reinstalled Windows 10 to a new drive, am able to do the same things I can with the last drive. However, I still get the freeze after 5-10 minutes of on time. I'm going to assume that it's the RAM. Which is very unfortunate. I'm going to look for another kit and if it solves the problem then I'll replace the 16gigs with another 16gigs. What a pain this has turned out to be. 

[Pendragon]

@D2ultima

[Fumferknuckle]

Does anyone else think it is the RAM? I'd hate to have replace all 16 gigs, and I haven't been able to find a pair of sticks lying around that fits in the dimm slots on the board just to test it (the gap is more near the center instead of off to the side). Honestly I'm undecided on whether I think it's the RAM. I figure, if something was wrong with it, then I'd have much larger problems (no boots, error messages, immediate shut down ect). Both the bios and Windows verifies that the memory is there and working, and when I open a few chrome tabs it's starts using it and all is okay. 

It's just when that flicker happens, like a different driver gets enabled, that it freezes the screen. It could be my Windows 10 install media, but again I figure I'd be having other problems instead of the multiple successful installs, even on a different drive. Any thoughts or ideas are greatly appreciated. 

[D2ultima]

On 2/26/2017 at 1:09 AM, Fumferknuckle said:

Hey guys, Fumferknuckle again. (TLDR at bottom) 

 

So, I have a Sager NP9170 I've owned for a few years, with a i7 36something or similar AND the Infamous 7970m.. It's given me problems, like 3 failed HDDs, driver issues, glitches/bugs, and screen dots/lines being discolored or bugged in red/blue/green flashing in some games. My real question is about the Hard drive I believe. 

 

I recently got Windows 10 to install on a new (used drive) HDD (WD of course) and installed Windows 10 Educational (I dislike Cortana and it's free, I'm a student) and I was stoked I got it working. But I now have a PROBLEM - - > where the screen flickers once after about 5-10 minutes of on time (idle or doing any type of work) like a graphic driver updating, then a few seconds later it freezes. No error message, no blue screen, it literally just freezes. No mouse movement, no ctr+alt+del, no Windows key. No animations or screen changes, just freezes entirely. I've Googled the problem for hours and have been messing with this for 3 days now. Does anyone have any idea what's wrong? 

 

I've tried all of these:

-turning off Superfetch and Windows Search (had a very high disk usage, caused crashing, or so I thought)

-doing multiple restores (I do them as soon as I could and when made progress, like checkpoints)

-reinstalling Windows multiple times (at first the system would just freeze during boot, it would get past the splash screens, get past a please wait and get stuck on a black screen with spinny dot wheel)

-safe mode with networking (it doesn't crash, but I can't install any Windows Updates, it just continuously loads but doesn't give me any options, the other tabs load. I know I need a handful of updates, maybe important ones that would fix this but can't get them installed fast enough..  (7970m and Intel HD 4000, other small ones) 

-other things related to Googling freeze after flicker, high disk usage, sager problems

 

NOTE: so as I said, it doesn't freeze in Safe Mode w/ Net. It runs buttery smooth and the windows start menu runs good, however in regular boot it is sluggish and typing take between 15seconds to a minute for it to appear on Windows start menu, on YouTube it's fine.

 

VERDICT: I can only assume the hard drive is bad. I'm going to try and get a hard drive and try installing on that but it's all I can think of at this point. Are any of you experienced with a problem similar, or know a solution? Perhaps you know if it's the HDD or motherboard? It's my secondary rig (my girlfriend uses it as her computer at home and we play minecraft/Sims ect, but I'd like to take it with me to college for video editing and work outside of the lab) so being that it's not my desktop it's not end of the world, but I paid good coin 2-3 years ago and would like to get it running smooth if I'm going to sell it to upgrade my fx 8300 to match the 980ti I have (then girlfriend can use 8300 and 960gpu for games ect), or if I just want to use it when away from the big rig. 

 

I apologize for the long post, not many ways to condense it. Any and all help would be appreciated. I can give more specs if needed. 

 

TLDR = HDD(?) keeps crashing/freezing after a screen flicker, tried multiple solutions (above) but can't fix it. Any help is appreciated. 

 

P.S. The only thing I have tried is the Windows event thing I read about. I'd have to safe mode network download it, which I'm going to try if a restore and immediate update doesn't fix it. At one point it wasn't crashing (1 time) so I downloaded steam and 1 small game, made a restore point, tried the game and it ran great but no audio (issue I've experienced but can't fix, a restart fixes it usually) so I restarted and it begun freezing again. Restore froze at spinny wheel every time. Thought I'd mention it. Thanks again. 

Run HD Tune Pro in safe mode. Check your HDD for health. If all is fine, it's not the HDD. I don't think it's the HDD either. I think some drivers are screwed up. The fact that safe mode works means that things like graphics drivers aren't running. I'm sure it's some driver (or maybe even the 7970M failing) that's being a problematic cow, and somehow breaking your windows. It could also be even things like audio... there's no real way to know.

 

Do you have problems on installing fresh windows where it causes issues before installing drivers? Like before you ever connect it to a network, when everything is working on basic drivers (kind of like safe mode but with more things running)? If yes, then I can't figure out your issue. If no, then it's certainly a driver or failed part. You could try a fresh windows install (yes I know it's a HUGE pain) and install one driver at a time that you've got backed up somewhere and use the machine for a bit and see if things freeze. Alternately, connect it to wifi and set your connection to metered so it does not update anything, and follow this guide (for the important stuff anyway; no need to do everything) to disable a bunch of micro$haft things running and doing what they want in the background: http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/nbr-windows-10-clean-installation-guide.781178/

 

ANY driver you get to that starts causing the problem? Well you know now what to look out for.