I don't even know how to phrase the question, so I've had very little luck with any kind of search.
Every now and then at random intervals a few times a month, I'm watching a video on the internet and there's some sort of error. Then the following happens:
- Apparent framerate of screen goes down to 1 frame per 10-30 seconds, and even then only rarely is the entire screen drawn. The video that "caused" the problem appears as pure green.
- The video's sound proceeds unimpeded. Indeed, it appears that the entire rest of the computer is proceeding as normal - I can move the mouse, close windows, open programs, and so on and things appear to happen at regular speed (as far as I can tell given the framerate).
- The problem persists through any attempts to fix; only known fix is a cold shutdown (i.e. holding power button until it turns off). While the reboot goes fine, all internet history for the day is erased as are many cookies. (It's possible a Ctrl+Alt+Del might fix it - that would have been the first thing I tried, but I don't remember the result, and chances are if it worked that's what I'd do as opposed to a cold shutdown.)
The only hint I have of a cause is that, once, a txt file called "hs_err_pid8340" appeared on the desktop after the reboot. It contains:
#
# A fatal error has been detected by the Java Runtime Environment:
#
# EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION (0xc0000005) at pc=0x77e42a7f, pid=8340, tid=7600
#
# JRE version: 6.0_27-b07
# Java VM: Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (20.2-b06 mixed mode, sharing windows-x86 )
# Problematic frame:
# C [ntdll.dll+0x32a7f]
#
Then it prints a thread trace and a bunch of other crap.
As far as I know I have the latest version of Java.
System: Asus K52Jc laptop, Windows 7, graphics card Nvidia GeForce 310M. Always using Internet Explorer 8.0.7600.16385 - since this problem cannot be intentionally reproduced, I can't really test it with other browsers.
To be honest I don't really expect to get a working answer as to what's going on and how to stop it, but any kind of help would be nice.
EDIT: Okay, I have a bit more info now:
- Restarting the laptop appears to reset the length of time needed before the crash occurs in future. Logging off does not.
- During the period of low framerate, not only is the screen often completely black, but it also is often completely black with the backlight turned off.
- Tapping the power button to cause a warm shutdown seems to work properly - except that once shutdown appears to be complete, the fan starts up at incredible speed and none of the status lights (CPU, battery charge, wireless, etc) go off. I then have to do a cold shutdown from there, but there doesn't appear to be any side effects.
