Random freezes with windows 7 - 64 bit

SORRY FOR THE DELAY, THIS PROBLEM HAS ME FRUSTERATED TO THE MAX. THIS PROBLEM HAS NO INCIDENT TRIGGER POINTS, AND RANDOM WITH NO EXPECTED INTERVULALS, FROM ANNOYING TO EXTREMELY FRUSTRATING. THE OLD SYSTEM HAD SOME WIERDNESS TO IT. THIS IS A BRAND NEW SYSTEM WITH EACH AND EVERY PERIFERAL REPLACED IN BETWEEN ABYSS CRASHES. NEW TOWER AND COMPONENTS. THE ENTIRE SYSTEM WAS BROUGHT UP TO THE COMPUTER SHOP AND RUN WITH NO CRASHES. THREE DIFFERANT TIMES. I CONTACTED QWEST AND BOUGHT A BRAND NEW MODEM. SAME PROBLEM, SAME RESULTS. I CALLED QWEST AGAIN AND THE SERVICE GUY RAN ME A TEMPORARY CABLE THAT RUNS FROM THE BOX OUT ON THE STREET LITERALLY STRAIGHT TO THE COMPUTER. ACTUALLY IT RUNS STRAIG THEWIRELESS MODEM. SAME PROBLEM-CRASH INTO THE ABYSS. BACK TO THE COMPUTOR STORE-RUNS FINE -ALL NIGHT LONG. I HAVE TO GIVE TOM AT 'DOVES NEST' HE ASKED ME WHAT I WOULD REALLY WANT. I TOLD HIM THAT IT WAS ACTING LIKE THER WAS APROGRAM RUNNING IN A LOOP, AS IF THE HARD DRIVE WAS CURRUPTED. TOM HAD THE MOTHER BOARD OUT IN FRONT OF ME BEFORE I COULD FINISH THE SENTENCE. KEY BOARD IS RESPONDING SLOWLY NOW BEAR WITH ME. WE HOOKED IT ALL UP AND RAN IT THERE AGAIN-ALL WAS FINE. KEN SUGGESTED WE TAKE IT TO HIS HOUSE, HE HAS THE SAME INTERNET PROVIDER AND HE LIVES JUST ARROUND THE CORNER. IT RAN FINE. TOOK IT HOME-CRASHED INTO THE ABYSS IN THREE MINUTES. POWER COMPANY CAME OUT-POWER TO THE BOX PERFECT. POWER IN THE PLUG I'M USING FINE  

                  IT OCCURED TO ME IT COULD BE A VOLTAGE DROP. VOLTAGE TO THE BOX IS CORRECT, QWEST HAS A TEMPORARY CABLE STRAIGHT TO THE COMPUROR, ITS HOOKED TO A WIRELESS MODEM, THERE IS NO PHYSICAL CONTACT TO THE COMPUTOR THIS SHOULD ELLIMINATE ANY GROUND PROBLEMS CONNECTED TO THE CABLE, YOU CAN'T TRANSMITT A CONDITION LIKE THAT. WHAT EVER IS GOING ON HERE IS UNDETECTABLE OR UN MEASURABLE BY ALL THE SERVICE PEOPLE THAT WERE NICE ENOUGH TO LET ME CHECK THINGS OUT WITH DIFFERENT CONFIGURATIONS AND THEM USING ALL THE INSTUMENTS AND PROGRAMS YOU CAN IMAGIN.

                  NEXT STEP; I AM WAITING FOR A U.P.S. FROM WHAT I'VE READ AND LOOKED AT, THER IS NO CONSIDERATION OF A POWER DROP THROUGH A SURGE PROTECTOR. I FOUND A U.P.S. WITH A BUILT IN SURGE PROTECTOR AND IT REGULATES VOLTAGE TO A STEADY 120VOLT. MY UNDERSTANDING IS THAT POWER COMING IN IS SOMEHOW DELAYED AND STORED (IN CAPACITORS?)(BATTERIES?). IN A MANNER THAT CREATES A RESERVE IN ORDER TO OUTPUT AN AVEN STEADY UNINTERUPTED FLOW. THE POWER TO THE BOX - NOT AN ISSUE. THE CABLE - GROUNDING AND OTHER ISSUES HAVE BEEN ELIMINATED. I'M WILLING TO BE THE HARD WARE IS NOT THE ISSUE. IF THIS WORKS - GREAT.

                 NOW THE QUESTION ARISSES THAT IF THIS IS IN FACT THE PROBLEM. WHY IS THIS SECOND OR NANOSECOND DROP NOT MEASURABLE AND DETECTABLE. THIS IS OBVIOUSLY AN ISSUE, THER HAS TO BE A BETTER WAY OR A MOST CHEAPER WAY, AS I"M INTO MY COMPUTOR FOR $1,200 PLUS. U.P.S.  A VOLTAGE DROP EVEN FOR A NANOSECOND AT TODAYS SPEED CAN REMOVE QUITE A BIT OF PROGAM. THER HAS TO BE AN AESYIER WAY. I"M TRYING TO GET SOME BUSINESS DONE AND WITH ALL THESE LOCKOUTS EVEN READING MY OWN E-MAIL CAN BE A SEVERAL DAY PROBLEM. I AM A PROGRAMMER THQAT HAS JUST RETURNED AFTER 14 YEARS AWAY. EVERY THING IS SO DIFFERENT I'M TRYING TO LEARN ALL AOVER AGAIN BETWEEN LOCKOUTS.I DON'T KNOW IF MICROSOFT RESPONDED, I WOULDN'T KNOW WERE TO LOOK AND MY LAST ADVENTURE INTO THEIR SITE WAS A JOKE, I HIT E-MAIL MICROSOFT- IT TOLD ME NOTHING AND THER WAS NO WERE TO PROGRESS TO THAT I COULD EVEN ENTER SOMETHING THAT WOULD SEND.

                  I DON'T YET KNOW HOW TO GET BACK ON TO THIS SITE HERE AND REPOST EVERY THING I JUST TYPED. IDON'T SEE VOLTAGE DROP CONDITIONS MENTIONED ANY WHERE AND I'M CURIOS TO SEE IF ANY BODY IS EXPERIANCING THE SAME PROBLEM. I HAVE NO OLD VERSION HISTORY. I GET THE BLUE SCREEN FROM THE ABYSS - NOT BLUE OF MICROSOFT BLUE - A TRANSPARENT AQUA  BLUE THAT HAS A DEPTH TO IT LIKE YOU COULD ALMOST REACH INTO THE SCREEN. LOCKED COMPKLETELY OUT INCLUDING THE ON OFF BUTTON ON THE TOWER. NO ICONS OR ANYTHING ELSE ON THE SCREEN. RESET BUTTON ON THE TOWER IS THE ONLY THING THAT STILL WORKS. BRAND NEW EQUIPMENT, HARDWARE. NEWLY LOADE AND ACTIVATED WINDOW 7 HOME PREMIUM. I DON'T HAVE TIME TO READ BUT A FEW OF THESE RESONSES BECAUSE OF THIS PROBLEM. YOUR CAME CLOSEST. ANY RECOMONDATIONS WOULD BE APPRECIATED , REMEMBER THIS WHOLE SYSTEM RUNS FINE IN TWO OTHER SEPERATE LOCATIONS, ON SAME AS MINE AND THE OTHE A FOUR GIG SET UP WITH A DIFFERENT PRVIDOR. WOW WHO WOULD OF THOUGHT -THE POWER.THIS IS A PROBLEM THAT THE COMPUTOR SHOULD BE AWARE OF.  I'LL KNOW THURSDAY, MY U.P.S ARRIVES. GOD I HOPE IT WORKS. (CRASHING AND LOCKED OUT)

I purchased a Gateway DX4300-11 late last year. It came with Windows 7 64-bit. After the first couple of days it never worked good with freezes every few hours to every few minutes depending on what I was doing. I tried numerous things including reloading the operating system and continually checking for new drivers and other updates. I even installed a SATA card to see if the problems were related to the SATA controller on the motherboard since while running some of the performance tools I noticed very high disc usage. Last week I loaded Windows 7 32-bit and have not had a freeze since. I did notice that my Yuan TV tuner is no longer recognized so perhaps that is the issue and I do not plan to install new drivers for this till after I have had more time to see if things continue to work well. It is currently disabled. I did not need 64-bit anyway. I have little expertise compared to other people on these boards but wanted to share this since it was so exciting to have a computer that worked good after all my efforts to fix it.

I believe I have finally solved my problem with Windows 7 x64 freezing (screen and system frozen, mouse/keyboard inoperative, requiring a hard reset), which has beset my system from October 27, 2009 (date of installation) until June 3, 2010 (the date of the last system freeze, over 65 days ago).

I wish that I could advise as to the precise solution, but I made a number of changes on or after June 3, any of which (either alone or cumulatively) could have resulted in the fix.  I will detail what transpired after June 3, in the event that the information might be helpful to someone.

The problem (and the solution) was not related to hardware.  There have been no changes to my hardware (Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD4P motherboard, with an Intel i7-920 CPU, overclocked to 4.2 GHz) since early May, 2010.

I always keep my system fully patched via Windows update, and all of my drivers are up to date.  In addition, prior to June 3, I had installed the following Windows HotFixes (which were not served/available via Windows Update):  KB981621; KB975599; KB976972; KB977307; KB981197; KB981314; KB981898; KB981208; KB981466; KB981187; KB980663; KB981679; KB980681; KB980295; KB979155; KB978118; KB978632; KB979444; KB979366; KB977357; KB978042; KB976418; KB974476

On or after June 3, I installed the following additional Windows HotFixes (again, which were not served/available via Windows update): KB983543; KB982293; KB983615; KB981180; KB983396; KB983401; KB982667; KB983551; KB982383; KB2120976; KB2028551; KB2028560

The following drivers and software were also updated after June 3, 2010: Logitech QuickCam Pro 9000; Realtek HD Audio; Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller; ATI Radeon 4770, and new versions of LogMeIn and Alcohol 52%.  I have only listed drivers and/or software that remain in memory, either as applications or services, at all times when Windows is loaded (my system operates 24/7).

My freezes were random, but there must have been a trigger of some sort.  Many of them occured in the middle of the night, when no one was at the keyboard.  Windows Task Manager indicates that in any 24-hour period, I have 78 Windows tasks that are started.  I turned on task logging, and checked to see whether there was any correlation between the commencement of any of the Windows tasks, and the time of the system freezes.  There was no discernable correlation.

So my next question became, are there any potential triggers that aren't logged?  Indeed ... many 3rd-party software applications have automatic update routines, and periodically poll for updates. So I entered the registry, [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run], and deleted the following keys:

"SSBkgdUpdate"=""C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Scansoft Shared\SSBkgdUpdate\SSBkgdupdate.exe" -Embedding -boot"

"PaperPort PTD"=""C:\Program Files (x86)\ScanSoft\PaperPort\pptd40nt.exe""

"IndexSearch"=""C:\Program Files (x86)\ScanSoft\PaperPort\IndexSearch.exe""

"PPort11reminder"=""C:\Program Files (x86)\ScanSoft\PaperPort\Ereg\Ereg.exe" -r "C:\ProgramData\ScanSoft\PaperPort\11\Config\Ereg\Ereg.ini"

"Norton Ghost 15.0"=""C:\Program Files (x86)\Norton Ghost\Agent\VProTray.exe""

"QuickTime Task"=""C:\Program Files (x86)\QuickTime\QTTask.exe" -atboottime"

"SunJavaUpdateSched"=""C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Java\Java Update\jusched.exe""

The goal was to delete memory-resident programs that are unnecessary.  The following programs still poll for updates regularly: Windows Update; InstallShield; Logitech Webcam; aVast! anti-virus; Firefox; and Thunderbird

My general sense is that the problem was not Windows 7, but was rather one or more 3rd-party applications, most likely the ones that poll for updates or undertake other periodic activity.

Ok, basically everything I tried was worthless, except disabling my sound card driver.  It's a RealTek.  This has taken the frequency of crashes down to about once every 14 days or so - still unacceptable, but livable.  I get by with a USB speaker for sound.

But I still have a RealTek network card (NIC).

Assuming this is a driver issue, and that software quality (or lack thereof) is common across one company's drivers, I am going to install an Intel NIC and disable the RealTek NIC and see if that brings me back to rock solid stability.