Windows 7 Random freezes in Windows driving me nuts. Custom reinstall no help.

[bassexpander]

This issue has been driving me insane.

For 3 months, Windows 7 was running very well. No real problems to speak of, for the most part. Then last month, it started randomly freezing up on me every 20 to 40 minutes not long after I installed some updates. I've gone through and uninstalled all updates, only to find that this didn't help. Basically, everything freezes and whatever I'm running (IE or whatever) says "Not responding". It will hang there for 3 to 30 seconds, then unfreeze itself. Sometimes I try to go to Task Manager, which either doesn't work, or as soon as it opens, the problem goes away.

I did a full custom reinstallation of Windows 7 from my product disc a few days ago. The freezing still happens.

I will note that, at one point a few weeks ago, I got a Ram error notice from Windows Notification flag in the lower right part of my screen. That only happened once, though. I've never seen it since, and a Ram tests showed no problems.

Any suggestions? I'm going crazy.
Win7 64-bit Pro
Core I-5 750
Asrock P55m mainboard
4 gig 1333 Ram with "7" timings by Gskill
1TB WD Green HDD
LG bluray drive
Microsoft wifi keyboard and mouse

 

[cybercore]

So did you test your memory ?

MemTest: RAM reliability tester for Windows

 

[Saltgrass]

Was your reinstall a clean install or a repair install over the old system?

You can leave Task Manager and/or Resource Monitor open so you can watch it.

Have you checked the Event Viewer for consistent Error/Warning messages?

 

[bassexpander]

thanks so far.

I assume it was a full reinstallation. I put in the Windows CD and clicked Custom Installation. It went through all of the menus, just like when I first installed Windows 7.

As for memtest, I let it run overnight (actually let 3 instances of it run, because it implied that I should run more than one, as I have a quad chip?) and woke up to a shutdown machine. After starting back up, it said I had bluescreened:

OS Version: 6.1.7600.2.0.0.256.48
Locale ID: 1033
Additional information about the problem:
BCCode: a0
BCP1: 000000000000000B
BCP2: 00000000BF94A000
BCP3: 0000000000000003
BCP4: 0000000031787000
OS Version: 6_1_7600
Service Pack: 0_0
Product: 256_1
Files that help describe the problem:
C:\Windows\Minidump\051910-36906-01.dmp
C:\Users\I5-750\AppData\Local\Temp\WER-69656-0.sysdata.xml
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OS Version: 6.1.7600.2.0.0.256.48
Locale ID: 1033
Additional information about the problem:
BCCode: a0
BCP1: 000000000000000B
BCP2: 00000000BF94A000
BCP3: 0000000000000003
BCP4: 0000000031787000
OS Version: 6_1_7600
Service Pack: 0_0
Product: 256_1
Files that help describe the problem:
C:\Windows\Minidump\051910-36906-01.dmp
C:\Users\I5-750\AppData\Local\Temp\WER-69656-0.sysdata.xml
Read our privacy statement online:
Windows 7 Privacy Statement - Microsoft Windows
If the online privacy statement is not available, please read our privacy statement offline:
C:\Windows\system32\en-US\erofflps.txt
4288&clcid=0x0409
If the online privacy statement is not available, please read our privacy statement offline:
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[Saltgrass]

I was hoping Cybercore might have an answer, but I suppose I will try to think of something, even though I do not know what is wrong.

If you reinstalled Win 7 and it still happens, did you allow updates after the install?

Have you tried a normal keyboard and mouse?

Any things about your network that might be holding the system up?

Any error messages in event viewer?

Have you tried disabling startup items in msconfig.exe?

Have you unplugged everything you can as far as external devices?

You might want to attach the mini-dump file that is mentioned. Zip it up and attach. I am not certain what it shows is possibly the system going to sleep during the test.

 

[bassexpander]

Well, I'm hoping it's the Ram. Didn't read the minidump, but what I am doing is trying single channels of Ram until I (hopefully) find the stable stick.

I know which one didn't work so far, and am running the 2nd by itself now.

I looked at the caps on the mainboard, and they seemed OK (at least to a quick eye).

The Ram I have is a 2x2gb pair of Gskill. Does anyone have any idea how long a warranty might be on these? I've had them less than 6 months. If one is down, should I return the matching set, or can I just trade one in for a new one that will match OK?

Thanks.

Oh, btw, all updates were added in Windows. Problems took place both before and after updates after new reinstallation.

As for event viewer... not sure where I should be looking?

I did find this interesting event:
The time service has detected that the system time needs to be changed by -57599 seconds. The time service will not change the system time by more than 54000 seconds. Verify that your time and time zone are correct, and that the time source time.windows.com,0x9 (ntp.m|0x9|0.0.0.0:123->207.46.232.182:123) is working properly.

 

[bassexpander]

Ok, so neither stick of Ram is the problem. :::

This is awful!

Freezing started again. Will now turn my attention to the microsoft keyboard, and will try a non-wifi one from work tomorrow. Don't understand why that would be just fine for a long time, then have issues?

 

[bassexpander]

Ok, I'd like to share what's been going on so far...

I've now been trying an old wired mouse and keyboard. So far so good.

Seems like other people have also had issues with wireless mouses and/or keyboards in Windows 7. This issue seems to go back quite far, and continues. Some are able to get around the issue by using the USB to PS/2 plug that came with their keyboard.

I'll post if the problem turns out not to be fixed, but as of tonight, it indeed appears to be the keyboard and/or mouse that is the problem ... and Microsoft products, no less!!!

Read here for more on this issue, if you are someone with the same issues:

Link Removed - Invalid URL

 

[bassexpander]

Ok, worked fine for 24 hours, but now started having issues again. It may have something also to do with sleep mode and/or power settings? I've tried everything. Odd thing is, sometimes this happens to me after a restart, and other times not ... so sleep mode may have nothing to do with it, either?

Oddly, I unplugged the mouse, plugged it back in again after a reboot (a reboot alone didn't change things) and now I'm all peachy again.

At least for now. I'm sure it'll become a problem within 24 hours.

 

[bassexpander]

Not sure anyone is following me here....

Could a wifi router be causing my computer to lock-up?

I only ask because my wife's 64-bit Vista computer is now locking up and completely shutting down on its own once and a while. We both run off of the same wifi signal from an IPTime router using WPA encryption.

 

[Saltgrass]

Did you reset the time? I have seen problems where the system time was off. Is there a time setting in the router?

Almost any driver can cause problems..I have never heard of that router before, but if you use a wired connection do the shutdowns occur?

Are you using the same driver for the Vista and Win 7 computer?

Could anything be interferring with your wireless devices?

You have probably already checked for a virus...

 

[bassexpander]

Well, it appears that I may have a damaged/kaputt usb wifi router dongle. I have no troubles with a wired connection, and my wife's seems to work fine on my machine.

My wife was having issues of a different nature, which we also seem to have fixed, thanks to her Vista telling her she had a damaged install of flash, so we uninstalled/reinstalled and she's all good too.

 

[Agent Data]

could be you got hacked in through wifi? check for strange devices on your router

 

[bassexpander]

I hadn't thought of that, but that's not possible, because I was experimenting with different encryption methods and was changing passwords. Still had issues at all times.

Nope, it's a bad USB dongle. Come to think of it, it fell off of the desk some time ago, and probably got damaged then. I tried switching between my dongle and my wife's on my machine, and as soon as I plugged mine it, the problems would return. They are the same brand (Unicorn), with Ralink internals.

My wife's problem has not returned since we fixed her Flash issues.

I should also note that we no longer are using the router, and have hard-wired stuff, though. I happened to find a non-wifi router in the wall in an electrical box under the kitchen table. It seems our entire house is hard-wired with lines through that router, going to each room. I ran my cable modem into that thing, and now we can hard-wire everywhere in the apartment. No more wifi needed!

 

[bassexpander]

Well, I am getting some freezes now on pages that are flash-heavy... grr.... happens more when I'm using Firefox than IE8. Problems correct themselves far more quickly now that I'm off of wifi and hard-wired into the internet. Fewer and further in-between, as well.

I wonder if there could be something bad about this latest version of Flash? I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling. It seems to be at/near the root of the problem on both machines. When the dongle was causing crashes on my machine, it happened on pages heavy with flash. Same with the wife's machine.

 

[Mitchell_A]

Your last post about the problem occurring most oftenly when viewing flash content suggests this may be a heat problem.. check your GPU and CPU temps.. Not sure what the norms are for a core i5 but open your computer case and dust it out.. Your BIOS may actually be "throttling" the processor speed to reduce heat production.

 

[bassexpander]

I ran some CPU and GPU torture tests. Overheating is not the problem. There was a blip on the GPU test where the temperature went up and down for about 30 seconds, then was back to a normal straight, slightly upward-sloping temp rise -- I assume this happened because the computer problem reared its head again. The thing was, after 30 seconds, it went back to normal and continued to run on and reach higher temps for quite some time without a blip. I don't think it's GPU heat, as all temps were well within normal, too.

 

[bassexpander]

I have some good news...

I think i might have solved the problem.

Again... points to hardware. In my case, the CPU needed some new thermal grease. This was confusing, because all temps seemed normal. The thing that finally led me in that direction was reading about it on here, and reading elsewhere that you can't trust boards to give you right temps all of the time. Also, I kept having troubles with Flash stuff... especially in Firefox. I read that FF actually is more CPU-intensive. I also started having crazy troubles when I installed different anti-virus programs other than Microsoft Security Essentials. I find MSE is far less CPU-intensive than others!

Things gradually got worse until I could barely boot.

So I'll keep testing for a few days, but so far, it seems it was hardware-related. That also explains why using wifi was causing me issues, as it was ever-so-slightly pushing me over the edge in terms of CPU usage.

 

[Mitchell_A]

I agree with your perspective on MSE - definitely not resource hungry.
Let's hope for the best with this problem, if not, we'll see you here again soon