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

2010-05-06T16:41:35+00:00

Day 2 and no freezes so far. I used the computer a lot yesterday and this morning and also shut it down overnight.

I am now back to using the logitec wireless mouse & keyboard.

I will summarize in one place here what I think is going on.

While we work on our computer there are a number of files opened regularly in the background that we are not aware of. These vary from system logs to data files kept by specific software we are using.

Sometime in march something changed in the environment of W7 x64 installations. The cause could be an update from microsoft or a viral attack targeted to that environment.

March was a period when I got a lot of badly infected machines to repair. Most had good security in place but still some really viscous stuff got through.

Whatever the cause, the result was that regularly background working files were not closed properly destroying the integrity of the disk indexing in a way that W7 chkdsk doesn't recognize as an erroneous condition. Because of the nature that disk space is used the majority of background working files that are regularly open likely exist close to each other physically on the disk. Once one file is compromised others located in the same area soon follow.

The os has a timeout routine on reads and writes and when a program attempts to read or write to these damaged working files (often initiated by a mouse click or [enter]) the os sits there and spins it's wheels until it times out. Because the os does not recognize the error condition no error code is generated. The more read and writes scheduled by the program the longer the spinning takes. As more damage is created from the initial error condition, more and more programs are impacted at an ever increasing rate until the system becomes unusable.

Running chkdsk or repair does not resolve the problem as these routines do not recognize the error.

Chkdsk of the XP vintage catches some of the errors that newer chkdsks don't.

I suspect most of those affected are using NTFS formatting on their disks. The errors reported by the older chkdsk almost exclusively were found within the extra security structures of NTFS. I have reformatted to Fat32 with the hope that the routine causing the problem does not exist in this environment. So far so good after about 2 days which is substantially more time than I got from restores recently.
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Anonymous

2010-05-07T12:38:17+00:00

Half way through writing this message my computer froze again. This is driving me nuts and I just don't know what to do. My BIOS and all drivers are up to date and my computer just freezes randomly. Two weeks ago I was running the 32bit version and never had any problems so should just reinstall that and forget 64bit? When my computer freezes, all I can do is hit the reset button which is certainly not a good idea. Any help would be much appreciated!

My rig is:

Operating System: Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit (6.1.7600)

CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q8400 @ 2.66GHz

Motherboard: Asus P5Q Pro Turbo

Video Card: ATI Radeon HD 5770

Sound Card: Asus Xonar Essence ST

RAM: 4Gb
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Anonymous

2010-05-07T13:05:38+00:00

Half way through writing this message my computer froze again. This is driving me nuts and I just don't know what to do. My BIOS and all drivers are up to date and my computer just randomly freezes. Two weeks ago I was running the 32bit version and never had any problems so should I just reinstall that and forget 64bit? When my computer freezes, all I can do is hit the reset button which is certainly not a good idea. My computer is unusable in this state!

My rig is:

Operating System: Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit (6.1.7600)

CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q8400 @ 2.66GHz

Motherboard: Asus P5Q Pro Turbo

Video Card: ATI Radeon HD 5770

Sound Card: Asus Xonar Essence ST

RAM: 4Gb DDR2

P.S. I'm rather surprised that after all these complaints we haven't had a fix yet!!!
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Anonymous

2010-05-07T19:21:18+00:00

I have seen quite a few people suggest that uninstalling Windows Update KB980302 will fix the problem so I thought I would try it. I have not had a single freeze for a few hours so maybe this fix works for me. If you don't hear from me again it is fixed!
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