Random freezes with windows 7 - 64 bit

I have this problem as well. Originally, I thought this was a hardware error, but after following one of the tips of this page, it does seem to be an audio page. Thank you all for your posts!

I have managed to keep my Windows7 from crashing (yes, it would crash on the Windows7 start-up jingle) By deactivating every audio file option in the msconfig.

Of course, I have no sound, but at least I can move forward in my troubleshooting.

I turned off the following services in my system configuration:

Windows Audio Endpoint Builder

Windows Audio

Creative Audio Engine Licensing

Creative Audio Service

I'm going to try following passionfly1 advice to see if that will work for me!

[EDIT]

After nearly 3 hours with technical support (I hope you all know you have tech support for free within 90 days of your activation)

It was discovered that I have 2 sound cards (I knew that) But Windows 7 updates BOTH drivers and sets them both to primary sound cards after automatically updating them for you. This causes the freezing and congestion that was clogging up my computer.

What I was told to do: And so far is has worked (For those of you with multiple sound cards [because one was integrated into your motherboard])

1. Detirmine which one you will not use and remove it from the following places (For me, I removed my integrated sound card)

a) Uninstall it from your device manager

b) Uninstall the drivers from your documents and settings folder

c) (optional) If your turning off your integrated sound card like me: You will need to set your internal sound card to disabled in your bios.

I hope this helps you all! And before you try all this, please remember: Turn off your sound software in MSCONFIG before trying all these steps. At least it will confirm if you have the same problem as me.

[EDIT]

I still have the problem. It didn't work, but I hope it works for someone.

disable the onboard built-in sound in the BIOS and uninstall the software for that onboard sound using a program like Revo Uninstaller. It helps to find residual files and registry entries and also creates a restore point during the uninstaller. Its freeware and does a hellava job of cleanly uninstalling software. If you follow my suggestions above at using the 3 freeware utilties to control the audiodg.exe insatiable memory appetite. The creative services can be turned off with the exception if you use Dolby sound, then don't. These services create more stress on the already poorly coded audiodg.exe file to create more problems for it causing it to crash. I wish I was not booted into a slow spare drive to do some data recovery work atm, or I would give you the link to the Creative post talking about those services and what they do but its on Creative forums for sure.

You can of course in vise versa, uninstall the card audio software and remove the card too. Whichever is your preference. As much as I despise the bug-prone Realtek drivers of the past and the lack of truly Windows 7 certified drivers from Creative at this point in time its still the better driver to use providing you disable those Creative services.

Btw, Creatives technical support is located somewhere in South Dakota I think and not in San Jose, CA. I had to use Mapquest, Google and some clever research to track down thier core technical support center which is nowhere near California. They had no idea of the audiodg.exe was a problem and since it was my task they gave to me to provide them this informtaion and I dropped the ball to do this when life priorities took over. I still do not think they know they are contributing to this audiodg.exe problem by bloating this processes memory use. They left it up to me to provide them the data, haha like lil ole me can solve all this SH_T we have to deal with >.<

BlokeUK, I switched to Windows Classic desktop and within 20 minutes had another freeze, so that didn't fix it for me. An interesting thing was that once again a Windows Live Messenger alert window was attempting to fade away, and the really interesting thing is that the alert window seems to ignore the Windows Classic settings - it has a semi-transparent border, not the hard-edged gray border of Windows Classic.

well if thats the case then Windows Aero is not the cause in your case. hmmmm

Just an update on where I am at - fixed hopefully.

Had built a new i7 unit with Gigabyte GA-P55-UD3R, 2*2gb, Sapphire 4890, Samsung hd.

I was getting freezes all over the place. Updated every driver, bios etc.

Took out 1 of the 2gb of ram and all was fine, and found 1 stick of ram was faulty.

Even with the good 1 *2gb it frooze on large file transfers.

Also, found out the ram I had was not compatible - from the corsair & crucial websites.

RMA'd the 2*2gb and got compatible ram - 2*2gb again and was playing MW2 today.

initial ram - Corsair 4gb (2x2gb) Ddr3 1333mhz Xms3 Memory Kit Cl9 (9-9-9-24)

replaced with - Crucial 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1333MHz/PC3-10600 Memory Kit CL9 1.5V

Thanks to the folks who sugested I take out 1 of the ram, helped to solve it for me.

K

here is the thing thats super important in your case make sure Memtest shows the same memory timings that you set in the BIOS for that memory. If your memory timings are incorrect then thats the issue regardless of the actual memory tests u perform. Use Memtest to reveal the timings its running the test at and correlate those are the timings you set in the BIOS. Please note this distinction from just running Memtest to check for errors as it a huge one!

Also, modern Mobo's are very poor at setting specific manufacturer-recommended timings if you use the "auto" setting of your BIOS. You have to go into your BIOS and "manually" tell the BIOS what the timings should be based on the manufacturers recommendation. And do not forget about the correct voltage for that timing as well!

Just an update on where I am at - fixed hopefully.

Had built a new i7 unit with Gigabyte GA-P55-UD3R, 2*2gb, Sapphire 4890, Samsung hd.

I was getting freezes all over the place. Updated every driver, bios etc.

Took out 1 of the 2gb of ram and all was fine, and found 1 stick of ram was faulty.

Even with the good 1 *2gb it frooze on large file transfers.

Also, found out the ram I had was not compatible - from the corsair & crucial websites.

RMA'd the 2*2gb and got compatible ram - 2*2gb again and was playing MW2 today.

initial ram - Corsair 4gb (2x2gb) Ddr3 1333mhz Xms3 Memory Kit Cl9 (9-9-9-24)

replaced with - Crucial 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1333MHz/PC3-10600 Memory Kit CL9 1.5V

Thanks to the folks who sugested I take out 1 of the ram, helped to solve it for me.

K

All still running ok?

I don't suppose you have the part number for your ram by chance?

What is MW2?

I just dropped the voltage on my ram from 1.65v to 1.55v and trying this for moment

Be careful when you change voltage as undervolting memory can damage it as much as overvolting it. This is from Corsairs technical support itself and I trust them on their knowledge of memory. The same should be true for other memory vendors memory. Just make sure your chips can tolerate a lower voltage for that memory and still perform as you require it. If you doubt me just call your memory vendors tech support and ask em. Better safe then sorry when 1 year down the road the memory starts doing weird things.