Windows 7 Freezes Randomly

[wilkie1020]

Hello all,

Sorry in advanced if this is the wrong location to post.

I believe I have quite the problem here. Let me start by saying I'm no new comer to technology as I'm in tech support and network services and I'm about the throw this computer out the window.

Brief summary of the problem:
At random intervals while using any number of programs (Dislikes Chrome specifically) Windows will lock-up. If listening to any sounds/music the output will become quite distorted before freezing and it even allows movement of the mouse and keyboard before completely locking up. However, windows appears to still be doing some things (Loops and continuous pop-ups) after the lock-up has begun.

Steps I have taken:
Memcheck86 day long pass turns up nothing.
Atto doesn't result in anything HDD wise.
One stick of RAM works for longer than two (Sometimes indefinitely.)
Linux(Ubuntu 12.10) works fine on a live CD and installed.
Different GPU results in the same issue.
New(same model) and different RAM results in the same.
Different hard drive results in the same.
Fresh Windows install with completely up to date drivers.
Allowed Windows to perform all updates
Mobo Temperature at 30c, CPU around 48-50 right after freeze.

Taken the computer to a local computer repair store. They were unable to find any hardware issues. Unable to work within Windows because my OEM sticker is on my old computer.

Only thing that remained constant was CPU and MB(Re seated CPU)

Specifications:
Brand new build (A month old at most)
Windows Pro 64bit
MB: Asus M5A97 R2.0
HDD: Kingston SV300S37A/120G SSD
RAM: 8GB/Kit (2 @ 4GB): PC12800 : HyperX KHX1600C9D3K2/8GX : Kingston
CPU: AM3+ : Bulldozer : FX-6100 : AMD Model: FD6100WMGUSBX
GPU: I can't remember exactly at the moment (Not at home) But I beleive it's an ATI 5000 Series. I wanna say 5830 or 5850.
PSU: 650W Thermaltake (modulated)
CD drive: Really basic drive. Don't have the model of it either.

Thank you so much in advanced if you have any idea... I'm desperate 😛.

P.s. I can get my dxdiag or any other information at the end of today.

 

[str8cuse]

I would make note of the time when next your system crashes. And check the Event Viewer to see if there are any non bsod errors etc. might find some answers there.

May also want to boot into safemode and run a malware scan such as malwarebytes.

 

[smorizio]

start with mb bios make sure it has the newest bios code. also if your running an ssd check that the firmware is up to date.
i would with both stick of ram make sure there in the right sots. on asus mb there a bank 0 and a bank 1. most mb it one red and one black slot. run cpu-z and check that ram running at standard speed. look at the spd tab. for default ram speed.
in the asus bios make sure your running in standard speed not turbo mode..turbo mode can change the ram to cpu bus timing.
run gpu-z and check that the pci bus reading your video card right. make sure you install the newest amd and sound drivers.
also try booting off a hirem boot cd and check your hard drive.

 

[wilkie1020]

Thank you for the response.

Sorry, guess I did that too 😛. Only critical errors are "Windows shut down improperly, etc, etc"
Where else in the events should I look? I didn't stray from critical cause I assumed it would be there.

As for malware, brand new install hadn't even gone on the internet yet (Except for this and some other tech support sites)

I have yet to run in Safemode just to test if it runs indefinitely. I suppose that would be a good idea in itself, but I'm already quite confident it is a software issue(I.e. windows 7) so I'm not sure if would matter. Non-the-less, I'll test in safe mode.

Oh, side note: malwarebytes is on my PC already so it should have caught something.

Thanks again, str8cuse. Any other suggestions?

 

[str8cuse]

I would try some hardware testing as smorizio suggested. As for further diagnosing software issues via Event viewer I will provide a link to a useful post regarding that.

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/topic40108.html

 

[wilkie1020]

Thanks, smorizio

My RAM sticks are in the slots that the MOBO manual recommended for dual channel. I'll try and flash my BIOS although I had difficulty getting it to read the flash drive I had the BIOS update on.

I'll double check my timings, voltage, etc. But there was a program I was running that came installed with my MOBO pack (Think it was CPU-Z) and my timings met up with what the RAM needed.

Interestingly enough when I over clock things in the BIOS I get better results. (Currently at default though)

Newest drivers were definitely installed as that was one of my initial suspicions.

I'll check out GPU-Z and Hirem CD and run some checks. However, I even took it to a tech center and they told me my hardware was all good. I also switched out my GPU, HHD and RAM with new/different ones and got the same results.

I'm becoming suspicious that is it either A: Out of date BIOS, or B: A sound driver issue. Since sound is the first thing to go funny and if I'm not listening to music it tends to last longers or indefinitely (And i've been using music to notify me of a freeze)

Thanks again guys. I'll try some of these steps and get back to you asap.

 

[chavez1]

Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit Randomly Freezes
No BSOD just random freezes with screen on and no keys or cursor repsond, all I can do is use a hard reset to restart. Then I get the standard windows was not shut down properly messege at start-up. I have been having this issue/s and have tried all the same standard help people have had to offer, in all the dfferent post I've read online.
To actually fix this issue I ended up having to go to the device manager and check for driver updates on all my devices, one at a time. I think the ones that had updates that fixed this issue were the ACPIx64-based PC under the computer drop down and the IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers especially the ICH ATA and SATA AHCI ontrollers (I think these made the difference). I checked them all, but these were the only ones that had updates. Once those were updated and the computer was restarted, it has stayed on. It's been on for a day now and no problems so far.

 

[normbright]

Hello all,

Sorry in advanced if this is the wrong location to post.

I believe I have quite the problem here. Let me start by saying I'm no new comer to technology as I'm in tech support and network services and I'm about the throw this computer out the window.

Brief summary of the problem:
At random intervals while using any number of programs (Dislikes Chrome specifically) Windows will lock-up. If listening to any sounds/music the output will become quite distorted before freezing and it even allows movement of the mouse and keyboard before completely locking up. However, windows appears to still be doing some things (Loops and continuous pop-ups) after the lock-up has begun.

Steps I have taken:
Memcheck86 day long pass turns up nothing.
Atto doesn't result in anything HDD wise.
One stick of RAM works for longer than two (Sometimes indefinitely.)
Linux(Ubuntu 12.10) works fine on a live CD and installed.
Different GPU results in the same issue.
New(same model) and different RAM results in the same.
Different hard drive results in the same.
Fresh Windows install with completely up to date drivers.
Allowed Windows to perform all updates
Mobo Temperature at 30c, CPU around 48-50 right after freeze.

Taken the computer to a local computer repair store. They were unable to find any hardware issues. Unable to work within Windows because my OEM sticker is on my old computer.

Only thing that remained constant was CPU and MB(Re seated CPU)

Specifications:
Brand new build (A month old at most)
Windows Pro 64bit
MB: Asus M5A97 R2.0
HDD: Kingston SV300S37A/120G SSD
RAM: 8GB/Kit (2 @ 4GB): PC12800 : HyperX KHX1600C9D3K2/8GX : Kingston
CPU: AM3+ : Bulldozer : FX-6100 : AMD Model: FD6100WMGUSBX
GPU: I can't remember exactly at the moment (Not at home) But I beleive it's an ATI 5000 Series. I wanna say 5830 or 5850.
PSU: 650W Thermaltake (modulated)
CD drive: Really basic drive. Don't have the model of it either.

Thank you so much in advanced if you have any idea... I'm desperate 😛.

P.s. I can get my dxdiag or any other information at the end of today.

 

[texasriffy]

Did you solve your problem?

I had sporadic hangs when coming up after installing a 240G SSD. It would just hang and if I was patient and waited it would eventually come up. Usually less than 5 minutes. Still it was irritating.

I'm an overclocker and I accidentally found a solution while overclocking after installing faster ram. When I upped my voltage amounts for ram and my cpu, the hangs stopped.

Hope this helps you.

 

[Tyrage]

I had this exact problem on a brand new install of Win7 Ultimate, on an SSD, even though i had the latest drivers for all my hardware installed. It would especially hang when playing any flash or video/sound.

It turns out that you need to update your "IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers" and your "Storage Controllers" in the Device Manager (as chavez1 suggested). Simply get into Device Manager and expand any sections related to harddrives or controllers (or you can update everything in device manager) and Right-Click on each item and click on the "Update Driver Software..." option, and then click on "Search Automatically For Updated Driver Software" on the little pop-up window. It should only take a few seconds on each time, and windows will either tell you it's up to date, or it was just updated.

I had 3 items in the IDE section, that were updated, and ended up in the Storage Controller section, despite having motherboard drivers that are only a week old.

By The Way, this computer has been running for 4 days straight, without a single problem now, i have 15 youtube videos loaded up as i'm typing this, and not even the slightest problem or slowdown, and No Freezes what so ever.

This Computer Specs: (older hardware, but runs just about as fast as my newer machine)
Win7 Ultimate 64bit
Mobo: EVGA 790i SLI Ultimate
CPU: Q9450 Intel Quad Core Running around 2.7GHz
RAM: 4gig Mushkin
Video EVGA GTX 560 TI
Harddrives: Samsung 830 SSD, WD Blue 1TB, Seagate 7200 500gb

 

[Bas Ploeg]

Well i had loads of issues installing windows 7, like install freezes or crashes, bleu screens and more bleu screens endless problems and everything didnt work. After checking ram, hdd and all the other diagnostics that were suggested on this and other sites, i decided to just install xp..... that did work but the system still had problems, i posted it here and got the advise to remove the old thermal compound off the processor and aply new, that worked.

after that my computer ran just fine on xp, so i thought hey now i can just install win 7, but no i found myself getting stuck in freezes blue screens and all....
With just keeping searching for hours and hours and specifying on the error codes, i first removed 1 of the 2 memory sticks and all non essential stuff. This helped a bit, but at the end of installation it just keeps rebooting and saying it failed.

so more hours of searching, and finaly i found something with drivers, it wasnt really an answer to my problem, but it moved me in the right direction. Thing is, when starting the installation, you have to load the drivers for youre computer, nothing new, but apparantly the windows setup whith the hide non campabile drivers function selected, also hides drivers you actual need to run the setup. When i deselected this function, a whole lot more drivers showed up, i selected them all, and the setup loaded them, on some it gave an error saying it couldnt load a specific driver (all for usb) after i did this, setup just ran like it should.

did ran in some issues, but nothing serious, my computer now runs great. Well dont know if this would help everyone, still faulty hardware is quite a possibility and there are more things that can mess up youre day, but according to the thousends of posts on this problem, it might just help quite a few

 

[DanZee]

I had a similar problem. Re-seating my video card and memory eliminated 50% of the crashes. I then shut off as many services as I could, like Windows 7's incessant indexing, updating and defragmenting services. This cut the number of crashes to every 3 days. I then moved the keyboard and mouse USB plugs to the BACK of the PC, connecting directly to the mother board. It's been running 10 days without a crash now. Hope this helps!