Windows 7 freezes

[catilley1092]

You're right, Nibiru. All retail computers are OEM. There's Windows OEM install discs that you can purchase. But I was speaking of retail. I'll try to make that clear in the future (if I can keep a straight mind). So much detail to remember.

 

[MikeMyers]

For whatever it's worth, my Win-7 freezing issues have vanished. I can only assume that it's because of the changes I listed up above.

The motherboard is now on the latest firmware for the BIOS.
The defective video cars has been sent off for replacement.
All remnants of McAffee have been removed, so Vipre runs smoothly.

There has been one case where the computer drastically slowed down until a scan was completed, which hasn't been an issue before. To cure that, scans will be done at 4am, and I've ordered 2 more gigs of RAM.

 

[Nibiru2012]

I've ordered 2 more gigs of RAM.

Adding more RAM is the least expensive yet most effective way to improve the performance of one's computer system.

 

[jbs]

Cleaning up th registry, etc might help

Hi, I love windows 7, but it keeps freezing (allot) sometimes less than 5 minutes after I turn it on and soetimes 1 an hour after. So does anyone else have this problem? Or does anyone know how to fix it? I'm probably gonna try to reinstall Windows 7, just wanted to know if anyone knew a solution to the problem before i did it.

-Sjurdur

Try to download CCLEANER, a free utility program to clean up many temporary files, etc and the registry. This might help. I never had any "freezing up" on my desktop. Run the Ccleaner daily and defrag hdd at least one a month.
Good luck. jbs

 

[MikeMyers]

Suggestion - read through this entire discussion, making a list of all the solutions people have suggested, adding new ones as you read through all this, and crossing off anything that people posted about saying it's not a good idea. Before you do anything at all, create a "restore point" so if something you do doesn't work, you can always go back to where you're at now... Some of my own thoughts are:

a) The single best thing you can do is to add more memory if you're now using the minimum. Memory issues seem way up there on the list, and I think 4 gigs is what ought to be available for an environment for Win7.

b) A house with a bad foundation isn't going to be very good. Ditto for computers. I think you should check for firmware updates for your motherboard and video card (and everything else, while you're at it - even if it doesn't stop the freezing, this can only help).

c) Learn how to use "sfc /scannow" - you run it as an administrator from a command prompt, and this will help you correct any problems in your Windows files.

d) Hit ctrl-alt-delete to bring up "Task Manager". Once that's running, click on "resource monitor" to bring up that display. If you've got a huge screen, or if you have hooked up a second monitor, keep these running and watch the graphs for anything you find "unusual". The more you work with this, the better you'll understand what's going on in the computer, and if your computer freezes, you might be able to see what was going on right when it crashed. I'm just beginning to learn how to effectively use this, along with the "Event Viewer" logs (which haven't helped me much so far, as they only tell me that the computer rebooted after a freeze-up, not why it did freeze up... but maybe I haven't yet learned where to look.)

e) Run "malwarebytes" to make sure your computer is clean.

f) If you've ever had a different anti-virus on your computer before you installed what you're running now, you need to check if there are programs to remove what was left behind by the other program's uninstall utility.

g) I haven't yet run ccleaner on this computer, but everyone tells me it is very helpful. I used it on a different computer, with all the options checked, and it deleted things that I would have rather it had left alone (history, forms, that type of stuff), but these are all in the options you can select or deselect. It also has a tool to clean out the registry, but back things up before you run this.

h) Running "hijackthis" will get you a log file that probably includes the things that might cause a freezing problem, but to use this effectively, you need to follow the advice for submitting the log file to a user group where someone will analyze it for you. If you do this, you MUST have already done the pre-checks that they suggest, all of which are good things to have done anyway.

i) start making a log file of what your computer was doing when it froze up. You may or may not find a pattern there, that if you do certain things in a certain order, it freezes. If it freezes all by itself when you're not using it, then that might suggest other things to look for.

j) I feel the computer should only be doing what I want it to do, when I want this to happen, so I like to go into "msconfig" and turn off the automatic startup of things that I don't want to work this way.

k) If you bought your computer from any of the large vendors, rather than install Win 7 yourself from a CD, it comes with lots of "junk" programs that you don't want or need. Remove these yourself, or get one of the programs that does it for you.

l) If you're running a free anti-virus program, consider spending the money for something better. In my case I've got Vipre, and their support people have been very helpful in tracking down my own problems.

m) If your computer freezes, give it a while to see if it recovers on its own - if you have resource monitor running, you'll be able to see if it's still "alive". Sometimes the computer acts like it's had this issue, when in reality it is so busy doing something else that it just doesn't respond to what you're telling it to do. If you've already got Resource Monitor running in another window, you can get some ideas of what is happening in the computer when it stops responding.



Others can add to this list, and maybe eventually we'll have a good check list of what things to do.

 

[jbs]

Mobo temperature

Suggestion - read through this entire discussion, making a list of all the solutions people have suggested, adding new ones as you read through all this, and crossing off anything that people posted about saying it's not a good idea. Before you do anything at all, create a "restore point" so if something you do doesn't work, you can always go back to where you're at now... Some of my own thoughts are:

a) The single best thing you can do is to add more memory if you're now using the minimum. Memory issues seem way up there on the list, and I think 4 gigs is what ought to be available for an environment for Win7.

b) A house with a bad foundation isn't going to be very good. Ditto for computers. I think you should check for firmware updates for your motherboard and video card (and everything else, while you're at it - even if it doesn't stop the freezing, this can only help).

c) Learn how to use "sfc /scannow" - you run it as an administrator from a command prompt, and this will help you correct any problems in your Windows files.

d) Hit ctrl-alt-delete to bring up "Task Manager". Once that's running, click on "resource monitor" to bring up that display. If you've got a huge screen, or if you have hooked up a second monitor, keep these running and watch the graphs for anything you find "unusual". The more you work with this, the better you'll understand what's going on in the computer, and if your computer freezes, you might be able to see what was going on right when it crashed. I'm just beginning to learn how to effectively use this, along with the "Event Viewer" logs (which haven't helped me much so far, as they only tell me that the computer rebooted after a freeze-up, not why it did freeze up... but maybe I haven't yet learned where to look.)

e) Run "malwarebytes" to make sure your computer is clean.

f) If you've ever had a different anti-virus on your computer before you installed what you're running now, you need to check if there are programs to remove what was left behind by the other program's uninstall utility.

g) I haven't yet run ccleaner on this computer, but everyone tells me it is very helpful. I used it on a different computer, with all the options checked, and it deleted things that I would have rather it had left alone (history, forms, that type of stuff), but these are all in the options you can select or deselect. It also has a tool to clean out the registry, but back things up before you run this.

h) Running "hijackthis" will get you a log file that probably includes the things that might cause a freezing problem, but to use this effectively, you need to follow the advice for submitting the log file to a user group where someone will analyze it for you. If you do this, you MUST have already done the pre-checks that they suggest, all of which are good things to have done anyway.

i) start making a log file of what your computer was doing when it froze up. You may or may not find a pattern there, that if you do certain things in a certain order, it freezes. If it freezes all by itself when you're not using it, then that might suggest other things to look for.

j) I feel the computer should only be doing what I want it to do, when I want this to happen, so I like to go into "msconfig" and turn off the automatic startup of things that I don't want to work this way.

k) If you bought your computer from any of the large vendors, rather than install Win 7 yourself from a CD, it comes with lots of "junk" programs that you don't want or need. Remove these yourself, or get one of the programs that does it for you.

l) If you're running a free anti-virus program, consider spending the money for something better. In my case I've got Vipre, and their support people have been very helpful in tracking down my own problems.

m) If your computer freezes, give it a while to see if it recovers on its own - if you have resource monitor running, you'll be able to see if it's still "alive". Sometimes the computer acts like it's had this issue, when in reality it is so busy doing something else that it just doesn't respond to what you're telling it to do. If you've already got Resource Monitor running in another window, you can get some ideas of what is happening in the computer when it stops responding.



Others can add to this list, and maybe eventually we'll have a good check list of what things to do.

Yes, we are having very good discussion! I have not read all of the response.

I'm not sure if someone had mentioned the effect of "temperature(s)" of the electronic components on the mobo, specially the CPU, GPU, HDD and memory (RAM). The speed, the capacity and the traffic nowadays are getting faster and larger in the new generation of PC. This is particularly drastic on the laptop with a more confined space. It's simply getting "hotter" very fast. As you turn on a laptop, temperatures of the components increases often from 30 C to over 40 C or more. Once the temperature reaches, possibly over 70 C, some parts of the mobo fail to function, and the computer will hang-ups or freezes.

There are several free software programs available for monitoring temperature, e.g. "installspeedfan" and "speccy".

Just a short comment. jbs

 

[JAke]

Had the random freezing problem as well, and after a good bit of troubleshooting I tracked down the cause. Apparently Windows 7 did not like the old wireless network card that I had. After removing card all freezes have stopped and am now going on 24 hours without a freeze. Going from 2-4 freezes per hour to none in 24 makes me pretty sure that the card was the culprit. Hope this information helps someone.

 

[GodAtum]

Hi all,

I have been experiencing the random freezes then after a while everything works. this has only happened recently and I have not done anything to my PC. It had been working fine.

I do not think I need more memory and I have updated all my firmware.

 

[Nibiru2012]

Hi all,

I have been experiencing the random freezes then after a while everything works. this has only happened recently and I have not done anything to my PC. It had been working fine.

I do not think I need more memory and I have updated all my firmware.

Is is it a new computer or did you do the install yourself? A clean install or an upgrade install?

What version of Windows 7, 32-bit or 64-bit? What edition?

Notebook or desktop?

We need more information please.

 

[GodAtum]

All the specs are listed on my profile.
This is a computer that I put together myself apart from the motherboard, CPU and RAM with a clean install.

 

[TorrentG]

Visit ASUS' page for your particular motherboard. Download tab. Choose the correct OS. Then utilities section. Download and install the latest ATK0110 driver utility update. Old versions on systems are a known problem causer and extremely common, even on brand new boards.

 

[GodAtum]

Visit ASUS' page for your particular motherboard. Download tab. Choose the correct OS. Then utilities section. Download and install the latest ATK0110 driver utility update. Old versions on systems are a known problem causer and extremely common, even on brand new boards.

I cannot seem to find the ATK0110 update, which category is it under: Qualified Vendor List, BIOS, BIOS-Utilities, Chipset, AUDIO, LAN , Utilities, Others?

 

[TorrentG]

I cannot seem to find the ATK0110 update, which category is it under: Qualified Vendor List, BIOS, BIOS-Utilities, Chipset, AUDIO, LAN , Utilities, Others?

It's under utilities section. I downloaded it and attached to my post, so you can install from that:

 

[GodAtum]

It's under utilities section. I downloaded it and attached to my post, so you can install from that:

Many thanks. I tried running AsAcpiIns.exe under the 64 folder but a CMD screen apperas and disappers and nothing happens.

 

[TorrentG]

It probably installed the driver well. You can check the properties of the driver installed now.

Go to C:\Windows\System32\drivers

Check on the modified date of Asacpi.sys If it is 2008 or earlier, it did not update.

If this is the case, copy the Asacpi.sys file from the download/extracted folder (64/Win7) and paste it over the old one at C:\Windows\System32\drivers

Reboot.

You're welcome. (Also make sure you are running 64 bit Windows, of course - as opposed to 32.)

 

[GodAtum]

I have tried installing the driver but it does not solve the issue. I have looked at the resource monitor and whenever the computer freezes any program that i am running says "not responding".

 

[gzorp]

Ok I had the freezing problem for weeks and with the help of this forum was able to solve it. Also I should say my problem is that my computer would pretty much "pause" for 10 - 90 seconds then come back to life much as in this video:

[ame="[MEDIA=youtube]1CQLQqDl48U[/MEDIA]"]

[/ame]

Here's what I tried

-format and clean reinstall of Win 7 64 bit, did all updates, drivers from mobo manufacturer, video card etc. - Didn't work
-format and clean reinstall of Win 7 32 bit did all updates, drivers from mobo manufacturer, video card etc- Didn't work
-Tried to flash my Mobo's BIOS, ended up BRICKING my F$%^ing Mobo (gigabyte), and had to buy a new one - bought an Asus P5QL/EPU - Didn't work
-Did the Win 7 Memory diagnostic on "extended" Memory Passed
-Turned my power settings to "High Performance" - Didn't work
-All latest drivers etc - Didn't work
-On the several occasions I reformatted I intentionally didn't install any Antivirus at all just to make sure that wasn't causing the problem - Didn't work

What actually solved my problem:

I read in this post
https://www.w7forums.com/windows-7-freezes-t114p12.html#post12983

That tricky had previously had a Samsung spinpoint HD, and then switched over to a WD Caviar Green HD when he got Win 7. He ended up removing the WD Hard drive, and going back to the Samsung, and PROBLEM SOLVED. Well I was in the exact same boat. I was previously using a 750GB spinpoint on Win XP, and when I moved to Win 7, I bought a 1.5 TB WD Caviar Green and made that the master, and used the spinpoint as a slave drive. So I pulled out the Caviar, installed Win 7 on the spinpoint and BAM-O, problem solved.

Wow I wish I'd tried that before destroying my mobo trying to flash it But I was thinking Nah how could it be the (seemingly working fine) Hard drive.. but well it was! Crazy. Weeks and weeks of frustration caused by this frickin hard drive, I want to take it into a field and smash it Office Space style.


-What I was going to try next, but thankfully didn't have to -- My ram also isn't on the approved list for my Mobo, but it'd never caused a problem before I was going to try buying approved ram
-Downgrade to Vista
-Smash computer with a sledge hammer

Also I noticed some people are saying "add more ram" I think if you have a decent amount of ram (I have 4GB), and you're not doing anything intensive (e.g. I was just browsing text webpages) and you're experiencing the kind of problems in the youtube video above, adding more ram ain't going to do jack. Something's wrong with your system and you have to find out the culprit to fix it.

Anyway I think this thread should be kept open. Even though people are experiencing windows freezes for all kinds of different reasons, this thread was a very good resource for helping me investigate and resolve my problem. More ideas = more better.

 

[win7user2010]

Windows 7 freezing issue RESOLVED!

Hello guys, i first want to tell u all that i just made the account to THANK the one who started this topic and helped many others like me and all others who posted the solutions and helped everyone.that was the only reason i made the account,previously i was just reading the form as a guest.
Now the real thing..as many of u,i also had this annoying issue of windows 7 freezing.i am using 7600 build of windows 7 ultimate from almost 2,3 months. and i had this same issue as

same video a guy posted on this form as well,it always got stuck while doing any thing,surfing web,playing game,always was freezing during watching movie after every 15-20 min for 15-20 seconds,.it was freezing almost daily 2,3 times on average 5-6 hours of computer use.(by the way i usually put my laptop on sleep mode when not in use,i only shut it down when i am really going on vacation or i need it to shut down usually after 3-4 days)
My system specs are,
core duo 2 ghz
2 gb ddr2 ram
160 gb hdd
ati radeon hd 2400xt 128mb hypermemory
and all other usual things that every laptop has,with all the drivers up-to-date

3 days back i googled the issue and got through this website,read all the posts and finally that many people recommended to do,i did it and from 3 days NOT A SINGLE FREEZE,i just clicked the battery on taskbar,selected 'more power options' and selected HIGH PERFORMANCE from the power plan options,dats it,just so simple,i also for my surety checked the 'advanced power plan settings',nothing needed to do there..i don't know what this setting did,anything with the PCI express setting or what ever,but i only know IT RESOLVED MY ISSUE to 100%, finally i once again want to thank the guy who posted this solution and the one who posted the video of the problem on youtube and to everyone else who posted here and helped many other.lastly in my opinion this windows 7 freezing has nothing to do with hardware specifications i think,everyone here has very good up to date hardware but people still having this problem,its more of a windows bug that should be resolved,because on the same laptop i previously had windows vista home premium 32 bit but did'nt have such freezing issue,i always had 'power saver' profile turned on,except that vista was slow as every one know and windows 7 is fast,it did not have this annoying freezing problem atleast.i dont know why this POWER PROFILE issue has to do something with this FREEZING.in windows 7.its definately software problem in windows itself and had to be resolved with some update.
:ciao:everyone.

 

[Nibiru2012]

i dont know why this POWER PROFILE issue has to do something with this FREEZING.in windows 7.its definately software problem in windows itself and had to be resolved with some update.
:ciao:everyone.

I'm not sure if its a Windows 7 "bug" or just the way it sets power settings in the default mode upon install. Perhaps when Service Pack 1 comes out next year in the 2nd quarter that issue will be resolved.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
win7user2010 - Welcome to the Windows 7 Forums website! :ciao:

We hope you enjoy your time here, there are lots of helpful friendly people here and if you have any further issues I'm sure there will be someone here to help you.

 

[jordeangjelovik]

Win 7 Ultimate x64 freezes!!!

Hi guys,
unfortunately i have the same problem with my win and PC!
This is my PC configuration:
OS version 6.1.7600.2.0.0.256.1
1.MS ASROK N68 ENFORCE 630+680I AM3 DDR2 1066
2.CPU AMD SEMPRON LE 2.7GHZ L3 CASH 1MB L2 CASH AM3
3.RAM 4GB BUFFALO DDR2 800
4.WD 500GB

It is not the best but for the last seven months since i bought my PC with Win 7 x64 Ultimate i did not have problems at all!
and my PC worked smooth and very fast, and i could not even believe that the new win 7 does not even fragment or slow down during the time!
basically i spend time surfing on net and as a photographer i use several programs for photo editing!
before two weeks for the last seven months and using the same programs did not have any problems!
since i started having this issue first i believed that i had virus, then HD issues and then i formatted my windows partition and did clean install and after few days again windows was freezing and the last time i asked one friend of mine for help (he runs PC store)
he told me there are Viruses that attacks the bios and the AV software can't do much about it (of course he told that he fixed the Bios system and my PC, but did not tell me how)!

and after 3 days, tonight again i have the same issue with my PC frozen since 1 hour ago in the middle of my work and as a result i am very pissed!

i am not a computer expert but i believe that this is not a virus or some software conflict with the Windows 7( if that was the reason, i should have this problem before).
Maybe some issue with win updates from sometime ago!?

in this thread, someone posted that we should try with power plan, i tried and it did not work!
Sorry for such a long reply but i hope this could help somehow to locate the problem and help me to fix my PC and everybody else!

good luck to us