Windows Vista Windows "Not Responding" and Crashing.....

Running Vista on a Toshiba Satellite A215. Windows produces the error message "Not Responding." Repeatedly.

Then the machine goes black-screen and freezes, or black/white stripes and freezes.

Also happening when I try to access my external hard drive.

Thanks for your attention to this matter.

Ari

 

The first thing I would investigate is overheating. You could take it to a repairer, it should be opened up, the cooling fan held steady and the dust blown out (it blocks the fins of the heatsink).

If it is caused by the same program "not responding" every time, uninstall that program, test, reinstall it and find any updates, BUT, it seems like the graphics adapter is shutting down/crashing, so I would check hardware first.

Look in Event Viewer (find it in Help and Support), if the same program is listed every time.

You can test the memory (see my signature, run it overnight), but as I said, I would investigate overheating first.

Matt

 

Thank you for your prompt reply.

I found the event viewer along with a wealth of information. Unfortunately, since I do not know how to read the info, it is useless to me. Under which headings do i search for pertinent info and of which type am I looking to find?

Computer services told me it will be 2 weeks before they can test the fan(I live in a small town.)

 

In Event Viewer, look in Windows Logs, under the headings Applications and System. Find any problems (Critical or Error) with a date and time corresponding to the crash/freeze. Double-click on the listing and it will show the details.

See if it is the same program or service listed repeatedly, that one could be the culprit. If it has different programs/services as the source, it will be intermittent and I would suspect a hardware problem (like overheating). Also, when you see the notice Not Responding, it should say the program that it relates to.

While you are waiting to take it to the repairer, avoid stressing it. Only have one program open at a time and avoid any "heavy" programs, like maybe, photo editors, running videos, "big" (graphics intensive) games, etc. If you know what might cause it to crash, avoid it. Some simple internet browsing (with few tabs), email or word processing should be OK (one at a time).

If the crashing does not stay under control, stop using it until you take it to the repairer or it could get irreparable damage.

Matt