Windows 7 Windows 7 random freeze, then freeze while booting.

[rizzon]

I have a problem of my Windows 7 randomly freezing.
While it's almost always during game play it sometimes happens while just playing a pod cast in itunes. The only way to get out of it is to hit the restart button on the computer.

Now the computer reboots and I get to the booting screen: "Starting Windows", however the 4 flashy things that make out the windows logo never appears and it will sit like this forever until I hit the restart button AGAIN. Now windows asks me if I want to run Startup Repair or if I want to Start windows normally.
If I choose Startup Repair it will launch the repair program but it never does anything, just gives me the "repairing" message forever.
However if i choose start windows normally it boots just fine.

Anyone seen anything like this and knows how to solve this?

I should add that nothing about the crash shows up in the event viewer.

 

[busydog]

I have a problem of my Windows 7 randomly freezing.
While it's almost always during game play it sometimes happens while just playing a pod cast in itunes. The only way to get out of it is to hit the restart button on the computer.

Now the computer reboots and I get to the booting screen: "Starting Windows", however the 4 flashy things that make out the windows logo never appears and it will sit like this forever until I hit the restart button AGAIN. Now windows asks me if I want to run Startup Repair or if I want to Start windows normally.
If I choose Startup Repair it will launch the repair program but it never does anything, just gives me the "repairing" message forever.
However if i choose start windows normally it boots just fine.

Anyone seen anything like this and knows how to solve this?

I should add that nothing about the crash shows up in the event viewer.

IMHO, the startup thing is a by-product of something freezing you during operation. Fix that and you'll probably fix the startup problem. Make sure that you are not running ZoneAlarm and Microsoft Security Essentials.... they don't like each other. If you aren't, try booting after using MSCONFIG (from a command prompt) to deactivate programs loading at start-up and any non-Microsoft Services from loading at start-up. If you aren't crashing after that, add things back a few at a time until you find the culprit.

 

[rizzon]

IMHO, the startup thing is a by-product of something freezing you during operation. Fix that and you'll probably fix the startup problem. Make sure that you are not running ZoneAlarm and Microsoft Security Essentials.... they don't like each other. If you aren't, try booting after using MSCONFIG (from a command prompt) to deactivate programs loading at start-up and any non-Microsoft Services from loading at start-up. If you aren't crashing after that, add things back a few at a time until you find the culprit.

I'm only running Eset Smart Security.

 

[gimpydingo]

System specs please. And how long have you been running win 7 before this started happening?

 

[reghakr]

Was this a "clean" insatll or an upgrader?

 

[rizzon]

It was a clean install.
Specs:
Windows 7 64bit RC (Should I upgrade to retail? Will this fix my problem?)
Intel Q9450 @ 2.66
nVidia GeForce 9800GX2
4x 2048MB Corsair 8500C5D @ 800MHz (it says 1066 MHz on the box but I had to lower them as I keep getting bluescreens)
Gigabyte EX38-DQ6 (X38 chipset)

If it help: The sound doesn't stop but loops the last 0,5 seconds until I hit the restart button; keyboard (numlock doesn't respond), mouse (speed-changing-buttons doesn't respond) and screen freezes.

 

[reghakr]

The retail is certainly better than the RC..

Will it fix your sound...........your guess is as good as mine.

I can't guarantee anything

 

[rizzon]

The retail is certainly better than the RC..

Will it fix your sound...........your guess is as good as mine.

I can't guarantee anything

The sound isn't the problem, just a symptom of the freeze, just thought it might have helped identify the cause.

 

[rizzon]

Update: I just did a clean install replacing my RC-version with Windows 7 x64 Professional and I still get the problem.
AND here is the fun part, I get the problem ("freeze at bootscreen") SOMETIMES just when restart my computer from normally from within Windows (I got the before as well).

 

[reghakr]

If you did a "clean" install,. it must be hardware related.

Go to Control Panel > Device Manager and see if there are any entries with a yellow flag beside them.

 

[rizzon]

If you did a "clean" install,. it must be hardware related.

Go to Control Panel > Device Manager and see if there are any entries with a yellow flag beside them.

No yellow flag. I will check my hard drives for problems tomorrow (using the offical tool for each hard drive). After that I'll do a memtest run.

Do you know of any way to find out what is freezing at boot?

 

[reghakr]

Defective hardware or corrupt files.

 

[rizzon]

Defective hardware or corrupt files.

Thanks for trying to help but that post wasn't very helpful. Could you hand me a tip on how to find out what files might be corrupted?

 

[busydog]

Thanks for trying to help but that post wasn't very helpful. Could you hand me a tip on how to find out what files might be corrupted?

From an elevated command prompt, run sfc /scannow. That will repair any corrupted system files. You may have to insert your Win7 disk.

 

[reghakr]

busydog just postrf it

Thanks

 

[gimpydingo]

Well if he just installed the Retail version, shouldn't be corrupt and if it happened on RC as well it's a hardware issue. Does it freeze after teh clean install, before you add any applications or anything?

I'd suggest taking out all but one stick of RAM and try that and/or running the mem test.

Also you may want to take out any non needed hardware - any usb cards, sound card, etc....

Just leave the vid card in and try that.

 

[rizzon]

"Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations."
I will post another update when I've run the hardware tests.

 

[rizzon]

Ok, so I thought it was probably the memory being damaged or something but check this:
If, during my computers showing the black "Starting windows"-screen, I turn off my external HDD it successfully loads windows.
Explain that.
I do NOT recommend a WD Home edition if you're looking for an external HDD.

And if you want something even funnier: iTunes causes my nVidia drivers to cause windows to Blue screen (fixed by uninstalling iTunes).

Sometimes you just want to go outside...