Windows 7 64 bit Freezing.

[Telkoth]

Hey,
I've recently upgraded to Windows 7 64bit, from XP 32bit, and since then have been experiancing completely random freezes, like, computer freezes completely, the last half a second of any sound playing repeats, and the PC requires reset, also, ive noticed sometimes when listening to music, the music will pause for only a second, then continue, which is strange. Now these freezes, and hangs, are completely random, ive had it happen 5 minutes after start up, and sometimes it wont happen for 3-4 days.

I never experianced any of these problems when i was running XP, But a few things have changed since then.

When running the XP, The CPU Was overclocked a lot, and i wanted to test the system would be stable with the default clock speed, so brought it back down, but when i did that, i just changed it from manual settings in the bios to auto, and i found like 2 days later, that it didnt bring the voltage back down to where it was supposed to be, so im hoping that hasnt done any damage. Any thoughts on this would be nice, as im not sure what effects it would have.

Anyway, because when i overclocked when using winXP i ran Prime95 to test stability, I again ran it after bringing the clock back down to clock, just as a test, ran it for about 4-5 hours, on a hot day, no crash, So i dont think it would be the CPU.

Also, when upgrading, i put in an extra 2gb of ram, to bring me up to a total of 4, Now this wasnt a brand new out of the packet stick of ram, this is one i had lying around, and had taken out of my PC when running XP, purely for the fact that i read somewhere that XP would only run a total of 4gb of ram between both the Vid card and actual ram, and i was having FPS issues in Oblivion, with my GTX295, and in the Hardware screen, my GTX295 was only showing as 890mb or so, thought the actual ram was taking from the card, anyway removed it, and its been lying around on top of my PC for some time, hope i havnt done some damage to it during that time.

The ram i havnt been able to test as of yet, i was hoping someone could point me in the direction of a good easy to use program to test that, and anything else i could go about doing to test the problem, if nothing comes up i'll probably end up removing the ram to see how it goes, i dont really want to start with that considering how random the crashes were.

And lastly, i was just wondering if anyone else has had similar problems with windows 7 64bit, and what they had to do to resolve the issues so i could look into them.

Anyway, Thanks.

 

[The_Prophecy]

First, I would update all of your major drivers. Video, sound, network, chipset, and SATA controller (the last 2 are included in the same package in some cases. Check your motherboard manufacturer's website for more info). Once those are up to date, play around with th system for a bit and see if it still freezes up on you.

You were definitely on the right track when you mentioned doing those RAM tests. For that, go download Memtest86+. If the RAM checks out, make sure your temps are all ok (lots of utilities around for this purpose - I happen to like HWMonitor from CPUID). If you aren't sure if the temps you're getting are within thermal limits for the hardware, post them here and we can find out for you.

If those are ok, I would look at doing some diagnostics on the hard drive. The Ultimate Boot CD (www.ultimatebootcd.com) has lots of good HDD diagnostic tools.

 

[Telkoth]

Alright, Thanks for the Advice, ive already started to follow it up, however, already hit my first snag! My motherboard is ASUS P5KC, and theres no Windows 7 Drivers, the lastest available drivers, as in, for OS, is Vista 64, Will these work the same?

 

[The_Prophecy]

In most cases, yes, Windows Vista drivers can be used under Windows 7.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

Is the RAM the same "kit" as what was in there to begin with ?

Are the matched pairs in matched slots ? Are DRAM timings set to same values ?

 

[Telkoth]

Ok, with regards to updating drivers, alot of the installs from the ASUS site would say they were for a different version of windows, when trying to install via Device Manager, it said my drivers were up to date. Only thing that actually installed was newest chipset, and SATA drivers. Downloaded that ultimate boot CD, Need a CD to write it to :/ Shoudl have one in a few hours. then i'll test that out.

And with regards to my RAM, One came as a kit, with 2 sticks, 1gb each, i think kingmax was the manufacturer, DDR2 800mhz, the second one was 1 2gb stick, manufacturer is kingston i think, its also DDR2 800mhz. My motherboard has 2 sets of 3 slots for ram, ive got the first 2 kingmax sticks in the first set of slots, and the kingston in the second set, if that makes sense. And with regards to timings, when i overclocked, i didnt change anything to do with the ram at all, left timings as default.
Just rebooted to check, DRAM timings set to auto, with the following settings: 5-5-5-15-3-44-5-3-3, and tbh i have no idea on how to check if thats correct.

 

[Telkoth]

Ok, ran HWMonitor, temperatures for system + cpu were around 45. Vid card 70, Seems alright to me, Ran Memtest86+, didnt return any errors, but after reading a few comments from people, where memtest didnt show any errors, but it did infact turn out to be the ram that was causing issues, and, well my PC Just froze 3 times in the last 15 minutes, Pretty good, I decided to remove it, just to test out how it goes.

 

[mizzl]

Having the same problem, hope this thread solves it s:

 

[Telkoth]

Thought i should jump back and reply, its been over a week since i removed the extra ram stick, and it seems to have solved the problem, must be a dodgy stick, or something to do with the ram slot, maybe it just needs a good cleanout >< Anyway, nothing to do with windows 7 itself it seems, probably wont help you out mizzl : /

 

[faust1]

hi this solution worked for me, sharing for everyones benefit: http://ezinearticles.com/?Windows-7-64-Bit-Freezes---Why-Does-Windows-7-64-Bit-Freeze,-How-to-Fix-It&id=5755294

 

[alldirt]

Temperature was my problem. Finally solved.
My HTPC froze at various moments for two years (Win7 64 bits, Gigabyte E7aum-ds2h, 2-4 Gb Kingston ram). I did memtests, defrag, deinstall, reinstall win and all drivers, changed RAM, added videocard Radeon HD5770, but the problem remained. Then I ran speedfan. Temperature CPU 48-52, GPU 46, HD 38-43. However, the HTPC was sitting on a receiver (Marantz sr5600) that produced some heat eventhough it was used for watching tv only.
I opened the case, turned off receiver. Then I tried again to continously play youtube video and copying some Gb around, but after 20 minutes win7 froze again.
Then I let the HTPC and receiver cool for a few hours and tried again. Win7 never froze again.
I suppose it is not related to win7, vista, XP or win2k but is due to hardware. Especially HDD or mobo temperature. HDD remained between 30-38 since then. So never put your HTPC on your receiver or another machine that produces heat I suppose. I should have known, of course. Beware of HDD and mobo temperatures, beside cpu/gpu temperatures.

 

[nikorr]

This topic has been closed by Nikorr.