HP laptop screen freezes Windows 10

I'd swap in some new RAM and see if it continues. If it continues then you can pretty safely assume that it's at least not the RAM.

If they think its software you can Run WhoCrashed it will tell you what drivers or programs crashed the PC. Alternatively also turn off any sleep modes or hibernate also set your power settings on high and disable any screen savers. Id give all of this a try and get back to us

Are there any event logs around the time of the freezing? Specific program it will freeze up on?

If you have multiple sticks of RAM, try to eliminate one as the problem by leaving one it at a time. This would be something I would try if you think its RAM.

You may be able to purchase an HP extended warranty that would cover On Site Parts and Service. This normally isn't real expensive and they can diagnose/throw parts at it.

You have not ruled out a heat issue yet from the information provided.

When you ran the mem test that failed was it on a "hot" system and the one that passed on a "cold" system?

You can download programs like CoreTemp and HeavyLoad for free.

HeavyLoad has multiple stress options and it has a real-timegraph to show you what is running and the currently temperature of the system. Used it on a higher ups laptop that didn't like the idea of getting it swapped due to his special applications he runs for the Oil Field. His would shut down almost at random. We ran both of these and within a minute his laptop was almost 90C and shut down. I cleaned up the CPU heat sink and grease and afterwards we were about 50-60C and he hasn't complained since :)

Download from their site, HeavyLoad

Thanks, everyone. I am working my way through the list. I have disabled sleep modes, installed whocrashed, and installed heavyload. I have not ruled out a heat issue yet, but the stress test did not trigger a crash.

I believe the event logs from around the last crash say a warning with FilterManager(Event ID 4), a warning with kernel-processor-power (Event ID 37), and an Error with DistributedCom (Event ID 10016).

Please let me know if I'm missing anything.

Thank you again!

Hello BondFinTech, thank you for your post and for the very helpful feedback from the other IT Pros. You may want to add to your troubleshooting list the steps from a similar HP Forum post. Although the steps apply to Windows 8 systems they should still be applicable:

Perform hard reset

Run the System Extensive Test

One user stated simply: " x360 Black Screen - HP Support Forum - 4348380 ... It was recommended on another forum to turn the computer off and then hold down all four arrow keys while pressing the power button to turn on. I did this and to my shock it worked and my computer is operating normally at this time."

You will see other users confirming the advice above also worked for them.

I agree with @Snufykat that you may have a heat issue.

Have you checked for an accumulation of dust? You won't believe the number of "ailing" computers our engineers have received with lots of dust.

Have you run one of the many programs for viruses and malware, i.e., Malwarebytes, JRT (Junkware Removal Tool), CCleaner, etc.

If your unit is in warranty, you can call HP Consumer Support team at 800 474-6836 or send me your serial number and contact information and I will be happy to create a support case for you. At your convenience, please keep us updated.

I agree it's probably a heat issue. You may want to try taking the laptop apart and blow out the fan / heat sink with compressed air.

yeah 67c seems kinda high to me

I would run it longer then that, maybe 5 - 10 minutes to see if it breaks past 67C. That is kind of the peak for CPU's to be running nominally. We usually run it at least 5 minutes to be sure as most systems would usually use about 5-15% of CPU during regular use. This maxes it out to 100% which is a good indicator of a heat issue.

Did you try running the extensive hardware tests in the HP Diagnostics as well or its just not seeing your laptop components correctly?

BondFinTech wrote:

Hi Priscilla,

Just out of curiosity, what does holding down the 4 arrow keys do?

I still don't know if it's a heat issue. I have tried using HeavyLoad and Core Temp together. Test runs CPU at 100% for over 2 minutes and core temp never gets above 67C. I did try to run the system extensive test, but it did not identify anything wrong. I have also run CCleaner on this laptop.

I tried using the HP warranty automatic check, and it said it couldn't identify the computer.

Hi

If you still have problems after carrying out the advice above. You can, prove whether it is a software issue or not. And also check the RAM. Use a Linux distro. When it starts many distros have a RAM test ability so that it can be checked and if you boot into the Live system you can run it and see if the machine still freezes. Any of the popular distros will do Mint, Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian, etc.

Several things to try:

• Update firmware
• Update Windows
• Disable start up programs and test
• If you have several memory modules, leave it with 1 or 2 modules, or use well know modules
• run a memory test, there is lot of memtest boot options out there
• restore Bios - UEFI setting to defaults
• check windows logs
• test in safe mode
• backup with veeam and perform a windows reset

BondFinTech wrote:

Hi Priscilla,

Just out of curiosity, what does holding down the 4 arrow keys do?

I still don't know if it's a heat issue. I have tried using HeavyLoad and Core Temp together. Test runs CPU at 100% for over 2 minutes and core temp never gets above 67C. I did try to run the system extensive test, but it did not identify anything wrong. I have also run CCleaner on this laptop.

I tried using the HP warranty automatic check, and it said it couldn't identify the computer.

Hello BondFinTech,

Thank you for your response. I don't know exactly what holding down the 4 arrow keys does. Our consultant says doing this is used in some games. With respect to the issue here, he notes, "While the actual resolution was just holding the keys has discharged capacitors." See his additional feedback:

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Provide please Product Number of the laptop.
Reset BIOS.
Run disk check.
Clear cache of all web browsers and delete content of \Temp and \Tmp folders.
Run Malwarebyte's AdwCleaner and JRT as advised earlier, run antivirus scan and report back results.
Then download and run Mersenne Prime Search Software to stress test the system.
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