technology My HP Laptop keeps crashing!!

[ExplosionMare 18,062]

Lately, my HP laptop has been crashing on every single application I use, whether it’s a game with tons of assets or a small program such as the Folders. Sometimes it even crashes before I can do anything and it turns parts of the screen black.

I believe this started once I check marked everything on the Disk Cleanup. Well, thats at least when it got worse. I only did that cause I experienced crashes after playing a game I downloaded in a zip folder (it’s deleted now, BTW).

I don’t know how to fix this and I don’t want to do anything that involves temporarily deleting data since that didn’t work out the last time. Does anyone know how to fix this?

TL:DR; Computer keeps crashing on everything, plz help

[The Historian 516]

If you're having random crashes like that, it's probably going to be hardware. Based on the symptoms, my first thought is dead or dying RAM. memtest is your best bet for testing that. Another option is dying hard drive, which can produce symptoms similar to this. While unlikely, OS file corruption is possible. You'll need a Windows boot disc to run system integrity checks. Might even be worth just wiping the drive and starting over clean if your hardware is still good.

[Pentium100 2,122]

Likely causes of such random crashing:

1. Bad RAM - as @The Historian said, run memtest, keep it running for at least a few passes. If there are errors found, try swapping the memory modules or removing one (it there is more than one obviously).

2. Bad sectors in hard drive. MHDD is a great tool for this, but a bit inconvenient to use with modern computers. You can use hdtune on Windows to see the S.M.A.R.T attributes - it may not catch everything, but if it shows a lot of reallocated or pending sectors, replace the drive. Hdtune can also be used to scan thesurface for bad sectors - less informative than mhdd, but easier to use.

3. Overheating - if the laptop is overheating, then there would be this pattern to the crashes - when first powered on (cold), it works longer before crashing than after a reboot (when it;s already hot). Check if the fan spins and the heatsink is not full of dust. If it is - clean it.

4. Bad connection somewhere on the motherboard - that would be completely random, but you may notice more frequent crashes when you are moving the laptop.

5. Corrupt system files - to test that I would borrow another hard drive, do a fresh install of Windows on that and see if it still crashes. If it does, then this is not the cause. If a fresh installdoes not crash and the old drive checks out, then it may be corrupt system files.

[ExplosionMare 18,062]

@The Historian @Pentium100 So, what do the memtest and all the other softwares you mentioned mean? I’m not good with software names 

Also, I should probably mention that I can’t plug extra data in like in a hard drive because it doesn’t work.

[Pentium100 2,122]

Memtest86+ is for testing RAM. You write it to a USB memory stick, then boot the PC from it.

HDTune is for testing the hard drive. It can show you the SMART attributes and can do a simple surface scan.

 

5 hours ago, ExplosionMare said:

Also, I should probably mention that I can’t plug extra data in like in a hard drive because it doesn’t work.

I have difficulty parsing this. Are the USB ports broken on that PC? Does the PC just not boot from USB? Are you unable to replace its hard drive?

[ExplosionMare 18,062]

1 hour ago, Pentium100 said:

Memtest86+ is for testing RAM. You write it to a USB memory stick, then boot the PC from it.

HDTune is for testing the hard drive. It can show you the SMART attributes and can do a simple surface scan.

 

I have difficulty parsing this. Are the USB ports broken on that PC? Does the PC just not boot from USB? Are you unable to replace its hard drive?

I can plug USBs in but I can’t feed the PC extra data. 

[Pentium100 2,122]

Can you make the PC boot from USB?

[ExplosionMare 18,062]

17 hours ago, Pentium100 said:

Can you make the PC boot from USB?

How would I do that?

[Pentium100 2,122]

There should be a setting in the BIOS setup.

[The Historian 516]

Create a bootable USB drive using Rufus, or, failing that, create a bootable CD/DVD if you still have an optical drive present. Make sure you set USB or optical as the boot device in the BIOS (though it's probably UEFI if it's old enough, but they're the same concept).