Elite e9150t Feezes/Locks up

[madstopfern]

Proximo,

My i7/920 9180t does not have all of the classic symptoms. So far when I've started from a cold boot I've stayed up - no need to do the reboot/reload hack (a/b). But I have had the classic "d" symptoms lockup after coming out of sleep. I've not had the audio on so I am not sure about "c".

[madstopfern]

Maybe there are indeed two issues - one Vista 64 issue that one L1 support guy told me and as evidenced by that referenced web site. And another hardware issues that eots and others have experienced along with some that have bad hardware. It's hard to say right now.

[95mustang]

Yes, my i7-950 is having freezing issues. But not near as many as when I had the i7-920. It has frozen a couple of times on the screensaver and on random other things. But I'm mainly have blue screen errors and system restarts. I tried explaining to my case manager that I don't mind getting another e9150t if it would actually work. But I requested an e9180t, just because of the off chance I might get a good one. So she apparently is in the process of trying to get one of those for me. But I hope it's not just lip service either. It just sounds shady. She told me she would call me tomorrow and never did, so I have to call her. Then she told me she would call me right back in an hour. She never did. So I waited all day today and finally called her and she is saying she is hoping to hear from someone within the next few minutes, hour at the most. Well, it's been an hour and haven't heard back from her. I am willing to bet that I will not hear back from her again the rest of the day, and will probably have to call her back again tomorrow, probably to get the run around again. What the heck is going on with these people? Just be honest.

I JUST WANT A COMPUTER THAT WORKS! IS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASK?!

[GaryJ51]

These problems are NOT software issues.

I have a refurbished HP a6700y AMD quad core PC that I have been configuring with the same software that I put on my e9180f.  I have a house full of PC's that I use to test software configurations.  I also tries several OS configurations on the e9180f.  It is the only system in my house that freezes.

The a6700y has NEVER had a critical error in event viewer, much less lock up or freeze.  I am currently running Windows 7 RTM with all updates installed plus a raft of applications that all run just fine.  It sleeps by itself, wakes itself up for backup to an HP Windows Home Server, and puts itself back to sleep everyday without any errors or freezes.  A bit ironic that the $379 refurb runs rock solid, but the $1200 new PC crashes consistently.

The problems we are seeing are definitely hardware related.  I am currently being sent a replacement unit.  If it has the same problem I am most likely going to replace the motherboard with an EVGA micro ATX board. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813188051

I can't just keep wasting time with this issue indefinitely.

Be careful if HP offers you a replacement.  My case manager offere me a 9150 with upgrades initially.  When I pointed out that I purchased a 9180 he then went through my options for a 9180 replacement.  Read the fine print before you accept any replacement offer.

[Cee-Cee]

GaryJ51, if you happen to replace the MOBO let us know how it went.  Whether you had any problems in matching it to the HP case, power supply, ports, et cetera.  Thank you.

[MrHDTV]

I have to agree that these freezes and blue screens are NOT software problems (at least not only software).  I originally thought that there was a Vista bug that was causing my first machine to blue screen.  But after receiving a 2nd system that failed by hanging instead of blue screen crashes, I am convinced these are hardware bugs.  A software bug would have showed up on the second machine identically to the first machine, but these hangs and crashes are too random to make me suspect that.  With a software bug, I can usually narrow down the situation and come up with a recipe to cause the bug to happen repeatedly.  That's what I do all the time at work as a software developer, so I know how to do this.  Unlike my 1st system, the 2nd one has shown no repeatable pattern.  One time it hung in the middle of going to sleep, after the monitor went black.  Another time, it hung while I was in the middle of watching a TV show in Windows Media Center.  The last time, it hung while Media Center was sitting at the main menu while I walked into the other room to grab the remote.

So the 2nd machine is on its way back to HP too.  I am going to give them one last try before I just give up and ask for my money back.  I have to commend them on their customer service when I asked to return these two flaky machines; that part of their system works very well.  I just really don't want to use that part of their service plan!  I want a machine that runs reliably for weeks at a time, like my HP workstation at work, and like my 2 Dell laptops (one of which is running Vista 64 flawlessly for a couple years now, so I'm not going to blame Vista).

FWIW, my system was assembled in Mexico (e9180t, i7 920).

[GaryJ51]

I agree.  I am glad to see that even though it takes running through the interference, HP is at least willing to replace defective units.  You still have to wonder why they are still beta testing these machines on the public.  If I had known that I was spending $1200 to enter a "see if you get a good one" lottery, I would have looked elsewhere.  HP needs to jump out in front of this and admit the problem and do replacements with machines that they know do not have this problem.  It's not the job of the paying customer to do their quality control testing.  Additionally, the repair centers should stop trying to repair units sent in, as the problems we are having are NOT SHOWING UP on their bench diagnostic tests.  With as much market share and manufacturing clout as they have, they need to make sure that every new unit going out the door has a good mobo.  They are going to suffer tremendous damage to their public image if the don't stop the bleeding .  This will now be the 4th time I have to wait for a box to be delivered.  My original purchase was more than 6 weeks ago.  This shoud not have dragged on this long, they should have made sure the situation was remedied the first time.

I'll be the first toshout kudos if they finally get it right.

[Lindia]

Hi All,

got an e-mail from eots, here is what it said:

Please let the others in the forum know that my contact at Pegatron said he is going to tell HP to take charge of the problem.  This is the result of all the emails he received from HP customers.  He did request that we stop emailing him and don't pass his address to anyone else.  He will keep me informed if there are new developments.
 
Hopefully we will finally see some action from HP.

[madstopfern]

Linda,

Count me as one of those people who sent notes to them.  The person's response said much of what you said: there is a problem with at least some of their MOBOs and that they will be contacting HP.

[Proximo]

This is a post on the site OldManBrown provided a link for.  It is from Webhaven dated 24 Nov 2008  - quite a while ago - but it is an Asus motherboard - "classic" symptoms but different processor chip

I'm so glad someone else is having this issue. I am having this EXACT ISSUE and it's very odd.

It's a new PC custom built, it was working at first but now every single day the first boot it will freeze within 5 minutes.

Below is an email I sent to the Tech Support team earlier today:

I am having an issue with a desktop that I had delivered on Nov. 6th where the system after booting up from a “cold start” locks up after the OS has loaded.

Once Vista loads I can maneuver around and do tasks for about 5 minutes until the system completely locks up hard. Can’t even get to the task-manager and have to do a hard restart with pressing in the power button.

Once I do the hard restart the system comes back up and then it works fine until I go to shut it down for the evening/night and restart it the next day where the same issue happens again. This happens every day.

It appears that the lockup occurs after the system has been off for a extended period of time; if I have to do a hard boot from a lockup and start it up within a minute or so, then I don’t experience any freezes.

I kept the PC turned on this past weekend from Friday night to Sunday night, I don’t like doing that but I did it so that I didn’t have to fight with the system this weekend and all weekend it worked great.

Troubleshooting:
1. System Event logs are routinely checked when I have the freezes.
2. Regularly I see errors for WMI and Kerbros security authentication
3. I have turned off all auto updates thinking that an update was kicking off that was causing the freezes… no luck
4. The system has been put back to the base image with nothing else installed but Vista 64 and again it still freezes
5. CPU and System Board temps are all running cool

System:
• Intel 9550 CPU
• 4GB DDR 3
• Vista 64
• ATI 4870 1GB gfx
• Asus Motherboard