Laptop freezing - possible hardware issue?

[emp5j]

I have a Pavillion dv6607nr Entertainment Notebook running Windows VISTA 32-bit Home Premium. Recently, I started experiencing a total computer freeze which can happen at any time - when online, when starting up, when away from the computer, even when in safe mode or when I have booted from a disc at startup. The freeze is often accompanied by weird pixelated lines and when it happens, the only way to get out of it is a hard reboot.

I have updated my graphics driver (although I don't think it's a graphics issue as audio will also skip and then stop when the screen becomes garbled), updated to the latest BIOS, done a system restore, installed all Windows updates, and have run spyware and virus scans, all to no effect. I most recently tried running my computer on Linux by booting it directly from a cd, but my computer still froze and locked up after about an hour.

HP support has thus far been useless. They did suggest reseating the memory, but the link to the instructions was broken, they will not send me a non-broken link even after several follow up requests, and I cannot find the info on the HP site under my laptop model.

Any suggestions? I'm worried this is a hardware/motherboard issue at this point, but I'm not sure how to check for sure. My computer is over a year old (barely) so I can no longer get it repaired for free. Please help!

[ehsteve]

This sounds identical to the issue I'm facing with my dv2000. Many of these notebooks have had motherboard warranty extensions for this exact reason. I suggest seeing if HP can cover repair that if you haven't already.

A friend of mine recently had his repaired (out of initial one-year warranty, but in motherboard one-year extension). HP says they won't cover mine, however, because there are ALSO issues with my screen. I'm wondering if the problem with the screen is just the motherboard/gpu, though...

Best of luck to you!

[emp5j]

Thanks for the suggestion. Unfortunately, HP has told me I am not one of the models under extended warranty (go figure).

Any other thoughts? Am I completely screwed? I'm thinking of biting the bullet and taking it to a local computer repair place rather than deal with HP's crappy customer service any more.