MSI GT70 2PE freezes at desktop, 2-nd time now...help!

Alright, I think there is a good reason to start worrying now. I've had the machine since 27.05.14 and there were no problems, until 2 days ago. There were NO hardware changes on this machine since I got it. Nothing was added or replaced.

First incident - on 11.06.14, it froze while chatting on Steam. There were some pictures open in the background (using windows picture viewer) and some windows explorers. Skype was also running, but that's it - no games, nothing else (not even music). Mouse was frozen, keyboard didn't respond, the laptop keyboard was dead too.
- The only thing that was still responding was the FN functions (turbo fan, keyboard light, etc.) but those are BIOS and firmware related.
- The OS was just dead - the screen was showing everything as it was, but clock was not moving, screen was not turning off (it's set in power options to turn itself off after 2mins).

Second incident - today. I wasn't doing anything, just reading a notepad file that I wrote. Then I started moving my mouse and saw the cursor was skipping and lagging. After 2 more seconds - the system froze up.
- Again, same symptoms - everything is not responding, save for the FN button and the touch panel.
- Programs open: Skype (running at taskbar), Steam (no chat this time, running idle at taskbar), Internet Explorer 11 (10 tabs open, minimized, shouldn't be a problem), Windows Explorer (showing drive D, nothing else).

In both cases, I shut down the laptop by pressing the power button for 5secs. Then I powered it up, it booted normally. Of course, I got that message before startup "windows was not shut down properly...wanna boot in safe mode".

What I really want to know is:
1.) Why is this happening;
2.) Which components can cause those kind of freezes;
3.) Any methods I could try to troubleshoot?

Help will be much appreciated!

 

Update: Did a windows memory test and Memtest86 after that with a bootable USB drive. No errors for the RAM. All tests passed...
Gonna try testing the Toshiba mSATA SSD now.

Update: Finished a CHKDSK upon bootup, checking my SSD for errors. No errors whatsoever.
Here is the code:

Code:

Checking file system on C:
The type of the file system is NTFS.
Volume label is Primary.

A disk check has been scheduled.
Windows will now check the disk.                        

CHKDSK is verifying files (stage 1 of 5)...
  211968 file records processed.                                          File verification completed.
  211 large file records processed.                                      0 bad file records processed.                                        2 EA records processed.                                              60 reparse records processed.                                       CHKDSK is verifying indexes (stage 2 of 5)...
  254886 index entries processed.                                         Index verification completed.
  0 unindexed files scanned.                                           0 unindexed files recovered.                                       CHKDSK is verifying security descriptors (stage 3 of 5)...
  211968 file SDs/SIDs processed.                                         Cleaning up 261 unused index entries from index $SII of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 261 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 261 unused security descriptors.
Security descriptor verification completed.
  21460 data files processed.                                            CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal...
  35949720 USN bytes processed.                                             Usn Journal verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying file data (stage 4 of 5)...
  211952 files processed.                                                 File data verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying free space (stage 5 of 5)...
  20196427 free clusters processed.                                         Free space verification is complete.
CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the
master file table (MFT) bitmap.
CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the volume bitmap.
Windows has made corrections to the file system.

 124930047 KB total disk space.
  43770196 KB in 82979 files.
     56644 KB in 21461 indexes.
         0 KB in bad sectors.
    317495 KB in use by the system.
     65536 KB occupied by the log file.
  80785712 KB available on disk.

      4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
  31232511 total allocation units on disk.
  20196428 allocation units available on disk.

Internal Info:
00 3c 03 00 03 98 01 00 3d 0a 03 00 00 00 00 00  .<......=.......
c7 00 00 00 3c 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ....<...........
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ................

Windows has finished checking your disk.
Please wait while your computer restarts.

Now, Im absolutely stunned at what the reason for the freezup might be. Both freezes happened with different USB mice, using different USB's on the laptop (so that eliminates those possible culprits).
Any suggestions??

 

Update: Performed a command prompt "sfc /scannow" and it found some issues in some windows files, which it fixed by the next restart. Checked again - no issues this time.

Now, the waiting begins....I hope I don't see another freeze on my laptop. Really hoping its okay now. Should be....(since both SSD and RAM are tested and came out good).

 

I would check your temps for everything (CPU especially). It could be a bad paste job. Heat could definitely cause weird issues and freezes like that. I use HWInfo64 (portable version) to monitor temps. It could also be a motherboard issue like a cracked solder joint/trace.

 

Temps checked, CPU never exceeds 65'C in all stress situations. GPU is not an issue - it was not even in use when the crashes happened. Temps there max were ~72'C.
Room temperature is 22'C, im on air conditioning here in the office.

Temps are definitely not an issue, 1000000%. But thanks for the reply!

 

I know this wouldn't be your first choice, but you could try a system restore to before you had the issue the 1st time. Even better would be a fresh install or factory recovery. Depending on if it happened again that would prove if it was software or hardware. I would definitely try that before you ever decide to send it in for repair.

I'm just reaching here, but maybe something (browser plugin, program, driver) was updated/added/changed that is causing these issues. That would be far better than a hardware issue.

Alternatively, you could just install Chrome (or another browser) and use it for a few days. Or leave Skype off or Steam or anything else that was common between the two incidents. Just to make sure it isn't one of those programs causing the freezing. I would think this would be less likely though especially if you hadn't just updated them and its not consistent.

 

One possibility is Windows NDU driver memory leak (google it). If your freeze is caused by low memory - usually it gives a warning yet.
You can try: Open up "regedit" and go this key.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\Ndu
Change the "Start" value to 4 (to disable it).

 

Oh, I forgot to tell you - I am on windows 7! When I got the laptop on 27-05-14, I checked out the Win 8.1 that came with the machine and hated it. So I installed my good old Win7 Ultimate that I had on my previous Clevo machine (in my sig).

Here is some more information:
- No programs were changed ever since the installation of windows;
- System Restore is disabled for me (never really liked it);
- Running low on RAM is improbable, as in both cases when the freeze happened, there was ~2-3GB in use (from 12GB available).

What I personally suspect:
- Since I ran the command prompt today with "sfc /scannow", it found some issues with some protected windows files and it fixed it. This could have been the cause of the freezes.
- Maybe some driver is making funny stuff, most probably one of the Intel SM Bus drivers;

I will see if its fixed now, after running the SFC thing.

 

Ok, that NDU prob is Win8 only.

 

Something like this I would suspect either Windows or the drive. I am hoping it's just Windows, though!

Let us know if anything comes back from the sfc/scannow command line.

 

I have similar experience but more serious. After using my GT70 Dominator Pro for about 6 hours after I got it. It freezes with very similar symptoms to yours except with static noise from speakers and the power button won't work so it can't be shutdown.

I decided to take A/C and Battery off to shut it down. Alas, from then on, the machine won't boot. If try to power it on. The power button light will lighten up and the fan spin at full speed for about 20 seconds then everything shutdown again. Nothing show up on screen, not even MSI logo.

I guess it Mainboard or BIOS problem. I have to RMA.

 

Well, here we go again....another freeze. This time it was during Dota 2. This is the third freeze and I am going to reinstall the windows.

What I tried:
- tested RAM with Memtest86 and Windows Memory Diagnostic - its OK.
- tested SSD with Error Checking for bad sectors or clusters - its OK.
- checked all temps - no issue there.
- scanned windows installation with Command Prompt, sfc /scannow;

My next move will be:
- reinstall OS with the previous one I had on last laptop (which worked for the entire duration that I owned the machine);
- if there are more freezes after reinstall, then install OS on the HDD (this should allow me to see if the mSata SSD is bad);
- if more freezes occur, then its most likely a Motherboard or CPU issue. That means -> send the laptop back for replacement.

I really hate this.... It will be a long night and I am definitely NOT looking forward to this.... ;(

 

I hear you on that, been there many times with issues hoping they weren't hardware problems. Good luck and keep us posted. I wouldn't try to update drivers or software more than you have to, try to stay with stock or what worked best for you. No need to introduce any new issues into the mix.

 

Run vantage extreme on a loop. That can pick up on GPU errors.

 

I returned mine, and got a new one. No problem so far, very happy.

 

Okay, good news The last freeze was on 17-th. The same evening, I installed a different release of Win7, with SP1 integrated (+ all updates till 21-05-14 included in the release).
Not a single freeze so far! Its looking good! Maybe that old OS, where I installed SP1 manually, was the culprit!
I will report back after a longer period of time, hopefully it will remain stable as it is now!
So glad its working...

 

Seem like you have the software problem after all, which is better than if it's your hardware.