Hardware Tests for Malfunctioning Laptop (2730p)?

[zer0nix]

long story short, my 2730p has been giving me numerous problems and it seems like i will have to reinstall windows as many dlls have gone missing/broken (and the damn thing is barely usable now)... before doing so, i'd like to make sure that everything is functioning fine on the hardware level.

what are some good tests for checking the condition of components?


unfortunately, the info that i have on testing computers is rather dated (and iffy).

voltage:
no clue.
is there a program that can check the condition of a psu?

hdd:
seagate test (in past experience, it gave a good status even when an hdd was just about to die)
hp hard disk test (likewise...)
crystaldisk (likewise)

ram/cpu:
memtest86 (this program actually does work, although i doubt that i have a ram problem)
prime95 (i've never been able to capture a snapshot of instability with either this or the following two programs)
superpi
occt


also, is there a place where a 2730p system recovery iso can be downloaded?

many thanks!

 

[zer0nix]

some more info and a related question:

would a solid state drive be more reliable / resistant to problems?

the current hdd is a toshiba mk1633gsg, which i only just replaced about a year ago ... what happened with the original drive is, some programs stopped functioning normally, ... bootup got slower and slower ... and one day, after hanging for 30 minutes on the os loading screen, i rebooted, and after that bios refuses to detect the hdd ...


i'll be running memtest, prime95, the seagate test and smartudm soon. in the meantime, are these problems characteristic of any specific type of failure?


TOUCHSTICK MOUSE RIGHT/LEFT CLICK PROBLEMS
booted into a different os (linuxmint ), found the same touchstick 'mouse' problems (!!!) or at least a similar one, where right click stopped working ... i think that would indicate a hardware problem

back in vista...
left click stopped working for about 10 hours ... had to click right click before left click would work ... typing quickly would randomly elicit a right click effect ... this problem persisted through multiple restarts ... then, as mysteriously as this problem appeared, it went away, without restarting or anything. weird.

due to the random nature of this problem, i wonder if perhaps i have a piece of conductive dust in the system or something ... i THINK the mouse problems started after i tried blowing into the vent of the heatsink to clear out any built up dust ... that did dislodge some 1cm long whitish fibers (probably nylon or something) that i then had to tweeze out of the intake vent ... there's probably a lot more back there but i'm having a devil of a time trying to access the heatsink (there seems to be a hidden screw keeping the panel in place)

if this problem had not persisted into a different os, i would have already reinstalled vista. as it is, i don't feel very secure doing this ...

another touchstick mouse problem that sporadically occurs is that clicking left click will elicit the behavior of clicking right click ... and clicking the right click elicits no response. furthermore, the right click menu will sometimes pop up by itself when typing. a usb mouse functions normally and clicking with the usb mouse seems to reset left click for the touchstick but right click for the touchstick remains unresponsive.


TESTS
ran windows memory diagnostic, passed with no errors

ran vista disk check ... had no effect ... found bitmap errors, crosslinked files, orphaned files ... can produce logs if desired

ran sfc /scannow ... found numerous missing and broken dlls ... more info further down

the operating temps are not the highest they've ever been ... between 37-40 degrees celcius

ac adapter voltage (checked with multimeter) is perfectly stable and within parameters ...

pc wizard 2012 crashes immediately upon starting and restarts into debug mode ...

hdd smart records according to crystaldiskmark:

Uploaded with ImageShack.us


LAGGING
every 3-5s and every action elicits a random laggyness of between 5 and 30 seconds ... chkdsk didn't fix the lag problem. ... there are random pauses during playback of a local 5mb mp4 file in vlc ... clicking _anything_, opening a webpage, switching tabs, even hovering over things, etc will elicit the spinning circle 'busy' animation ... with just two tabs and nothing else open other than notepad++(!) ... there is lag when selecting text and typing into google ... everything causes lag other than moving the mouse back and forth

amazingly, if i wait about 20 seconds before logging in, the longer i wait, the longer it will take for the 'enter password' screen to appear ... and getting to the desktop can take anywhere between 30 seconds to 5 minutes to never (as in, the screen goes black and nothing happens) ...

if i leave the pc on, eventually the lag will get worse and affect more things, including there being tremendous lag before turning the screen back on after returning from idleness ... if enough time has passed, the screen never turns back on and the only option is to reset.

one time, saving a txt file as the lagging was getting worse turned the contents of the file into junk.


BSOD

just got one recently, after attempting to open a txt file in notepad++ caused that program to crash.
unfortunately, it disappeared before i could write anything down ... can't seem to find the bsod in the event viewer, though i'm not sure what i should be looking for ...

windows\ minidump\ is empty ... there is no memory.dmp ...


SFC

notable entries from cbs.log
2013-07-19 12:43:15, Info CSI 0000017b [SR] Cannot repair member file [l:28{14}]"trkwks.dll.mui" of Microsoft-Windows-trkwks.Resources, Version = 6.0.6000.16386, pA = PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE_INTEL (0), Culture = [l:10{5}]"en-US", VersionScope = 1 nonSxS, PublicKeyToken = {l:8 b:31bf3856ad364e35}, Type neutral, TypeName neutral, PublicKey neutral in the store, hash mismatch
2013-07-19 12:43:18, Info CSI 0000017d [SR] Cannot repair member file [l:28{14}]"trkwks.dll.mui" of Microsoft-Windows-trkwks.Resources, Version = 6.0.6000.16386, pA = PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE_INTEL (0), Culture = [l:10{5}]"en-US", VersionScope = 1 nonSxS, PublicKeyToken = {l:8 b:31bf3856ad364e35}, Type neutral, TypeName neutral, PublicKey neutral in the store, hash mismatch
2013-07-19 12:43:18, Info CSI 0000017e [SR] This component was referenced by [l:262{131}]"Microsoft-Windows-WindowsFoundation-LanguagePack-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~x86~en-US~6.0.6000.16386.Windows Foundation Language Pack"
2013-07-19 12:43:18, Info CSI 00000181 [SR] Could not reproject corrupted file [ml:520{260},l:58{29}]"\??\C:\Windows\System32\en-US"\[l:28{14}]"trkwks.dll.mui"; source file in store is also corrupted

2013-07-19 12:47:18, Info CSI 000001d5 [SR] Beginning Verify and Repair transaction
2013-07-19 12:47:18, Info CSI 000001d7 [SR] Cannot repair member file [l:28{14}]"trkwks.dll.mui" of Microsoft-Windows-trkwks.Resources, Version = 6.0.6000.16386, pA = PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE_INTEL (0), Culture = [l:10{5}]"en-US", VersionScope = 1 nonSxS, PublicKeyToken = {l:8 b:31bf3856ad364e35}, Type neutral, TypeName neutral, PublicKey neutral in the store, hash mismatch
2013-07-19 12:47:18, Info CSI 000001d9 [SR] Cannot repair member file [l:28{14}]"trkwks.dll.mui" of Microsoft-Windows-trkwks.Resources, Version = 6.0.6000.16386, pA = PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE_INTEL (0), Culture = [l:10{5}]"en-US", VersionScope = 1 nonSxS, PublicKeyToken = {l:8 b:31bf3856ad364e35}, Type neutral, TypeName neutral, PublicKey neutral in the store, hash mismatch
2013-07-19 12:47:18, Info CSI 000001da [SR] This component was referenced by [l:262{131}]"Microsoft-Windows-WindowsFoundation-LanguagePack-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~x86~en-US~6.0.6000.16386.Windows Foundation Language Pack"
2013-07-19 12:47:18, Info CSI 000001dd [SR] Could not reproject corrupted file [ml:520{260},l:58{29}]"\??\C:\Windows\System32\en-US"\[l:28{14}]"trkwks.dll.mui"; source file in store is also corrupted
2013-07-19 12:47:18, Info CSI 000001df [SR] Repairing corrupted file [ml:58{29},l:56{28}]"\??\C:\Windows\system32\wbem"\[l:42{21}]"Wdf01000Uninstall.mof" from store
2013-07-19 12:47:18, Info CSI 000001e1 [SR] Repairing corrupted file [ml:58{29},l:56{28}]"\??\C:\Windows\system32\wbem"\[l:24{12}]"Wdf01000.mof" from store
2013-07-19 12:47:18, Info CSI 000001e5 [SR] Repairing corrupted file [ml:58{29},l:56{28}]"\??\C:\Windows\system32\wbem"\[l:42{21}]"Wdf01000Uninstall.mof" from store
2013-07-19 12:47:18, Info CSI 000001e7 [SR] Repairing corrupted file [ml:58{29},l:56{28}]"\??\C:\Windows\system32\wbem"\[l:24{12}]"Wdf01000.mof" from store
2013-07-19 12:47:19, Info CSI 000001eb [SR] Repair complete
2013-07-19 12:47:19, Info CSI 000001ec [SR] Committing transaction
2013-07-19 12:47:19, Info CSI 000001ed [SR] Cannot commit interactively, there are boot critical components being repaired
2013-07-19 12:47:19, Info CSI 000001ee [SR] Repairing 3 components
2013-07-19 12:47:19, Info CSI 000001ef [SR] Beginning Verify and Repair transaction
2013-07-19 12:47:19, Info CSI 000001f1 [SR] Cannot repair member file [l:28{14}]"trkwks.dll.mui" of Microsoft-Windows-trkwks.Resources, Version = 6.0.6000.16386, pA = PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE_INTEL (0), Culture = [l:10{5}]"en-US", VersionScope = 1 nonSxS, PublicKeyToken = {l:8 b:31bf3856ad364e35}, Type neutral, TypeName neutral, PublicKey neutral in the store, hash mismatch
2013-07-19 12:47:19, Info CSI 000001f3 [SR] Cannot repair member file [l:28{14}]"trkwks.dll.mui" of Microsoft-Windows-trkwks.Resources, Version = 6.0.6000.16386, pA = PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE_INTEL (0), Culture = [l:10{5}]"en-US", VersionScope = 1 nonSxS, PublicKeyToken = {l:8 b:31bf3856ad364e35}, Type neutral, TypeName neutral, PublicKey neutral in the store, hash mismatch
2013-07-19 12:47:19, Info CSI 000001f4 [SR] This component was referenced by [l:262{131}]"Microsoft-Windows-WindowsFoundation-LanguagePack-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~x86~en-US~6.0.6000.16386.Windows Foundation Language Pack"
2013-07-19 12:47:19, Info CSI 000001f7 [SR] Could not reproject corrupted file [ml:520{260},l:58{29}]"\??\C:\Windows\System32\en-US"\[l:28{14}]"trkwks.dll.mui"; source file in store is also corrupted
2013-07-19 12:47:19, Info CSI 000001f9 [SR] Repairing corrupted file [ml:58{29},l:56{28}]"\??\C:\Windows\system32\wbem"\[l:42{21}]"Wdf01000Uninstall.mof" from store
2013-07-19 12:47:19, Info CSI 000001fb [SR] Repairing corrupted file [ml:58{29},l:56{28}]"\??\C:\Windows\system32\wbem"\[l:24{12}]"Wdf01000.mof" from store
2013-07-19 12:47:19, Info CSI 000001ff [SR] Repairing corrupted file [ml:58{29},l:56{28}]"\??\C:\Windows\system32\wbem"\[l:42{21}]"Wdf01000Uninstall.mof" from store
2013-07-19 12:47:19, Info CSI 00000201 [SR] Repairing corrupted file [ml:58{29},l:56{28}]"\??\C:\Windows\system32\wbem"\[l:24{12}]"Wdf01000.mof" from store
2013-07-19 12:47:19, Info CSI 00000205 [SR] Repair complete



HOW IT ALL STARTED
i have no idea.

all of these problems are coincidental with installing a new version of java a few days ago ... based on the non os specific nature of some of these problems, i think that is just a red herring ... i used system restore to roll back to a much earlier date and that didn't fix anything ...

a few days later, i got a windows update error: "WindowsUpdate_8E5E0147"

and that's when i ran sfc, which fixed nothing ... multiple dlls are still missing or broken ...

PS: possibly unrelated, i found a small, whitish dust mite crawling on the top of the screen after placing the laptop down on an outside table ... this occured long after these problems started but i do tend to use this laptop outside quite a bit ... opening the main access panel at the bottom of the laptop reveals no obvious infestation or any bug carcasses, although only a small bit of the mobo is revealed ...

PSS: long before any of this happened, i used to run into similar problems after running a java program called jdownloader; basically, the pc would start getting more and more glitchy ('cannot locate hard disk' errors when the hdd is perfectly fine) and laggy until i restart ... but these problems would only happen after i'd start that program and would never occur otherwise. i could literally have the pc on for months and not run into a single problem ... but after starting jdownloader for 30 minutes, BAM.

these problems are coincidental with downloading a java update. i'm not sure what the connection is but it seemed to trip something off...

 

[zer0nix]

ok, here's where i am now.

long story short, it seems that my laptop is among those that is incompatible with smartudm ... and i don't think i have a power connector for a mini sata hdd for my tower pc ... the hdd in question is a toshiba mk1633gsg mini sata hdd.

so we're kind of at an empasse. i still want to keep using this hdd but only if i can get it to a usable state.

the laptop passes all hp diagnostic tests.

i downloaded hirems boot cd 15.2 which is what i attempted to use to run smart udm as well as some other tests ... the hdd instafailed both smartudm and the 'toshiba smart' test due to not detecting an ide drive.

the toshiba error was: 'NG device defective' ...

the smartudm error was: 'error, ide drive not found'

the hdd passed seatools' long test , and the ram passed 8 hours of memtest86 with both sticks of ram connected. i have not (yet) attempted to run memtest with the reverse orientation or with each stick by itself.

i have reseated the ram and the hdd ... after reseating the ram, i discovered that ... right click started working again in 32bit vista, but with a 1 second lag (which is inconsistent; sometimes there is a 1 second lag, sometimes not) ... the laptop still experiences sporadic, inexplicable lag after a while. switching from window to window is still quite slow... almost as if the ram were totally used up ... switching from window to window or activating a javascript within firefox is super laggy. at least 15 seconds lag to activate the javascript edit function on this page and about 16-20 seconds to load/post this thread (window turned white, mouse cursor turned into the spinning circle busy icon ... which sometimes happens by itself sporadically for 1-7 seconds for seemingly no reason).

these questions still stand: would a ssd be more reliable/resistant to problems than a hdd? also, could reformatting/zerofilling the drive potentially circumvent/repair damaged sections? what would you do to move forward from this point? thanks!

also, rather strangely, it seems like this laptop is having some new troubles with booting from usb. it has been able to do so flawlessly in the past ... but in order to run these tests i had to actually burn them to cd; hence i downloaded hirems boot cd 15.2.

i used a kingston 101 g2 usb drive which used to have linuxmint installed upon it, which i used quite frequently in the past with this laptop and which is also the same drive that is mentioned in the most recent release notes for memtest86.

each time, i reformatted the drive in fat32 as an initial step.

each time attempted to boot from usb with memtest86 (multiple versions including 4.3 and the latest), smartudm or hirems boot cd, the following occured:

first of all, the bios would refuse to acknowledge my usb drive as a boot drive; the usb drive would light up and then the usual 'select your os' screen would emerge, with no option for selecting the usb drive.

the only way to get bios to attempt to boot from the usb drive was to enter the bios settings, which would of course naturally indicate that in fact it is set to boot from usb first of all ... i don't have to make any changes here. it just seems like i have to visit this screen to get bios to attempt to boot from usb (this is new).

even after performing this step, when attempting to boot from usb i get this message 'Non-System disk or disk error' and can't go on even after removing the usb drive. in order to move past this error, i have to restart. damn weird.

i have since discovered that my bios might need updating, since it is not the latest version ...

also this little tidbit:

"Most Intel (not AMD!) based laptops (and desktops by the way) have had UEFI based firmware on them for the last five/six years, but almost all have had the CSM (compatibility Support Module) hard coded into it, to make it look like it was a legacy BIOS running, allowing BIOS-based OSs to load.

This practice is slowly changing. HP has a lot of systems in the marketplace that allow you to expose the UEFI interface, my EliteBook 2730p being just one example."

"One of the new features of UEFI is ‘Secure Boot’ which does not allow loading of drivers or operating systems that do not have a valid digital signature. Memtest86 does not have such a signature so if this feature is enabled then Memtest will fail to boot. Most systems have this disabled by default, however if it is enabled you will need to go into the UEFI settings and disable it in order to boot."

unfortunately, i was unable to find any bios option to disable 'secure boot'

i'm still experiencing sporadic mouse / keyboard problems ...

at first i thought i was just imagining things ... like maybe i was hitting the wrong keys ... but i just tried hitting shift and up and somehow that caused the text input cursor to jump to the very top of this text input box. so yeah. stuff is still fubar.

thanks for all your help so far! i really appreciate you guys!

RE:

"extended hard drive disk check" -more info plz?

 

[zer0nix]

here are the temps accoding to CPUID HWMonitor 1.23:
afternoon:

night:



is it possible that some other problem is causing the hdds to fail? i'm wondering if there may be a capacitor problem or something ...


there are some new problems:

after rebooting, i got this message: 'Non-System disk or disk error,' despite the fact that i had no external drives connected.
i rebooted again and this time i was able to boot into both windows and linux normally, which i did starting with linux. i am currently writing this after having booted into windows.

linux is installed on the hdd.

the mouse problems in linux have changed; both touchstick mouse buttons work again but i had to reseat my usb mouse 3 times before it would work normally. each time i plugged it in, it would work for a quarter second and then the cursor would stop responding to the usb mouse ... until the 3rd time, after which the cursor began tracking normally. very strange. could an hdd problem be causing this?

curiously, linux is now exhibiting the same lag that i experienced in windows. this is new. there is a lag of 3-5 seconds before every 'new' operation that is fresh to that session, such as opening a file browser for the first time, opening a music file, accessing the volume control, changing the volume... etc...

i've been unable to update the os for a while ... something about 404 for the update servers ... which is possible, this is an older version of linuxmint (possibly 11)


next, i will try booting into a liveusb of linux to see if the problems are mirrored there. if they are then there is something seriously wrong with this laptop. if there are no usability problems, that would hopefully mean that the problem is isolated to the hdd.