Anyone up for some Win7 troubleshooting?

[Wulfman]

Just ran into an issue that has be completely stumped: All my web browsers (IE, chrome, firefox) suddenly crash when I attempt to download files. Computer works fine otherwise. Uninstalled chrome/firefox/flash, reinstalled (don't ask how I got the installation files), still the same issue. Weirdly enough, the spotify app can't be started either.

Running Eset antivirus, but the crashes happend when protection is on and off.

Hard drives are fine, according to crystal disk info (mSATA SSD, secondary hard drive). Anything else I should look into?

Crashes can be reproduced e.g. on the flash or chrome download page.

Win7, fully updated, Thinkpad T430

Any ideas?
W

[Umfriend]

Have you looked at the Event Viewer?

[UtwigMU]

Have you installed anything recently?

Try

sfc /scannow

[Wulfman]

Yep, had a look. The common feature in those crashes appears to be ntdll.dll. I suspect that my SSD is acting up and corrupting files - clonezilla failed to back it up due to bad sectors. The SMART information doesn't look bad (wear leveling 97%)

[Umfriend]

Well, if you really want to know, you might want to take a look at Stablebit Scanner.

[UtwigMU]

I remember there was an error with Samsung SSD firmware on some Thinkpads (was looking for drivers and saw advisories). Before you update firmware back up data.

Make bootable linux drive (knoppix or gparted)

http://www.pendrivelinux.com/universal-usb-installer-easy-as-1-2-3/

Then either connect drive from laptop and larger empty drive to desktop or connect larger empty drive via USB enclosure or ST-LAB / digitus... cable

list drives using hdparm (which is which) and fdisk -l

Use dd_rescue /dev/sda /dev/sdc (or whatever drive letters are assigned)

Put fresh drive back into laptop or connect to another computer, run chkdsk /b in windows, then sfc /scannow (may have to have a Win7 DVD handy)

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc730714.aspx

I ordered T440s for some company and hdd became nondetectable within 5h of use. I also ordered SSD for that laptop, so it's not a problem, I have to RMA drive still.

http://techreport.com/review/27062/the-ssd-endurance-experiment-only-two-remain-after-1-5pb

Switch to more reliable drive, then RMA old drive and sell it.

[Wulfman]

The ssd is from crucial, but I think it identified itself as a micron somewhere... the new firmware/updates were installed a while ago, so that should be ok. I "upgraded" windows over the old installation, that appears to have fixed all the issues. Will look into the stablebit scanner.

Thanks!