Random freezes with windows 7 - 64 bit

Anonymous

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

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Anonymous

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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966 additional answers

Anonymous

2009-11-16T13:10:25+00:00

I was a litle optimistic last night.

I had a few freezes after my last post, but suddenly it just worked. I went an entire 11 hours without a freeze and even turned it off via the Start menu.

Started up today, and I've had it freeze 5 times within the first 5 minutes of booting in the last half hour. Most times it's right after trying to open a browser, or do something in messenger.

And again, if I boot up without the adapter in, it lasts longer.

I really, really, REALLY hope this is a Windows 7 problem. If that's the case, MS will eventually fix it. I know most new OSs have teething problems. Took 2 SPs for XP to be the greatest Windows OS. Took Vista only 1 before it became stable and usable. I hope it takes less for W7. I really believe it's the next best OS from MS, they just need to fix this freezing problem for us =S
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Anonymous

2009-11-16T12:41:59+00:00

So...what exactly was the solution?

Don't use a 1TB drive? Reinstall Windows? Change the parttion structure?
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Anonymous

2009-11-16T10:09:08+00:00

This thread is so fragmented with individual issues now not related to Windows 7 that I would recommend people start their own threads. If anything it served as a useful hardware comparison. For me I think it's possibly the media sharing or network card driver or sound card driver at fault. Unless you have a hardware issue unrelated to Win7.
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Anonymous

2009-11-16T09:43:31+00:00

Right, are you ready for this? I am tempting fate by even saying this, but my problems now are SOLVED!!!! Here's what happened:-

I can't count the number of things I have tried, but last night, I finally gave up and decided to format and install Vista 32bit instead. Rebooted with the Vista CD in and went through the installation process. Didn't appear to be any problems until it was just about to login for the first time, and the screen just froze with the desktop wallpaper. No icons, no taskbar, no clock...JUST the wallpaper.

I couldn't believe it. Never had problems like this with Vista. So, I had to do a hard reset and try again. Same deal. It just froze with the wallpaper. No disk activity. Nothing.

I then started to think about what had fundamentally changed since trying to upgrade to Windows 7 from Vista. The significant thing was a new hard disk: a 1TB Western Digital WD10EADS Caviar Green model freshly purchased. I hadn't had any issues with it: in fact, I'd even had Windows 7 run a chkdsk on it at one point and it found no problems. But, I decided to disconnect it and instead use one of my original 500GB drives (Samsung Spinpoint) as the boot drive instead. In fact, for simplicity, I disconnected all my hard disks bar this one and went through the Windows 7 installation process (again) to this drive, formatting along the way.

The install seemed to go quicker (but that could have just been in my head). Everything seems to be working just fine. I have downloaded all updates, and installed all drivers and everything is working like clockwork. Tried to force a crash by going in Media Centre, starting a program, stopping it, minimizing it, opening internet explorer etc etc but it seems rock solid.

I then brought my second 500GB Samsung Spinpoint back online by reconnecting it to the motherboard and importing the disk using Win7 Disk Management. This disk has all my photos, music, recorded TV etc on it. It is still working perfectly!

I haven't tried to reconnect the 1TB drive yet: I will give it a few days and see how things go.

<SIDE NOTE: I am not 100% about partitions and things like that, but I recall in my first attempts with Windows 7 that the 1TB (boot) disk was set to a primary partition. One of my 500GB drives was also set to a primary partition. The other 500GB drive was set to a Dynamic disk. These are three physical drives. I don't know if having 2 primary partitions in there was the problem, or just that Windows 7 doesn't like the model of WD drive that I was using. Now, my boot disk is a primary partition, and the second disk is still set to a Dynamic disk. I don't know whay pone of them is Dynamic, but I know that if I tryu to change it to a 'basic' disk in Windows 7 Disk Management, it tells me that all data would be lost. So I have just left it as it is.

I will try re-connecting the 1TB disk at some point soon as I really could do with the extra storage space.>
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