Weird Problem with Toshiba M35-S320 laptop.

[nelsonm]

hi all,

I have this toshiba m35-s329 laptop a customer brought in complaining that it would not play videos, access his hotmail or load flash.

As a policy, i run hardware diagnostics including his ram, system board and harddrive - no problems indicated.

So i rebuilt his system using the recovery disc - which i had to find a work around on since the recovery process initially said that it could not proceed because it was the "Wrong Machine". I found a procedure that allowed me to bypass the recovery startup error and reinstall the factory ghost image on the disc.

Here is the weird part...

I initially restored the laptop in my home office (my basement). It worked perfectly through out the day testing including the installation of ms service packs and updates. I then brought it upstairs and restarted the system to show the client that everything was working. It would repeatedly startup, login and crash with the BSOD. I rebuilt the system a few times with the same results.

Thinking the recovery disc image may be corrupted, I then rebuilt the system using an OEM disc up stairs. Again, everything worked fine for day. The next morning, the same problem showed up - It would repeatedly startup, login and crash with the BSOD.

Luckily, the client is in no hurry and is allowing me to track down the problem.

I do remember repairing another laptop a while ago that required a patch from the manufacture's website in order for the factory image to function properly, but i have not seen any such issue on toshiba's site regarding this laptop.

Does anyone have a clue?

Thanks.

 

[NYJimbo]

I think you need to do more intense diagnostics. If it worked fine for a while, especially after doing patches, service packs, drivers but then started failing later sounds like a HD, RAM or motherboard issue.

Not sure why it would need a "patch" to keep it stable, but that would depend on what issue the patch was addressing.

Just like scanning for viruses, diagnosing hardware requires up to date tools that really dig deep. I know techs who still use Memtest86, not the plus version for ram tests or PCTOOLS utilities for hardware diags. Not sure what you have but I would check to see if they are robust and up to date.

 

[nelsonm]

thanks for responding...

This laptop did or does not need a manufacture's patch, it was another laptop.

I am performing a memtest86 v4.3.2 (no +) diagnostic. on 3rd pass, So far no errors. I use Dell's Diagnostic tool but probably should look into other tools. My next quick test is to swap out the ram and hard drive.

BTW, PcTools by Symantec does not appear to have a hardware diagnostic tool, only performance/registry/file cleanup/anti virus tools.

 

[NYJimbo]

BTW, PcTools by Symantec does not appear to have a hardware diagnostic tool, only performance/registry/file cleanup/anti virus tools.

That's what I mean. They run registry mechanic and the performance tools to "diagnose" the machine. Its like when someone has problems with their computer and they download any of the free registry cleaners because they think that's going to fix their PC. Its not a true diag program but that's what they consider diagnostics.

I also know a tech who installes SuperAntiSpyware free AND AVG free and tells his customers that's the best pair for viruses. I work on his customer machines when he has a hardware issue and they are always on the machines.

 

[DonS]

Hardware...

I would really think you should be looking at hardware at this point. Only so many times you can restore a computer software wise and have it continue the same behavior before looking at hardware.

Check RAM and hard drive; after that it might just be motherboard and a lost cause.

 

[Dan_J]

Downgrade to internet explorer 9 and test. If this fails check for GPU acceleration and disable, test again. It sounds to me like a windows update was run and messed with IE.

Gpu acceleration http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2528233

To downgrade IE simply go to the installed updates list in windows update. Remove IE 10 update.

Also, can you give us the details of the BSOD? Use nirsofts blue screen view. If you cant boot the system to run the utility, pull the logs from the drive using a toaster or usb to sata adapter.

 

[nelsonm]

The problem occurs right after factory or OEM disc restore - before updates.

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

Albert Einstein

After the third time, i have stopped reinstalling a new system on the laptop and i am looking into the hardware.

keep you posted.

thanks.

 

[brandonkick]

I suspect the drive may be going bad.


I had a problem where the drive would work great after a factory restore... but if I started to load "my stuff" on to the computer then the next reboot was to a constant BSOD. so the extra 30 gb of music, software, pictures and other data must have been running into bad sectors on the drive.

A new drive solved the problem in a jiffy.

 

[nelsonm]

Actually, the problem turned out to be the laptop wifi card.

It appears that as long as the laptop was close to the router, the signal strength was high enough and the wifi card caused no problems. However, when the laptop was farther away from the router, the signal strength was less causing the wifi card to crash the system while trying to connect.

thanks for your help.

 

[kip]

I wasn't necessarily going to say it was the wifi card, but I would bet it was hardware. Once the driver was installed (through updates, or yourself) you were getting the bsod. Did you ever research the bsod error code?

If it just flashed and went away, I am sure you know how to stop it by pressing f8 during boot. BSOD will tell you 9/10 times the answer by just googling the 0x0000xxx number.

Hope that helps some for next time.

 

[red12049]

Actually, the problem turned out to be the laptop wifi card.

It appears that as long as the laptop was close to the router, the signal strength was high enough and the wifi card caused no problems. However, when the laptop was farther away from the router, the signal strength was less causing the wifi card to crash the system while trying to connect.

thanks for your help.

Do you have any proof for that conclusion?

Rick

 

[ComputerRepairTech]

That model has 2 different wifi options...

Atheros and Intel


I think we all know which one he has =P

Edit: Usually an atheros caused BSOD has some clue on there that it was atheros...no driver file or nothing mentioned?