Random freezes with windows 7 - 64 bit

Anonymous
2009-10-28T19:01:43+00:00

I use to run Vista home premium x86 on a acer computer. This summer I downloaded Windows 7 rc x86. A month ago I bought all new parts and since I could use 64-bit system now I installed a 64-bit Windows 7.  Then did the problem start. Every new and then the computer freezes, some days over 30 times. I thought it was hardware problem and tried a lot of hardware finders and nothing helped. I also installed windows 7 rc my mothers laptop (The same version I use to have that work fine) that used to run on Vista home basic.. But her computer didn’t freeze it just got a black screen now and then.

The I started to suspect that it was because it was a beta version so when windows 7 were released I bought two of them a 32-bit and a 64-bit. But the problem didn´t go away. It´s still there and It´s kind of frustrating and even more now when I’m trying to write a essay.

I used windows upgrade advisor and it didn´t see any problem with an upgrade to windows 7. What can I do?

original title: Random freezes with windows 7

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Windows update

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Anonymous
2009-11-14T19:44:19+00:00

Guys,

I might have the answer to your problems.  This might fix your sleep/suspend problems and your random freezing problems.  Bottom line is that the default and "auto" values in Win 7 and your BIOS might not produce a stable computer...even with a virgin install.

RANDOM FREEZES FIX:

My computer used to freeze randomly until I fixed the memory timings.  I suspected bad memory early on and tested it with MEMTEST, but it passed with flying colors.  I even tried swaping memory out, trying to eliminate bad memory and/or slots.  It turned out that it was a memory frequency/timings/voltage issue.  No more freezes!  If you have a similar setup, this will most likely fix it.  If not, then check your memory and/or power supply.

The "AUTO" settings in BIOS *may not* produce a stable setting.  You have to goto the ASUS support website and download the latest memory QVL and lookup the memory settings for your particular brand there.  For my memory (OCZX1333LV6GK(XMP)) I had to make the following adjustments in the BIOS:

DRAM Freq:1066  (even though my memory is rated at 1333 frequency, the QVL guide recommended a lower freq!)

7-7-7-16 for the rest of the timings.  The other settings I was able to leave in "AUTO"

DRAM BUS Voltage: 1.6

*warning: be sure to consult your memory/motherboard documentation...the wrong value could damage your components!

SUSPEND/SLEEP FIX:

My computer used to hang when coming out of sleep or wouldn't completely goto sleep.  This solution may be partially dependent on you fixing a random freezing issue if you have one. 

In your "advanced" power settings, disable "Hybrid Sleep".  That's it!  My motherboard doesn't like hybrid sleep.

*If you have a desktop with a UPS, Win 7 will treat it like a laptop and apply the battery settings....sooo make sure you adjust the "on battery" settings!

My setup:

Processor:Intel core i7 920

Motherboard:Asus P6T

Memory: OCZX1333LV6GK(XMP)    (ie. 6GB in 3 sticks)

Harddrive:  3 x WD Caviar Black drives in RAID 5

PSU: X3 1000W

Video card: 2 x NVIDIA 9800 GTX+ SLI

*I have all of the ASUS overclocking/energy savings programs uninstalled

*I have the latest BIOS 0801 and all the latest drivers installed

Nick

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  1. Anonymous
    2010-04-15T02:26:28+00:00

    Hi Mainframe,

    I haven't completely resolved my problem but it's now better than it was.    I did system restore back to mid-March and now only get froze once every few days.     Still not good but better than the 6-7 times a day I getting.

    I do think that some people here have different issues than the rest of us.     What has been mostly discussed was that people were getting complete lockups / freezes with no BSOD, pointer froze, no going to task manager, no closing programs, can't do anything but power off.     Seems to me that anyone getting BSOD or a pointer that temporarily freezes, the reason could be almost anything and is likely not the same as what has been freezing us up.

    Regardless, it's all very frustrating for what is supposed to be MSFT's latest and greatest.

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  2. Anonymous
    2010-04-12T20:45:45+00:00

    I had the same problem with 7 Ultimate until just now. random 10-30 second freezes every few minutes. Recently I upgraded a customers' ASUS laptop to 7 Home Premium and it locked up completely, usually seconds after boot. All updates installed.

    Smoothf1's post got me to thinking of the ACPI drivers so I re-installed 7 on the laptop with all BUT the ATK0110 ACPI UTILITY.  So far no lockup, and I'm installing the Nvidia drivers right now.

    I also uninstalled the ATK0110 driver from my own system, and since restart have had no freezes at all (over a half hour so far).

    I don't know if it's a bad driver, wrong driver that WU is mis-reporting, or just bad settings in the BIOS of both machines, but I think it's got'er licked :)

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  3. Anonymous
    2010-04-09T22:26:27+00:00

    I recently solved a random freeze issue with Windows 7 x64 on my system, turned out to be the HPET bios setting. Disabling "HPET support" seems to have solved random freezing (and a few 0xA bluescreens that happened instead of a freeze) for me.

     

    This issue would happen most often when running uTorrent. I tried everything in vain, from memory timings, LAN driver settings, using original Win7 drivers, etc. etc. etc. Nothing helped at all until I realized the nature of the few 0xA bluescreens I got pointed to the same motherboard memory area (that is, not the RAM itself, but actual motherboard "resources"). So I remembered I had turned on the HPET bios setting about a week after I installed Win7 (it was off for XP32 before that), which was really the last of the hardware related settings I could try. Hope this helps some folks!

    Thanks for the tip.  I have been suffering from a random system freeze in Win 7 x64 which, when it occurs, requires a hard reset.  Never got a BSOD, only a freeze.

    Your note led me to check my BIOS settings (Gigabyte EX58-UD4P motherboard).  I found that HPET was enabled (the default), and that it was set to "32-bit Mode" (also the default), when it should have been set to 64-bit mode because I am using Win 7 x64.  I did not need to disable HPET (fortunately -- it is a good thing to have) ... only correct the setting.

    I had been perplexed that I was fully stable in XP, but not in Win 7 ... on the same hardware.  However, in researching HPET, I found that it has no effect on an XP system, so the mystery was explained.

    Sadly setting the HPET to 64-bit mode has not helped me. I have now been running Windows 7 for several days without freezing and it's only because I no longer have my hard disks running in RAID0.  I believe that there is not one solution to this particular problem, but many many solutions.  Sadly the symptoms all seem the same. I wish there were better error codes to go by in the event viewer, maybe MS will sort this out in a service pack one day...

    --> Hope this helps! Please voteor mark as correct answer if it does :) <--

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  4. Anonymous
    2010-04-09T15:53:40+00:00

    I recently solved a random freeze issue with Windows 7 x64 on my system, turned out to be the HPET bios setting. Disabling "HPET support" seems to have solved random freezing (and a few 0xA bluescreens that happened instead of a freeze) for me.

     

    This issue would happen most often when running uTorrent. I tried everything in vain, from memory timings, LAN driver settings, using original Win7 drivers, etc. etc. etc. Nothing helped at all until I realized the nature of the few 0xA bluescreens I got pointed to the same motherboard memory area (that is, not the RAM itself, but actual motherboard "resources"). So I remembered I had turned on the HPET bios setting about a week after I installed Win7 (it was off for XP32 before that), which was really the last of the hardware related settings I could try. Hope this helps some folks!

    Thanks for the tip.  I have been suffering from a random system freeze in Win 7 x64 which, when it occurs, requires a hard reset.  Never got a BSOD, only a freeze.

    Your note led me to check my BIOS settings (Gigabyte EX58-UD4P motherboard).  I found that HPET was enabled (the default), and that it was set to "32-bit Mode" (also the default), when it should have been set to 64-bit mode because I am using Win 7 x64.  I did not need to disable HPET (fortunately -- it is a good thing to have) ... only correct the setting.

    I had been perplexed that I was fully stable in XP, but not in Win 7 ... on the same hardware.  However, in researching HPET, I found that it has no effect on an XP system, so the mystery was explained.

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