MSI S270 Randomly Freezes (no white screen!) :( :( :(

I'm very afraid having to post here again

My 3-day-old S270 has already begun to freeze out randomly
And it's not the famous whitescreen freeze.

When it's going to do so, the system slows down, there is a lot of disk activity, as if it were loading some program, and in a few seconds it stops responding.
Sometimes it freezes when loading XP, and sometimes even in the pre-load phase, and I can see that white ascii-style bar slowly stopping.

It seems to be disk related, but I really cannot find a clue.
The disk is a western digital WD800VE "scorpio".
Moreover, I've downloaded the western digital diagnosis tools and written the ISO image, but it hangs loading saying it cannot find several files (a txt file, and command.com) -- Yes, these files are there and the CD is fine.
I haven't yet succeeded in installing and running the windows version of the diagnosis tools before it hangs.

And finally, F**K MSI!!!
They managed to make the S270 incompatible with everything. They cannot solve (or they don't want to) that FAN on&off bug, that even a 10-year-old could fix it in 2 hours.
They do good products in theory and with lots of features, but they're CRIPPLED with bugs or hardware defect that compromise their use. I've had their KT6 Delta motherboard, all good yeah, but it had that ... little ... hardware bug that kept resetting the board in relation to room temperature.
Unbelievable, isn't it? MSI!!

 

first, i would use an hd diagonostic tool like hdtune to check the health of your hd. i would also check your ram, just in case you have a ram defect. memtest86 is a good program for that.

 

The ram is OK, i've tested it with microsodt memory tester (a similar program that also boots from its cd)

I've managed to install and run the windows version of the WD diagnostic, and managed to do the short SMART test (2 minutes), and it reports OK.... yea, OK......

 

Oh WHY i'm so unfortunate I could be the 1st in the world with this problem.
And, best of all, I've bought my S270 in germany (and i'm italian and live in italy) so the warranty would be a nightmare

I've opened the bottom cover (where the hard disk hides) and reseated everything I could reseat, including the disk drive connector.

Still, no luck, I use HDTach for testing, it runs perfectly until it comes to the read speed test, where in the middle suddenly I hear some hard disk seeks, and that's all. Freezed.

 

it seems like hd failure, which, fyi, isn't really msi's fault. it is the hd manufacturer's fault. i would call your reseller, or if you put it together yourself, the hd company and get them to send you a new one.

 

Firstly, thanks ejl for answering...

Anyway I'm almost sure this isn't the hard disk's fault. At least for its age, it's 3 (three) days old!!!
It works perfectly, until it slows down that way as if it were intensively used by another task, and eventually will freeze the wholw system in the end.
Last time I started the system, it slowed down when preloading windows xp and it took much more time than normal, but then it loaded fine (crashed after a minute or so while browsing a pdf).

I'm looking into a ram upgrade fault anyway, as it's the only thing I've done to this notebook.

 

I'm sorry for your unluckiness, but I still think that the MSI S270 is a good machine. I also had problems with an AIRIS laptop and I can understand your disapointment. Even more when it is three days old!

I would like to ask the name of the german shop because I want to purchase the MSI S271 online and I can't find it in Spain. Did you have to pay the customs duties when you bought the laptop? How is the screen? Is it too glossy? What part of Italy are you from?

Thank you and I hope that you get rid of that problem as soon as possible.

Bye

 

next1: "Oh why are we both so unfortunate..."

Somehow we seem to have some related problems.

I bought my computer in Germany, through ALDI, and labeled as a Medion 96400 computer. Which I found to be the same as MS-1013.

After 2 weeks of use, my computer started strangely to freeze when booting Windows. (Or anything else from CD)

I live in Denmark, so the warranty might be a problem for me as well. However, the service/support company that ALDI use in Denmark, accepted to do the service here - Altghough replacements had to be ordered in Germany (if any).

For me, it was the harddrive which failed - Replaced and working after 1½ weeks.

So check if wherever you bought it in Germany might have some related company in Italy.

I'm currently only stuck with the Fan ON/OFF or Always ON problems. I bought a new wireless card because the one inside had really bad reception.

I believe it's a good laptop price/performance. But I'm frustrated that MSI can not or will not release an update that solves the really annoying and quite small bugs in their computers...

 

thenext1, you are not the only one! I had the same problem with my MSI S270, but it gets even worse because after updating to beta bios 431 I can't even boot into Windows, I can't even start a new setup! As far as I can see, the machine is hosed!!!

I'm hoping my reseller can help, it's still under warranty

 

first of all many thanks for your answers and support, I didn't answer because i'm no more receiving email notifications

I've bought it from avitos.... take a look at www.geizhals.at/eu, it's a online shop search engine, I've found it there, you can find it for under 900 € now.
I didn't pay any custom as with my other purchases in germany.
Beware that I had to purchase an italian keyboard from www.albcomputer.de (ask them via email).
The screen is glossy, but I can't tell you if it's in excess because I haven't had a chance yet to try it ounder the sun: it lays with it's cover opened on my desk, waiting for a fix to come.
I'm from north-eastern coast of italy, near city of Rimini if you have heeard about it.

this statement is, by now, the most valuable thing i've found on the internet!!
You know when you're the only one in the world having similar problems, and Google returns "0 results", it's VERY frustrating!!!!
Anyway I'm not 100% sure that we got the same problem.
Sometimes it doesn't happen. It seems to happen when the laptop has just been started and is cold.
I've finally managed to update te bios to 6.75, but I had to vcreate a fat32 partition, copy the bios files on it, and then start the pc with the ONLY cd-rom that would start: the Win98 install cd-rom.
All other bootdisks would simply freeze.
And Nero's internal boot image would cause a strange effect on my S270: see it HERE. ( please right-click and "save as")

With the new bios, I've set the memory to DDR333 but that doesn't help, I've had no freeze but it was almost there, the hard disk slowed down like a turtle and made strange sounds, and then, almost seemlessly, started to work well until 2 hours later when I turned it off. I HATE this thing!!!

Linnau: what HDD did you have when it stopped working? What one do you have now?
I have a wstern digital WD800VE "scorpio", heats like hell.

what does it do? Does it freeze? We're talkin about hdd-related freeze!!

 

I don't know which model was originally in my laptop. It was some model made by Western Digital. A 60gb disk.
My computer now has a new WD 60gb disk, which may be same model as the first one: "WD 600 VE".
You're absolutely right - They really do heat up. It is by far the hottest place on my laptop

 

oh my ****ing god!!!!!!!!!

I found a powerful clue of what's happening........

Today it crashed again and the disk was emitting that noise, similar to static.
I was wishing to record that sound with my mobile phone, but as I hanged it with the microphone over the disk, I immediately realized that the noise it's directly influenced by electromagnetic pollution!!
If I set the phone apart, it would stop. If I near the phone to the disk, 4-5cm on it, it immediately begins *shhhhhhhhhhhhh* !!!!!!!!
The same with the battery pack, or virtually eveything composed of metal.....

It must be some magnetic interferene that disrupt signals around the notebook.
Now, it's IMPOSSIBLE that only mine has this defect.
I think the disk must also take a part in this bug.

oh my god i've got an impossible one to solve

 

i have bought MSI S270 too about 2 months ago. For 2 weeks i am having the same problem... it does this twice a week. i have checked the HD and the Ram. the both of them have no problem. Do you have a solution already.

 

I have been useing an S270 since the day the things were released in Canada...
I find the electromagnetic interference idea kinda odd beacuse my S270 is primarily used for programing Ambulance Data Recorders which involves being VERY close to the strobe packs while they are operating and if you are unaware a strobe pack puts out so much RF it is pretty retarted...
I have had my S270 apart many times to upgrade the ram , bigger hard drive (toshiba 60g) and just becuase I wanted to take it apart....
I noted that there were lots of foil barriers and metal heat shields that if not reinstalled properly would probably cuase heat and or interference issues.

Have you tried another hard drive ??????

And I did solve my fan problem by using RMClock

 

Hello, this is my first post here.

It seems that our MSI S270 is dead. It won't power on. I tried detaching the battery for 30 mins and the thing won't turn on. I'll be leaving the battery detached overnight and I am crossing my fingers that it'll turn on tomorrow.

 

Can you please post bios 6.75 for me, as I cannot find it anywhere
Thanks!!!

 

Found it, it's bios 6.75 beta
also downgraded the UMA Frame Buffer size to 64
and with this new bios also set the DRAM Speed to 333 MHZ (under the Main tab on the bios)
Downloaded the new bios from Here

 

I think I have the same problem somewhat, although it's worse. The flickering starts when XP (running x64 sp2) loads upon the login screen. After logging in it gets progressivly worse until the system hangs.

Now I've found one, very peculiar solution to the problem. If I hook up my 2.5in external HDD the system is perfectly stable.... (as soon as I turn it off it immediately starts to flicker again, and stops when I turn it on)

Also I've found that on Vista x64 it doesn't have this problem at all (after a few updates/driver installs I think, I'm not sure if it worked perfectly without updates)

> ms1013 with Athlon x64 mobile 2800+

Don't know if I've checked the ram-timings before, are the timings visible w/ the default BIOS? I remember it being very basic.

 

What is the white screen freeze. I have a MEGABOOK L720 - the first one was replaced. They both have screen freezing and changing different colours including white. Is there another thread about this. I am new here and just trying to find what I can about the problems of my laptop.