Can I save my laptop?

[Xist]

Lenovo Legion Y520. i7-7700HQ 2.8GHz. 16 GB RAM.

The manufacturer's warranty runs out in 2 days.

Overall I like it, but it crashes excessively. It was merely annoying until two weeks ago, when it happened at the end of the session--and at the beginning of the session last week.

I rarely saw more than four clients in a week, so that is one crash during less than 4 hours.

Since I was just using video conferencing and not physically interacting with the laptop I didn't realize how hot it was. I later measured the outside at 117°, but it was in the nineties outside, and probably a bit warmer in my shed. The ceiling measured 101°. I am sure that more insulation would do more. So would airflow. I have a powerful shop fan, but it didn't seem to lower the temperature well enough on 3, and it was still too loud on 1.

I honestly may install a ceiling fan in the shed!

Installing a vent in the back wall would allow cross-flow.

My research said that fans only do so much when the ambient temperature is excessive.

I bought a laptop cooler, but it is still crashing.

I forget the error code that I have often seen, but BlueScreenView says that ntoskrnl.exe was involved. This page says:

1: Update Your Drivers. Microsoft says leave that to Windows, their crack team of crackpots verify every driver before Windows installs it, but my laptop is crashing now.

I run Driver Booster 7a, which says that my drivers are up-to-date, but if I pay it will update another 21 drivers.

What?

The page recommends installing their updater, which installs one update at a time and then makes you wait longer and longer--often four hours or longer.

I updated everything, though, although MalwareBytes now blocks the program.

2: Run a Scan with the Windows Memory Diagnostic Tool. I ran this several months ago for the same problem and I ended up using other tests. I ran it, which took over half an hour, and couldn't find any test results. It just finished and restarted. The information is supposed to be in Event Viewer, but it didn't show anything. All that l found for "I ran the test, but cannot find the results" is "Do it again."

Three tests.

Zero results.

I guess that I will run that test that I have on a flash drive.

3. Run sfc /scannow as administrator. If necessary, run CHKDSK /f /r and then sfc /scannow again.

4: Reset Overclocking Settings for Your Devices. I have never tried to overclock.

5: Install Windows Updates. I did this when I checked my drivers.

6: Perform a System Restore. That escalaated quickly!

7: Check Your Hardware: Replace your RAM and SSD.

What do I do if it still crashes with new memory and storage?!

How do I get my memory test results?!

Well, I am going to find and run that other test. Do you guys have any suggestions? I need something capable and stable for work!

[mpg_numbers_guy]

For overheating issues, open up the laptop and examine the components, redo all the thermal pasting as that might've failed if it's overheating. Kinda hard to overdo it with thermal paste. Upgraded fans might help if you can do that on your laptop. Might need to do a backup and reinstall windows/linux.

[redpoint5]

If it's under warranty and an overheating issue, it needs to be addressed by Lenovo. There might be BIOS settings or a Lenovo utility that can set the cooling mode. Essentially it sets the fan speed based on various temperature thresholds. Some modes are advertised as "quiet", which simply runs the fans slower more of the time.

Did it crash the first few months of ownership?

I installed RAM that should have been compatible with my work laptop, but it caused spontaneous reboots about once a day. Ended up removing that stick of RAM and never had issues again.

If I have a spare laptop I'll PM you. They're probably 6 years old though.

[freebeard]

16 GB RAM

There's your problem. 640K should be enough for anybody.

You could address the fundamental limitation of the system — Prepare and reboot from a Linux thumb drive.

[samwichse]

"I run Driver Booster..."

Lol, reformat the laptop and start over again. It's the only way to be sure you've gotten completely rid of the damage that crapware caused.

Seriously. Back up your files and bookmarks to a thumb drive, and totally reinstall. Download the Lenovo driver/software tool for your specific machine. If your machine is still crashing, it's a hardware problem. Heat should not crash any modern Intel processor, just cause thermal throttling.

[Ecky]

Originally Posted by samwichse

"I run Driver Booster..."

Lol, reformat the laptop and start over again. It's the only way to be sure you've gotten completely rid of the damage that crapware caused.

Seriously. Back up your files and bookmarks to a thumb drive, and totally reinstall. Download the Lenovo driver/software tool for your specific machine. If your machine is still crashing, it's a hardware problem. Heat should not crash any modern Intel processor, just cause thermal throttling.

I agree with this. Don't install any "cleanup" or "speedup" software, most if it is just there to spy on you. Windows updates its own drivers.

~

Generally speaking, a laptop should be able to deal with high ambient temperatures. My suspicion is that this is either a hardware fault (needs replacement under warranty, nothing you can do) or software corruption (reformate with a clean copy of Windows).

Open Windows Event Viewer, expand "Custom Views", and select "Administrative Events". When it bluescreens, there will be a code associated with the particular way it crashed (not just that it was the kernel). This is an old BSOD code list and many of them may not apply anymore, but it might give you a lead on what exactly is failing. My opinion though, this is something Lenovo should fix. A computer should not crash. I've had PCs run continually for the better part of a decade without a reboot or a crash.

https://www.overclock.net/forum/5-in...code-list.html

[redpoint5]

http://shouldiremoveit.com

I reference this site all the time with regards to any application I'm unsure of. PCs often come with bloatware garbage software which should be uninstalled. Worst of all is poorly functioning software we purchase an intentionally install. Even reputable companies have products I find lots of issues with, like Norton/Symantec (apologies freebeard).

[freebeard]

(apologies freebeard)

Ehhh.... They laid me off in 2002. I'm more a fan of Kaspersky.

Originally Posted by Ecky

I've had PCs run continually for the better part of a decade without a reboot or a crash.

Not so much as a reboot? No system upgrades in a decade? I thought I was obsessive about uptime.

[redpoint5]

When moving servers at my old job, there was one that probably had been up for a decade or more. I powered it off, moved it to the new location, powered it on, and it had a drive failure. One of the disks wouldn't spin up. It was a non-issue though because it was RAID-1 and the redundant disk was fine.

I'll go months without rebooting my laptop. That's with hundreds of Chrome tabs open.

[serialk11r]

It's under warranty, insist that they fix it (I'm assuming you already checked it's not caked with dust).

On a somewhat related note, I have a strong suspicion high operating temperatures makes laptops inherently less reliable than desktops. My Thinkpad X220 became practically unusable at year 6 with the CPU fan always on maximum and the simplest tasks taking forever. I've seen this happen to all kinds of notebooks, but much faster to cheapo ones and refurbished laptops, while my desktop machine ran without a hitch for many years on the same motherboard and CPU.