Windows 7 Computer freezing every few seconds/minutes

[MC10]

I have the problem where my PC is stalling repeatedly at random. I was running Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit before, but I formatted and reinstalled Windows today. I have run Malwarebytes Anti-Malware full scans on both my C: Drive and my D: drives after I reinstalled Windows, where I backed up my files to. Nothing weird showed up there. I have MSE as well.

I am now running Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit. It's a genuine copy with a product key I received through my school. I believe that the problem might be caused by hardware rather than software at this point. I built my computer about 4 years ago and I've had to replace some of the parts already. One stick of RAM isn't working so I took it out. It's pretty old so maybe a part is dying out.

Specifications:
Intel Core i7-920 Bloomfield 2.66 Ghz
OCZ Gold 6 (3x2) 4 (2x2) GB RAM
Western Digital Blue 500 GB (Windows is installed on this drive)
Western Digital Blue 1 TB (New)
MSI Radeon HD 7790 1 GB (New)
Foxconn FlamingBlade GTI
Antec TruePower New TP-750 750W

Here is the build at PC Part Picker: http://pcpartpicker.com/b/CJU

Is there any other information that might help to diagnose this problem? Just let me know if there's anything else I can supply.

 

[sammytruck]

Well, there is an incompatibility or fault somewhere. The options are w-i-d-e.

Improper contact somewhere. I mean, somewhere. First of all, machine/box turned off & unplugged. Check cpu, ram, addon cards... that ALL are seated securely.

If that doesn't cure anything... then the process of elimination begins. Start taking out cards (one at a time), to see if one of them makes a difference.

In my past of working with computers... from 1986-until-now... freeze-ups means that "hardware" went wrong. Unless you have an OLD computer.....

 

[MC10]

Okay, thanks for the info. I'll check the seating of everything. I'm starting to think it's the seating of the video card because sometimes when I start up the computer it will not be able to use Aero due to not being able to find graphics drivers or something. Other small graphical glitches happen in Firefox as well. The lags seems to have disappeared for now though. I'll check the seating once I shutdown for the night.

 

[sammytruck]

Okay, thanks for the info. I'll check the seating of everything. I'm starting to think it's the seating of the video card because sometimes when I start up the computer it will not be able to use Aero due to not being able to find graphics drivers or something. Other small graphical glitches happen in Firefox as well. The lags seems to have disappeared for now though. I'll check the seating once I shutdown for the night.

Ooooo... I'm hoping it is just the improper seating of your video-card. Though they generally have to set/seat properly for the back-side lock, to happen.

I like to go into the BOIS and un-check on-board video (not the "auto" option). Just so it don't want to go there.

I'm guessing wild here... Hopefully, not a wrong video-card driver was installed......?

 

[Pauli]

Aero problems happen with "normal" driver issues too. As well as with Windows problems. A suggestion could be, uninstall MSI drivers, and re-install them. DO NOT install any pirate drivers.

 

[MC10]

I have reseated the RAM and the video card now. I dusted the video card off with a soft brush and cleaned out any dust I saw on the slot of the motherboard. Everything seems to be working well, there are no random lagging moments and the graphical glitches in Firefox haven't come back. They were starting to get worse and worse before I did this so I'm guessing the video card was a little out of place. The drivers should be correct, I have the MSI Radeon HD 7790 and I got the one specifically for the 7790: http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/RadeonHD7790CatalystPerformanceDriver.aspx

Thanks for all the help guys! Now I've learned a little more about what can cause these issues and I'm glad to have experienced it.

The above was my original draft. I just wanted to wait a few days before posting to make sure everything was correct. The lag seems to be fixed, but the graphical glitches in Firefox still occur. I did some research into this and I know that disabling Hardware Acceleration will get rid of the black boxes that appear on Facebook and sometimes in random places of the Firefox browser. From what I read most people were saying it was due to the Catalyst Drivers and that if they reverted back to the older drivers it would go away. I'll turn off hardware acceleration for now unless I need it for something. Hopefully it'll be gone with the next Catalyst update or something.