Laptop freezing using TP

[Dewayne_S]

I have a Dell Inspiron running XP Pro sp3. The computer runs flawless except for when I'm connected to a car for data acquisition. It started freezing up while monitoring the 95 Camaro I am currently tuning but I didn't think much of it since the data would flicker constantly anyway. Today I had it hooked to my 89 6E car where it usually works great(except for when the '165 ECM stops sending data) but after about 3 to 4 minutes of being connected it froze up. I have to power down and restart to make it work again. It repeated this a couple more time until I got fed up and came in the house.

Has any of you guy ever experienced this problem? Any ideas on what could be causing it?

[PJG1173]

is the laptop freezing or just TP?

[Dewayne_S]

I'm gonna say the laptop because nothing works. not even ctrl ,alt, delete. I end up holding the power button and forcing it to shut down..

[Dewayne_S]

OK, I must figure this out. I use this laptop every day and it works fine. I can even have TunerPro open and nothing happens. Within 3 or 4 minutes of connecting to the same car with the same cable I have used for a long time it freezes up. the only thing I can do is hold the power button to force it off.

I still have my old mini laptop so I'll be hooking it up today to see what happens. That should eliminate this laptop or the cable.

[Dewayne_S]

So it is something to do with my laptop. I have datalogged 2 5-6 mile runs with my mini laptop with no issues..

Now to figure out whats the deal with my Dell.

[EagleMark]

Since your the first with this issue I figured the laptop, but had no way to help. I did see a wore out USB port cause issues once before...

[Six_Shooter]

Since your the first with this issue I figured the laptop, but had no way to help. I did see a wore out USB port cause issues once before...

This has prompted me to ask:

Is this with the same USB port, or does it do the same thing using a different USB port?

[Dewayne_S]

I have always connected to the same port. Left side top port for the cable and left bottom for the Ostrich. I'll switch up tomorrow and see what happens then report back.

[cmaje72]

Are you usually moving when it freezes up? Check to see if your laptop has some kind of active shock protection. I use an older IBM thinkpad and it has this built in. What it does is park the HD heads when it thinks there is too much vibration going on. On mine it would just make TP lock up and data logging freak out. Once I turned it off no problems. Maybe on the Dell it just locks the whole system up.

[PJG1173]

Are you usually moving when it freezes up? Check to see if your laptop has some kind of active shock protection. I use an older IBM thinkpad and it has this built in. What it does is park the HD heads when it thinks there is too much vibration going on. On mine it would just make TP lock up and data logging freak out. Once I turned it off no problems. Maybe on the Dell it just locks the whole system up.

interesting. since my laptop is so old I have disabled many of the "win-doz" services that start and hog resources. you can also look in your application and system logs to see if there was anything logged before it froze.

[Dewayne_S]

So I moved the to the usb ports on the right side of the laptop and it works fine, not once did it freeze up.

Thanks for the input guys

[Six_Shooter]

Are you usually moving when it freezes up? Check to see if your laptop has some kind of active shock protection. I use an older IBM thinkpad and it has this built in. What it does is park the HD heads when it thinks there is too much vibration going on. On mine it would just make TP lock up and data logging freak out. Once I turned it off no problems. Maybe on the Dell it just locks the whole system up.

I forgot about that.

I also had to adjust my shock settings on my Lenovo a few years ago, for similar reasons.

[Six_Shooter]

So I moved the to the usb ports on the right side of the laptop and it works fine, not once did it freeze up.

Thanks for the input guys

What you may need to do is go into the device manager and change the port number that the physical USB port was being assigned to. You will likely need to do this with the ALDL cable plugged into the USB port.

[Dewayne_S]

Checking/changing the port number I can handle. As for shock setting, I have no idea where to look for that. I have been using the same laptop for few years now and this is the first time I have had these issues. Also, I have noticed that when I plug the power cord up it doesn't always start charging the battery. Just so happens the USB port I was using when it would freeze up is right by the power connection. I may be looking at some board damage

[EagleMark]

I have a laptop that will not charge battery when plugged back in. Plug in, remove battery and put battry back in and it charges...

[Dewayne_S]

Can someone point me to the shock setting? After a few minutes of being connected to the car yesterday it froze up again and this time I was plugged in the usb ports on the opposite side of the laptop.

On a side note, the piece of junk I was tuning is gone.... Thank God.

[Six_Shooter]

In my Lenovo it was in the Lenovo tools interface, from what I recall, but it has been a few years since I had that.