Laptop Randomly Becomes Locked

[TicTacWoe 0]

Something strange has been going on with my laptop recently (Toshiba Satellite running windows 7 bought 18 months ago). Occasionally, for seemingly no reason, the laptop gets locked. By locked, I don't mean freezes or stops working, I mean locked as in the setting similar to "log out". So basically all of a sudden the screen briefly goes black and I'm brought to the login screen and just log in again and everything is back to normal.

 

It doesn't appear to happen when I'm using any particular program or visiting any particular website. I do think that every time it has happened I've been browsing the net but then again, that's what I'm doing most of the time when using the laptop. It only happens a few times a day but is annoying nontheless.

 

I ran a virus scan with nothing found, tried a system restore. Can't find much about this online and it's difficult to search for due to the fact most people use the term locked to mean "the screen freezes" or whatever.

 

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Edited December 2, 2011 by TicTacWoe

[DEADMAN 0]

try some antispyware programs there simalar to antivirus but often search for trojans and worms in the system which can cause issues. also id recommend the following programs

 

ccleaner

advanced systemcare free

super antispyware

malware antispyware

also smart defrag thats made buy advanced systemcare as above

 

 

also tell me what antivirus are you using would help to

[TicTacWoe 0]

Cheers for the tips DEADMAN. Will have a look into the antispyware shortly, currently just using AVG. (have tried ccleaner already)

[ewerk 26793]

It's not something as simple as you hitting the shortcut keys for logging out? Usually the windows button + L.

[TicTacWoe 0]

nah, I had thought about that, but it's happens when I'm not even using the keyboard. Happened once just after opening a new tab on chrome for instance.

Edited December 2, 2011 by TicTacWoe

[DEADMAN 0]

may i make a suggestion mate get rid of avg its not a very good antivirus for detection of viruses it tends to miss some. id recommend avast antivirus

[shear class! 0]

Have a look at your connections, in task manager. see you you have any out going connections as it only happens when connected. antivirus are good, only problem is a lot of viruses, Trojans get crypt which make them FUD (fully undetectable). whats the point in having a virus/trojan that gets detected?

 

Check for any unknown outgoing connections, unusual incidents/commands . Problem with logging in , into certain sites.

Check Windows Startup,and see unknown files.

Run 'netstat' and see if there is any unsual ips connected.

Is there anything strange happening on your computer?

Also check Msconfig and see if u have any weird unknowns.

 

hope that helps a little

[TicTacWoe 0]

cheers lads. I downloaded avast and did a full scan for viruses but found nothing unusual. Same with Msconfig/startup programs as well. I don't see anything unusual anyway. Other than the actual random log off/locked incidents themselves everything else is running smoothly and even when it happens, once i log in again everything is back to normal, no programs/browsing sessions have closed etc.

 

I checked event viewer in admin tools and found a couple of occurrences of the following error:

 

mDNSCoreMachineSleep: mDNS_Unlock: Locking failure! mDNS_busy (1) != mDNS_reentrancy (0)

 

Looking at the times this has happened it looks like it might corrolate with the log off incidents (could be wrong). The source of this error according to event viewer is Bonjour (which I believe is a program bundled with itunes?).

 

Anyway, I've uninstalled bonjour so let's see what happens.

 

That could be a wild goose chase for all I know though. The trouble is, the problem only happens a few times a day so it's hard to test solutions or know if something has worked as it happens so randomly.

[henda11 0]

Try getting a registry fixer. I remember on my old Toshiba laptop a few years back, it kept locking, so i tried allsorts, even some of the stuff DEADMAN has recommended you, i tryed some of those. Anyway i tryed a registry fixer and it turned out a shit load of registry files were corrupt/missing, and the registry fixer ended up fixing the problem in the end.

[DEADMAN 0]

if it turns out the system still isnt working how you want it then id suggest as a last resort a restore system restore. but make sure you make a back up of stuff first.