Windows 7 Entire System Stops Responding

[Jynx]

I built this system a year ago specifically for Windows Vista. I installed Windows 7 32 bit a couple days ago. There were no issues during the install. Everything was detected and I had absolutely no conflicts after installation. Smooth, fast and wonderful. Now for the issue...

I was sitting here watching TV not looking at my screen. I'd say about 10-15 minutes went by. I reach over during a commercial break to grab my mouse and nothing was functioning. The download I had going that was open in the middle of my screen was stopped, the keyboard wouldn't function the mouse wouldn't move..nothing. I had to manually power off the system. When I turned it back on the computer would not POST! I had to unplug it, plug it back in and wait about 5 minutes before the system would post. Bios defaults loaded and then system booted. I woke up this morning and the system was dead again. I had to power it off and again it would not boot. I had to unplug it and wait awhile. About 5 minutes later (while in windows) I moved my mouse cursor and automatically the system locked again. I had to reboot and this time the system booted up without my having to unplug and sit. I locked the computer and went to work. I just got home about 20 minute ago, turned on my monitor and could not type in my password to log back in, once again it was dead. Power cycled and it booted up fine again.

Now on one hand this sounds like hardware issue then on the other hand it sounds like a software issue or a combination of both. However I am reluctant to go the hardware route because when its working its working great and up until Saturday I've been running Vista Ultimate for the past year without 1 single issue even remotely close to this problem.

I figured maybe Windows 7 turns on power saving options that Vista didn't. So I went in and turned off sleep/hibernate options and what not. I don't know if that will be the fix or not or if anyone else has already ran into this and fixed this another way. If I'm the only one having this problem among Windows 7 users then I'm even more confused.


Thanks all!

 

[ogaer]

i have the same problem, my entire system freezes and i have to unplug it to be able to restart, if not i gets stuck on bios
but in my case is even worst, i gets freeze every 5 min or so, so i sadly had to reinstal win xp in order to post this, i liked w7, any idea how to fix this?

im guessing is the wmp300n driver, not sure and i have no bases but is just an idea

 

[aesierra]

Ok, so I have also had the same problem but I have a twist in th story. My computer loaded everything fine and dandy and then after about 20 minutes of use the computer went to a blue screen and said something like Reference by Pointer. It did this about 4 or five more times and I was upset and scared. So I turned it off completely and went to bed. This went on for about a day and then today when I got home I checked to see if the problem was still there, well yea it was. So I checked to see if there was an update and sure enough there was a new Windows 7 Beta Update. I downloaded the update and installed it and now the system is working fine.

So moral of the story is to update often and check yourself dont wait for the system to check for you.

And leave tons of feedback anytime something takes too long to work I send feedback. I'm getting a lot of Not Responding so I'm Responding by sending them feedback.

Hope you have resolved your issue with or without my help.

Good day,
Armando

 

[ogaer]

i reinstalled W7 on a new created partition and updated version but still it gets freeze randomly, i discovered that i had to way like 5 min and then i came back to normal, but again it will freeze with no pattern

help pls

 

[ogaer]

/bump

hi, sorry for double posting but im desperate here, W7 is still getting freeze, i looked everywhere but no answer to why it freezes, and now it became worst, it goes to BSOD after freezing

i dont wanna go back to xp =( help pls

 

[timeimp]

This might help...

I had this problem too, after i installed Messenger 9 Beta. Try booting safe mode and then disable ALL your video drivers and any other drivers not necessary for windows to run normally. I did and this problem went away.

F8 should allow you to have the option to boot into safe mode (in case u werent sure)

TimeImp

 

[ogaer]

disable video driver?
but i wouldnt be able to play or use 3ds max 0.o just chat or check mail 0.o!!! i have an aspire one for that xD

now seriously, if i disable video driver how can i upgrade it again? not from nvidia site or windows update, so any ideas?

 

[Mars]

Hi,
I'm experiencing the same problem with 64-bit windows 7.
Before there was bug with flash drivers which led to BSOD, so I had to remove them.
Now my system stops responding when playing games, or just leaving firefox alone for a couple of minutes.

 

[epk1950]

Hi,
I'm experiencing the same problem with 64-bit windows 7.
Before there was bug with flash drivers which led to BSOD, so I had to remove them.
Now my system stops responding when playing games, or just leaving firefox alone for a couple of minutes.

No bsod here but yup sounds like my W7. games and firefox.

 

[jordijordi]

Hi,
when I restart from sleep my windows 7 32 bits stop responding between 30 seconds to 60 seconds. The only solution I found is to use google chrome instead of interner explorer.

 

[jmread]

"not responding" problem

I am so frustrated with this ongoing problem that I'm considering going back to XP Pro. From all of the comments that I have read online, it appears that this problem is widespread. What is Microsoft doing to fix this. The total lost productivity by Windows 7 users must be astounding. Seems like another premature release by Microsoft and 7 is likely to fail as bad as Vista because of this problem. I certainly wouldn't recommend 7 to anyone after my experience.

 

[kc3710]

Windows 7 stops resonding

Any solution for this? I did a clean install of Windows 7 32-bit a few weeks ago. Then suddenly it started freezing. I went to use it one day and the only thing on the screen was the background image. CTL-ALT-DEL didn't work. Nothing worked. I had to hold my power button down to shut it off. I turned it back on and everything was fine. I walked away and after a while (maybe 30 - 40 minutes), I went back to use it. It was frozen again. I could see the task bar and everything, but nothing worked. I clicked the Start button and the menu popped up, but then the wait icon started and I couldn't do anything. The keyboard wouldn't work, I couldn't run task manager, nothing. I had to force a power off again. This has been going on for days. I have an NVIDIA graphics card and thought that may be the issue. I updated the driver, but that didn't help. I removed the card and went back to the on-board Intel adapter (updated the driver too). That didn't help. This is crazy. Anyone find any solutions for this?

 

[trimbojd]

It must have something to do with the way Mozilla Firefox and Windows 7 interact - I loaded MZF on my system and sure enough I had system issues similar to viral infection. If it's a bug then MS should fix it.

 

[CommonTater]

Re: Windows 7 stops resonding

I ran into this too... everytime the display would shut off, the system froze completely up as soon as it came back on.
It's not an answer but the work around is in Control Panel -> PowerOptions -> Choose when to turn off the display -> Never.

As soon as I stopped it from shutting off the display, the problem stopped happening.

Another similar issue I found comes up when you have external usb hard disks on your system. When the system comes back from sleep or when booting up the system can appear to be locked up for up to 10 minutes. The only work around I've found is to turn off the external drives when rebooting or before bringing the system out of standby.

Hope this helps....

 

[trimbojd]

Re: Windows 7 stops resonding

Tks CommonTater, I fixed the issue by uninstalling Firefox and presto no more issue! It's not ideal fix but if I have to use IE I don't mind.

 

[FrodoOne]

While I have not read ALL of the responses in this 'thread' I just wish to add my 'bit', even at this late date.

I acquired a 'new' computer, with Windows 7 Ultimate, in late 2009. While I had NOT transferred to it most of my applications by April 2010 (due to the pressure of other activities) at about that time I started to receive an increasing number of 'Not Responding' messages. I left this in abeyance while going on a holiday in mid year but, when I returned, the problem was as bad (or worse) than ever!

Eventually, I reformatted the hard drive, re-installed Windows 7 and then also installed Windows XP as a dual boot on the same drive. The 'Not Responding' problem was, if anything, WORSE with the XP installation than with the Windows 7 installation.
Obvious conclusion: - there is something wrong with the hard drive.
Actually, I had two 1tB hard drives, so I copied the operating systems file images from one to the other. The problem was just as bad on the second hard drive, if not worse.

I did a little checking, using 'HD Tune' on "Ultimate Boot CD for Windows" (Ultimate Boot CD - Overview) and found that while both hard drives would gradually decay in their transfer rate there were MANY dramatic NIL responses for MANY seconds (minutes?) on both of them!

(I can recommend the Ultimate Boot CD software. It is free but you need a copy of Windows XP, from wherever you can get it if you do not own a copy yourself. to create a CD. Also, if you include ALL of the options, you may exceed the capacity of a CD - so you may need to use a DVD.)

Now, both of these defective hard drives were 1tB Western Digital hard drives.

In October, I copied the operating systems file images to a new 1tB hard drive (Seagate) and, to date - no further problems. (The second hard drive has (of course) also been replaced - with a Seagate.

[Does anyone want a pair of (cheap) 1tB Western Digital hard drives?]

 

[TorrentG]

[Does anyone want a pair of (cheap) 1tB Western Digital hard drives?]

There's nothing cheap about WD. They are amongst, if not the most reliable of all.

You aren't supposed to handle the case and move it around or otherwise bang it or upset the hard drives while in use. This obviously happened at least once here, for both HDDs to be affected like that.

You can run a chkdsk /r command on each to attempt repairs (that will set the bad blocks inactive so they will never be used again.)

Just put the drive letter and : after the command. For example:

chksdk /r E:

 

[FrodoOne]

QUOTE=TorrentG;190214]There's nothing cheap about WD. They are amongst, if not the most reliable of all.

You aren't supposed to handle the case and move it around or otherwise bang it or upset the hard drives while in use. This obviously happened at least once here, for both HDDs to be affected like that.

You can run a chkdsk /r command on each to attempt repairs (that will set the bad blocks inactive so they will never be used again.)

Just put the drive letter and : after the command. For example:

chksdk /r E:[/QUOTE]
----------------------------------------------------------

You replied VERY quickly but you do not appear to have read and appreciated what I wrote.

The computer using Windows 7 worked satisfactorily for several months and then developed the fault which rapidly became worse!

You stated "You aren't supposed to handle the case and move it around or otherwise bang it or upset the hard drives while in use. This obviously happened at least once here, for both HDDs to be affected like that."

It is NOT 'obvious' that this happened as the computer case was at all times resting peacefully on the floor in my office next to the one it was intended to replace - where they are both still residing. At no time before testing the hard drives as described in my original post did I attempt to access them within the computer case or "ill treat" the hardware in any way - and it has still NOT been "ill treated".
While you may be acquainted with persons who "bang it or upset the hard drives while in use" I can assure you that I am not one of them!

(Also, chkdsk has been run on at least one of these drives without revealing anything!)

Whether WD drives are (generally) good, bad or indifferent is NOT important BUT these two (from the same batch?) after five months DID develop the problems described, which rapidly got worse. I can only assume that there is something wrong with the mechanisms in them which moves their read head(s) to the required position. If you had read and absorbed my original post you may have noted that it appeared that the dual boot of Windows XP (of course, on a separate - later - partition of the hard drive) had MORE problems than Windows 7 on the first partition.

Putting one of these Hard Drives into an external case and using it to store and playback video files SEEMS to be OK. Of course, the disk has been erased and these large files are (still) few and (probably) contiguous so it is NOT the same test as using it in a computer with many (possibly) fragmented files.

While I may have found a use for one of the hard drives in question, if you would like to pay the packing and postage (from Melbourne, Australia) I will send it to you so that you may experiment with it all that you like. In this they ARE cheap – I will give them away for the cost of the (very careful) packing and postage!

The replacement cost of $66 each for the other drives was cheap in comparison to the annoyance caused by the original devices.