# Solved: HP Pavilion Laptop freezes almost immediately after startup



## mythstoorfoot (May 15, 2011)

Hello. I'm not sure if my issure is to do with software or hardware, so sorry if this post is in the wrong forum.

I have a HP Pavilion dv3 laptop, 13.3", which runs on Windows 7. It has an Intel Core i5 and 4 GB of RAM with 500 GB of memory. It's very new - I only bought it about a month ago, and up until a few hours ago it was running fine. It has been very fast and responsive, and I was careful to not download a load of junk or anything that might slow it down. I used it this morning and it was fine, but since I turned it on this afternoon it has suddenly begun running slowly. When I turn it on I can enter my password and get into my user account, and everything loads fine, but when I try to do anything it will just freeze up and refuse to respond. I can't even right-click and refresh, or click on the taskbar. I just get that little blue spinning circle to infinity.

The laptop is running okay in safe mode, which I am in right now. I'm trying to rack my brains to remember what I could have done to mess it up, but nothing comes to mind. Last night I downloaded AIM, but that didn't seem to have changed anything this morning. When I used the laptop before it started freezing, all I did was watch a few Youtube videos and then turn it off again.

When I realised it was freezing, the first thing I did was to turn it off and restart in safe mode. I went to Control Panel and removed the password to my user account (irrationally, I was getting paranoid about being locked out), which I hope didn't confuse the poor laptop. I then restored it to an earlier date 2 days ago, but it still froze about three minutes after turning it on, and my password was still enabled. After that I went to Start > Run > msconfig and disabled all the startup items, but the laptop still continued to freeze upon startup. Then I unplugged the battery and just ran off the power switch, but it's still freezing! Then I started to despair and tried to run a registry cleanup, but I figured it just looked like a scam or a virus so I decided otherwise. I use Avast! free antivirus, and I ran a scan, but that didn't find anything.

Unfortunately, I live in a very hot, dusty country. Recently quite a lot of dust was getting into the room where I keep my laptop. I was worried that the laptop might have been getting dust inside it. But I have another older laptop which doesn't seem to be affected at all?

I did make backup discs when I first got the laptop, but I only want to use them as a very last resort.

This is really frustrating, so it would be a big help if you could offer me some advice. Thank you in advance!


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## haycg (Jun 11, 2007)

You can try a Repair Disc
Start - Control Panel - Backup and Restore - at the left top corner - 
Create a System Repair Disc - It may say DVD but a CD works OK
With the Repair Disc in the tray, Restart your computer and be ready 
to press any key when asked.
If it doesn't find and fix right off than click next and follow directions 
from the list that should come up.
---------------------------------------
Edit 
Also try CCleaner
http://www.ccleaner.com/download/downloading


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## parttimetechie (Jun 19, 2009)

What does the task manager say for CPU useage and RAM useage in regular mode before and after it freezes


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## mythstoorfoot (May 15, 2011)

Thank you for the quick replies!

Parttimetechie, I can't open the task manager before or whilst the laptop is freezing. When I press Ctrl-Alt-Delete, nothing happens or I get a black screen. Is there any other way to do this?

I have tried system restore again, resetting to an earlier date. Afterwards the laptop was running like its old self again, fast and smooth, but as soon as I tried anything taxing (apparantly opening Control Panel is "taxing") it just froze up again. What does it mean if system restore doesn't fix anything? Must it be a hardware problem rather than a software problem, or are my actual Windows files messed up?

Haycg, I made a system repair disc. I put it in the CD drive and restarted the computer, but I'm not sure if I used the disc correctly. I just pressed Esc and F11 to go to System Recovery, and ran a scan, although it didn't signify that it found anything wrong. This was when I performed the system restore. And unfortunately I can't buy anything online, otherwise I would have tried CCleaner. Thank you!

I am going to try using my system repair disc again. I will report back.


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## mythstoorfoot (May 15, 2011)

Uh, I'm back and replying to myself!

I appear to - touch wood - have solved the problem. I ran my event viewer and saw that, in the Windows logs under the System heading, there were plenty of error events over the past day while my laptop was malfunctioning. All of these events said "A dependency service or group failed to start." I tracked these errors back to the first one yesterday, which said "aswSnx" had failed to load.

Looking on the internet I found that "aswSnx" refers to my Avast antivirus! So I went ahead and uninstalled the program, restarted, and now my laptop is back to its old self and running perfectly smoothly. I had already uninstalled the Norton antivirus that came with the laptop, so I'm not sure if Avast was clashing with something else or just being problematic on its own. Anyway, the lesson learnt is: antiviruses can be worse than viruses!

I will wait a day or so, and if everything is fine, mark this issue as solved.

Thank you very much for all the help!


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## golddust (Jan 2, 2005)

When you mentioned Norton a bell went off!!! How did you uninstall Norton - hopefully not through the Control Panel > Programs & Features (typical uninstall procedure).. Norton needs a special removal tool to get all of it off your computer - it's that invasive. I'm an instructor with a computer club in Florida and we've had people who had problems when they didn't get their Norton (and McAfee as well) completely uninstalled which is what happens if you went the typical uninstall route. Google Norton Removal Tool and you'll be directed to the Symantec site to get it. Even though you've uninstalled a good chunk of it already, the tool will get the rest without you having to put Norton back and start over. Is Avast an anitvirus & antispyware suite? I haven't used it in years. If so, you have to make sure your Windows Defender is turned off. Can't have two antispyware programs going in real time.


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## mythstoorfoot (May 15, 2011)

Thank you, Golddust! Yes, I had only uninstalled Norton through the Control Panel. I did what you said and ran their online removal tool, so hopefully it's finally completely off my system now! Thanks, you may well have saved my skin! 

Yep, Avast is both antivirus and antispyware. I downloaded it because it has good reviews and is generally quite well renowned. This time I'm trying Avira AntiVir, and seeing how that goes. If you're right about Norton getting in the way, hopefully now I won't have any more problems. I did make sure that Windows Defender was turned off when I first downloaded my antivirus.

Thanks again!


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