Computer occassionaly freezes after being idle for a while.

Anonymous
2009-10-31T19:22:05+00:00

Freezes/locks up after being idle.  No applications running in the background.  Clean install of Win7 with no other issues noted on HP G60-120 laptop that was using Vista with no problems.  Will not unfreeze and have to power down and remove battery to reboot.

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Windows update

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Anonymous
2009-11-05T18:57:29+00:00

Update: my system now no longer freezes after being idle.  But it still returns to the logon screen all by itself after 10 minutes or so of inactivity, even though all power mgt is disabled, and screensaver is set to "none".  This is in Windows 7, and did not happen when we had Vista on the machine.

Regarding the freezing behavior that used to happen, on my system I found that on one of our 4 users, the 'application data' folder was missing the security entry to Deny Everyone permission to “List folder / read data”.  As a result it seems that we had some kind of recursive/infinate loop going on, e.g. in a search a single file came up 17 times, with paths such as:

C:\Users\Barry\AppData\Local

\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows

\Temporary Internet Files\Low\Content.IE5\HZTG9H19\ykb_popupWindow[1].js

I added the Deny entry to the security table to match the other users, and the computer doesn't freeze any more.  You might want to check your 'application data' file.  Step 1: in the file explorer click on 'organize' then folder & search options > view > show hidden files folders drives.  Step 2: go to \Users<user>\AppData\local.  Right click on the Application Data folder > properties > security > advanced, and make sure there is a "Deny" entry in the table.

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Anonymous
2009-11-10T14:20:33+00:00

Hey Ryan MC,

Welcome to Microsoft Answers.

There could be various reasons for Windows feezing when idle. Here are few steps suggested to troubleshoot the above issue.

Step 1: Run Check Disk to check your hard drive disk for file system errors.

To do so,

1)       Open the Start Menu and click on the Computer button.

2)       Right click the hard disk drive that you want to check, and click on Properties

3)       Click on the Tools tab, and click on the Check now button under Error-checking.

4)       Check the box Scan and Attempt Recovery of Bad Sectors

This will automatically attempt to repair problems with files and folders that the scan detects.

5)       Click on Start to start scanning.

Depending upon the size of your hard disk, this may take several minutes to finish.

See if this resolves the above issue.

If this doesn’t, go to step 2:

Step 2: Perform Clean Boot:

This checks whether the problem is to do with third party software conflicts.

Here’s how you put your computer in clean boot state.

1)       Click Start, type msconfig in the Start Search box, and then press ENTER.

2)       User Account Control permission

3)       If you are prompted for an administrator password or for a confirmation, type the       password, or click Continue.

4)       On the General tab, click Selective Startup.

5)       Under Selective Startup, click to clear the Load Startup Items check box.

6)       Click the Services tab, click to select the Hide All Microsoft Services check box, and       then click Disable All.

7)       Click OK.

8)       When you are prompted, click Restart.

Now that your computer is in clean boot state, see if the problem recurs.

If it doesn’t, then we know for sure that a background program or startup item is causing this issue.

Follow the steps mentioned in the link below to find out the culprit.

How to troubleshoot a problem by performing a clean boot in Windows Vista or in Windows 7

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929135

Having performed the above steps, make sure you return your computer to start normally.

Return the computer to normal startup mode.

To do so,

1)       Click Start, type msconfig.exe in the Start Search box, and then press ENTER.

2)       If you are prompted for an administrator password or for confirmation, type your password, or click Continue.

3)       On the General tab, click the Normal Startup option, and then click OK.

4)       When you are prompted to restart the computer, click Restart.

If you still face issue after clean boot, then problem some of the system files might be corrupt.

To fix it, go to step 3.

Step 3: Perform SFC Scan.

Steps to perform sfc scan:

1.      Click Start, click All Programs, click Accessories, right-click Command Prompt, and select Run as Administrator.

2.      Click Continue or supply Administrator credentials if prompted.

3.      In the Command Prompt window type the following, and press Enter:

sfc /scannow

4.      You should see the following on-screen messages:

Beginning the system scan. This process will take some time.

Beginning verification phase of system scan.

Verification % complete.

5.      Once the scan has completed you will receive an onscreen message resembling one of the following:

…  found no integrity violations

…  found corruption but repaired it

…  found corruption that it could not repair

For more information visit website   http://support.microsoft.com/kb/936212  

Regards,

Shinmila H - Microsoft Support

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  1. Anonymous
    2010-04-11T11:41:33+00:00

    I know that Acronis Disk Director 10 is not compatible with Windows 7. This is from Acronis.

    Doesn't it? i have that program but havent tried installing it on my Win7 machine.

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  2. Anonymous
    2010-04-11T06:20:37+00:00

    I have had this problem of my laptop locked up (after being left idle for over 10min ) for over a month now and I am running Windows Vista Home Premium.  So this problem has been around for at least a year.  I have been looking for solutions and came across numerous posts with people stating their problems but no real solution unless they choose to reinstall Windows.  So last Friday I decided to follow exactly what Shinmila H <abbr class="affil"> (Microsoft Support</abbr> <abbr class="affil">, Moderator) suggested in this post expecting it would be a time consuming process.  </abbr>

    <abbr class="affil">I started by config my laptop to start with clean boot.  At first my laptop appeared to behave normally so I decided to do the disk-defragment and the whole thing locked up.  The horrible defragment program didn't even show any progress except the circle, I was sitting there watching it went round and round for 1/2hrs until i touched the mouse and realised that my laptop had gone dead. Whatever happen to the progress indicator? whose brilliant idea was it to take it out.

    </abbr>

    I thought maybe some of the services that causes the locked up so I stopped all the services that I know from my installation like MySQL server, Itune.  Still no luck.  So even a clean boot still failed.  At this stage I thought maybe some previous patches that Window Auto Update installed that caused the problem so I tried to restore my laptop to previous updates thinking if I stepped back one step at a time I would be able to get back to the point when my laptop was healthy.  But when I started the System Restore it only showed one restore point instead of all the points where Windows running updates.  Anyway I when ahead with the restoration and still the problem persisted.

    Up until the early hours of Saturday I was still not getting anywhere. I decided to backup all my data as much as I can, excluding those corrupted when it locked up and i had to do the power down/up. The whole exercise took me 24hours with only 2hours break, reinstall the Vista, installed and configured softwares.  People may ask why I didn't restore from backup, the truth is I can only backup data, not software applications.   There are hundreds of configuration details that you don't normally note down or remember once you got it working.  As time went on the longer I sorted out my laptop the more I got so mad at this Windows thing and even more frustrated because what limited choice I have.  Of course people may say use Mac or Linux but when all your work has been so ingrained to one platform making a switch is not that simple.

    I am typing this post now when my laptop has been restored to a reasonable stage that I can resume working.  I hope some of the Microsoft Support Moderator read this and other similar posts and relay them back to whoever resposible for making this product to the market.

    My question is: If only one or two people have this problem then you can blame it on the 3rd party software whereas there a many of PCs each with a unique setup and have the same problem so the logical common thing is Microsoft Windows, so why don't they fix it and stop blaming others.

    Thank you.  I go to bed now.

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  3. Anonymous
    2010-03-19T18:37:02+00:00

    I put Window 7 Home 64 bit on a brand new 1 TB hard drive. It worked fine for about two months and then the problems started. Several programs started to freeze or lock up and it made life very difficult as I use this PC for my business.  Checking on other posts I tried most of the suggestions I found.

    Here are a few of the things I've tried.

    Safe Mode

    I first tried safe mode without networking or any anti-virus program running and despite constantly moving folders and using notepad to write articles, I only got one short wait while the operating system was doing something.

    While I was in Safe Mode I checked the C Drive for any errors and found none. I also fired up Zaperskey Internet Security 2010 and did a full virus sweep - nothing found.

    So safe mode was pretty good, as I could use Windows 7 without any major difficulties or problems. But for long term use this is no good.

    Clean Boot

    I then performed a clean boot and ran the Performance troubleshooter/Check for performance issues which found no problems. Checked the Aero Desktop and Graphics Card and also ran the system file checker sfc/scannow - no problems found at all.

    Tried to play a few Microsoft games, Chess Titans and Solitaire, and these worked for a while and then locked up. They did work the next time I opened them?

    Ran CCleaner in this mode and cleared out a few junk files.

    Tried repetitive copying and pasting of blocks of text and started to get 'not responding’ errors again.

    Still in the clean boot environment I went online using Firefox to the BBC website (with anti-virus disabled). I then went to other safe sites, opening 6 or so tabs, and kept swapping between tabs. The speed of Firefox was greatly improved but after 20 minutes or so it locked up 'not responding' for about 10 minutes - even turning its view to transparent.

    I turned Zaperskey anti-virus back on and then opened another instance of the Firefox browser. It worked for around 45 minutes and then completely locked as it had done before. But this time it recovered after only 1 minute.

    Tried using Outlook 2007 and 2010 beta and they both download email but give 'not responding' messages when you try to move or delete emails or folders.

    Normal Set Up

    Rebooted, ran msconfig and went back to normal start up.

    Ran Firefox which took ages to start up. When it did, it went to the default home page (ZDNet) and then gave a 'not responding' message but also flashed a warning message - 'chrome/browser/content/browser.j.57515'. This is probably ZDNet’s problem as it uses jQuery to zoom and fade images and captions. So I tried my own website and Firefox worked ok. When I logged into my WordPress blog and prepared a couple of posts all went well until I started to publish them. Then the 'not responding' problem reappeared. Even the social networking site Twitter 'not responds'.

    I upgraded my NVidia Ge Force 9600 GT graphic cards driver but this did not solve any problems.

    So on or offline the problems remain the same. Browser’s, email, Microsoft Office Word and Excel, Adobe Web Design Suite CS4 and even notepad and the built in Microsoft games suffer from the 'not responding' problem.

    Its only safe mode that's stable, but I cannot use safe mode for my day to day business work.

    I removed the beta version of Office 2010 but this did not make any difference.

    There are many posts relating to the freezing/not responding problem in this forum and although the titles of other posts may be somewhat different to this thread, the underlying problem seems to be the same.

    So we all need an urgent solution to this problem.

    UPDATE: I am now running Outlook 2007 in compatibility mode (as if it’s working under Windows XP) and the 'hanging' problems have disappeared for this program. Other programs, including Windows Live Writer, still freeze and lock for short periods of time.

    Intel Core 2 Quad CPU Q9400 @2.66Ghz

    4GB DDR2 RAM

    Nvidia GeForce 9600GT 1024MB GT graphics card

    Samsung 1 TB Hard Drive (Windows 7 64 bit)

    Western Digital 500 GB Hard Drive (Windows Vista 32 bit)

    Motherboard: Asus PSN-D

    Window 7 Home 64 bit was a clean install on a new 1 TB hard drive

    Dual boot with Windows 7 being the default Operatiing System

    Windows Experience Index: 5.9 (CPU: 7.2 - Memory: 7.2 - Graphics: 6.8 - Gaming Graphics 6.8 - HDD: 5.9)

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