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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Anonymous

2012-05-19T19:55:24+00:00

Hey,

Just wanted to state that I had been experiencing random freezing, and changing the memory voltage in the BIOS appears to have solved the issue.

For those who would like more detail:

I was experiencing freezes on a timescale of a few hours. Whether I was gaming, browsing, or even if the computer was idle, the screen would suddenly freeze exactly as it was. The mouse cursor wouldn't move, keyboard was unresponsive to ctrl-alt-del or anything else. If sound was playing, sometimes the sound would repeat in an infinite loop. The only way out of this state was to hold the power button until hard shutdown.

I've had the computer for about a year, and I first noticed this "Freezing" occuring quite early in the computer's life, with one difference: Originally, the computer had a tendency to freeze only when I bumped the desk it sits on. Only later, about eight or nine months in, did the computer begin to freeze even without my bumping it. I suspect that the freezes occurring when I bump the machine and the later freezes had different causes, but I mention the earlier freezes because the "freeze" itself was exactly the same in either situation.

As a side note: I noticed that freezes seemed to occur more often when I used alt-tab to switch out of a fullscreen window. I'm really not sure why. Other stress-factors included: trying to play dice in The Witcher, and trying to back up my files to an external drive (argh)

Anyway, once the freezes started happening on their own, I decided I needed a fix. I cleaned the whole machine of dust, rebuilt my water-cooling loops, stress tested the GPU and CPU, ran Anti-virus, ran diagnostics on the RAM, and even bought SpinRite to check if the issue was hard-drive related. None of these produced any results. However, after some searching online, I came upon Smoothf1's suggestion (And saw a similar idea in other places). As it turns out, the RAM I had put in the machine is supposedly rated for 1.65 volts, and the BIOS had set the RAM voltage to 1.64, since 1.65 and above is supposedly dangerous to i7 processors. After a little research, I concluded that it was worth the risk, and bumped my RAM voltage up to 1.65.

It's too early to claim that this solution fixed things absolutely, so I'll try and update later, but so far the machine has been running smoothly for about four hours, cruising thru prime95, browsing, idling, and file-copying. So it looks like upping the voltage helped!

Tune in next post, when I'll probably complain that my computer is freezing again and my CPU caught fire.
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