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

2009-11-12T10:37:22+00:00

Folks - again - please state your sound card make and drivers - if it's onboard at least tell us what drivers you are using. Thanks.
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Anonymous

2009-11-12T14:33:10+00:00

I have a Creative X-Fi Fatality card and suffer from these problems. My pc is barely usable, despite a system format and clean install last night. Heres a thread I posted elsewhere:-

I am pulling my hair out now.

I have had Windows 7 32bit Home Premius for about two weeks. It continued to do random freezes when either browsing the internet or playing some TV (live or recorded) through media centre, looking at device manager:- basically quite random. The freezes last for 10 minutes or more where I can still move the mouse cursor and often still drag windows around still, but I can't actually get anything to respond - button clicks or keyboard presses. My system is reasonably highly specced for a HTPC and is as follows:-

ASUS M3A-H/HDMI motherboard with latest BIOS

4GB DDR 2 Ram

Phenom quad-core processor

On-board HD 3200 graphics card connected via HDMI to Sony Bravia TV, displaying at 1080i

Main drive is a 1TB WD drive - brand new and clean

Extra drives are 2 x Samsung Spinpoint 500GB that I use for photos/music etc

1 x Terratec Cinergy Dual Tuner 2400i

1 x VideoTec (or similar) single tuner

Creative X-Fi Fatality sound card (as I wanted SPDIF out to my amp)

Wireless Network USB dongle thing - don't have it near me so can't check the spec. Nothing remarkable, but Windows7 detected and installed it during the installation process.

All drivers are the latest. I can't, however, find Win7 chipset drivers for my motherboard, but within Device Manager, nothing is flagged as problematic or not installed. There is very little installed on the machine. I put Windows Live Mail/MSN on there and AVG Free. Latest Catalist drivers for the embedded graphics card. Firefox.

It got to the point where my wife was ringing me at work to say she couldn't do her online shopping as the computer kept freezing as she was typing in. When I got home, I had a bit of a trouble shooting session. I removed 2 sticks of RAM: no joy. Disconnected the two 500GB drives: no joy.

The system runs cool.

When the freezes occur, there is no hard disk activity, and if I do manage to get Task Manager up (which is tricky as the freeze takes out pretty much everything), the CPU activity is negligible.

I decided to format and reinstall Win7 32bit (after only 1.5 weeks of the first install).

No change: still the same freezing. I haven't even installed ANY extra software. Just drivers.

I am running at 1080i and I will try knocking this down to 720p tonight to see if there is any change.

Prior to Win7 I was running Vista 32bit on the same system (bar the hard disks: one of the 500GB drives used to be the primary hard disk, but now I have the brand new 1TB WD drive for that - the two 500GB drives were formatted). I had no problems with the Vista setup.

This is just crazy.
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Anonymous

2009-11-12T14:52:47+00:00

Creative X-Fi Fatality sound card (as I wanted SPDIF out to my amp). Not sure of drivers, but updated to latest through Creative Live Update thingymagig last night.

Posted further up my exact problems and full spec list (not sure why it hasn't appeared down at the bottom of this thread though!)

EDIT - ah: refreshed page and my post appears at the bottom.Phew.
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Anonymous

2009-11-12T15:46:46+00:00

Guys, if you haven't tried disabling wmpnetwk.exe using services.msc, give it a try. I did it and now my system is blazing fast. I had all of the same problems that most of you are having and didn't think that my problem had anything to do with network sharing or WMP because I was not even using those programs. It was a bug in the Betas and at least for me is a bug now. Just give it a try and it might surprise you. I thought it was Catalyst or something relating to ATI and then I thought it was my sound card but nothing about either of those threw up flags. It was the delayed start process of wmpnetwk.exe that was the problem and it seamed that svchost.exe was working in tandem with it. Now svchost doesn't run nearly as many operations. Just try it out. I posted about it in more detail above and no one else has said that they even tried it.
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