Windows Ultimate 7

[brownknees]

This has been happening since Ultmate 7 was installed,it can happen anytime.I have a Toshiba laptop and its been a good machine (except for Microsoft!!)now it sometimes freezes,I mean nothing can be done ,the cursor doesnt move and pressing CRTL/ALT/DEL does nothing so I have to crash and reboot.Annoying as I have to sign in again on any site where I must log in.This can happen after 1 hour or 5 hours etc., Has anyone else suffered this problem?

[garyh]

Why are you so quick to blame MS?

[siamect]

Virus? Check you antivirus software.

Heat problem? Check the fan if it rotates and see if there are dust, cat hair in the air channels. (happened to me)

Boot it on a Gnu/Linux live CD or USB and see if it is still freezing.

Martin

Edited May 30, 2010 by siamect

[Abrak]

Well, first of all, the reason that ctrl-alt-delete doesnt work is because you have almost certainly 'Windows home' rather than 'windows ultimate' installed.

Secondly, I suspect your freezes are due to an 'upgrade' rather than fresh install.

[Jai Dee]

I have been having problems with Windows 7 freezes since I bought a new PC in February.

HP Pavillion P6185L

Interl Core2 Quad CPU @ 2.67 GHz

4 GB RAM

1 TB HDD

NVIDIA GeForce GT220 1 GB graphics card

Windows 7 Home Premium 32 bit

Here is where I originally posted on the forum about my problems.

There may be some tips there that you could try to alleviate your problem.

I have since given up and now just live with it...

[NHJ]

freeze problem are almost always related to hardware issue, this is what i do for my customers, reset the bios to default setting, upgrade the bios to the latest available then i upgrade all drivers to the latest(do not search on the laptop maker) from the device's manufacturer website, intel for intel chipset, realtek for sound, atheros for wifi etc etc.

in most cases the problem is gone.

[welo]

Well, first of all, the reason that ctrl-alt-delete doesnt work is because you have almost certainly 'Windows home' rather than 'windows ultimate' installed.

Really? I'm surprised to hear that. I know Home doesn't have fast user switching but did MS really have the whole CTRL-ALT-DEL screen disabled?

I agree with siamect that a complete freeze that can only be resolved by reboot does indeed point to hardware issues such as overheating or a damaged component. I assume you waited 1-2 minutes to see if the system recovers or not.

Also check your harddrive for strange noises, such as repeated read attempts (-> bad blocks)

Complete freezes might also point to low level driver issues, including antivirus and firewall software.

Complete system freezes are rather unusual, most times you'll get a blue screen and the system will reboot.

welo

[siamect]

I have been having problems with Windows 7 freezes since I bought a new PC in February.

But you have warranty! Go back to the shop...

Martin

[siamect]

I agree with siamect that a complete freeze that can only be resolved by reboot does indeed point to hardware issues such as overheating or a damaged component. I assume you waited 1-2 minutes to see if the system recovers or not.

You possibly agree with NHJ about this... and I in turn agree with both you and NHJ

MArtin

Edited May 30, 2010 by siamect

[steve187]

boot into the bios menu , leave it a while and see if the problem is still there.

[oldgeezer]

I have been having problems with Windows 7 freezes since I bought a new PC in February.

HP Pavillion P6185L

Interl Core2 Quad CPU @ 2.67 GHz

4 GB RAM

1 TB HDD

NVIDIA GeForce GT220 1 GB graphics card

Windows 7 Home Premium 32 bit

Here is where I originally posted on the forum about my problems.

There may be some tips there that you could try to alleviate your problem.

I have since given up and now just live with it...

I had same problem with identical new machine, but on WinXP. After much thrashing around by the vendor, they finally called out HP Technician on free home service. Took him 6 hours of diagnostics and never duplicated the problem. He finally gave up and installed a new GT220 Video card.

Took my word for the crashes, no charge for home service. No problems since.

[Royk]

I used to have the same problem with my Ultimate X64 but in my case, it was a piece of software. A background file transfer application caused the OS to freeze. I had to use the reset button to reboot. The problem disappeared after I'd installed the updated version of the software. You may want to try running your Win7 without these background applications to see whether the problem still persists or not.

Best regards,

Roy

[welo]

I agree with siamect that a complete freeze that can only be resolved by reboot does indeed point to hardware issues such as overheating or a damaged component. I assume you waited 1-2 minutes to see if the system recovers or not.

You possibly agree with NHJ about this... and I in turn agree with both you and NHJ

MArtin

It was you who brought up a possible heat issue first. C'mon, take some responsibility!

And now that we all agree the OP can post that the problem was solved and the problem was something completely different

@jaidee

Your last post in the referenced thread indicates that you solved the issue by installing the latest NVIDIA driver, but I guess this didn't do it either...

It's not easy to troubleshoot a problem like this. You need an analytical approach, eventually ruling out one component after each other (whereas this refers to hardware AND software components). If the problem only occurs infrequently, this can be VERY time consuming or even impossible since you can never really tell if a specific step stopped the problem or not - the computer not freezing for a couple of hours might just be a coincidence.

So another approach is to find actions or patterns that will trigger the freeze - e.g. running a specific program or executing a specific action. Often this is the solution as well (replace that part). But be warned that computers are complicated beasts and one can often see 'patterns' where there are not. E.g. if the freezes always occur when surfing the web this might indicate a problem with the web browser (or network components, or security software, etc), or it might just be coincidence because this is what you do 90% of the time when using your computer)

Finding a scenario that will trigger the problem is also very helpful if your PC is still under warranty - in order to prove to the vendor that your PC is indeed faulty.

So be prepared that this will most likely not be an easy job and will take some time! If you are willing to take the challenge, and you have some Windows/PC experience, report back and we will assist you the best we can.

welo

[brownknees]

Thanks for all the replies and advice!I am not an expert on PCs but will attempt some of the suggestions.Usually it occurs with Skype open and facebook on the go so maybe its skype ? It has also happened with my two flight sim games in Progress !No real pattern ,last night I had limewire open with skype in the background and it happened so the frequency of it happening is increasing.One suggestion on here was suggested here(in Cairo just now)at work and that was get a small double cooling fan you can put underneath and it runs from a USB port so maybe I will give that a go.

@jaidee

Your last post in the referenced thread indicates that you solved the issue by installing the latest NVIDIA driver, but I guess this didn't do it either...

It's not easy to troubleshoot a problem like this. You need an analytical approach, eventually ruling out one component after each other (whereas this refers to hardware AND software components). If the problem only occurs infrequently, this can be VERY time consuming or even impossible since you can never really tell if a specific step stopped the problem or not - the computer not freezing for a couple of hours might just be a coincidence.

So another approach is to find actions or patterns that will trigger the freeze - e.g. running a specific program or executing a specific action. Often this is the solution as well (replace that part). But be warned that computers are complicated beasts and one can often see 'patterns' where there are not. E.g. if the freezes always occur when surfing the web this might indicate a problem with the web browser (or network components, or security software, etc), or it might just be coincidence because this is what you do 90% of the time when using your computer)

Finding a scenario that will trigger the problem is also very helpful if your PC is still under warranty - in order to prove to the vendor that your PC is indeed faulty.

So be prepared that this will most likely not be an easy job and will take some time! If you are willing to take the challenge, and you have some Windows/PC experience, report back and we will assist you the best we can.

welo

Edited May 31, 2010 by brownknees

[Crushdepth]

I have a freezing Windows 7 machine as well (x64 professional). I never had a problem with it up until about a month ago. It can freeze during boot or after, just *stops*.

I suspect a hardware problem - but its a bit weird to hear other people have freezing issues too. Maybe there was a dud update?

[garyh]

I have a freezing Windows 7 machine as well (x64 professional). I never had a problem with it up until about a month ago. It can freeze during boot or after, just *stops*.

I suspect a hardware problem - but its a bit weird to hear other people have freezing issues too. Maybe there was a dud update?

I had a similar problem and it turned out my ram needed a higher voltage as it is very fast ram that runs at 2 GHZ. Since this was sorted out it has been 100 percent stable, I am running 64 bit ulimate.

[moo9]

Well, first of all, the reason that ctrl-alt-delete doesnt work is because you have almost certainly 'Windows home' rather than 'windows ultimate' installed.

It does not matter whether one uses Home of Ultimate with regard to CTRL-ALT-DEL.

[Crushdepth]

I had a similar problem and it turned out my ram needed a higher voltage as it is very fast ram that runs at 2 GHZ. Since this was sorted out it has been 100 percent stable, I am running 64 bit ulimate.

How did you increase the voltage? I did upgrade my RAM to 4GB of Corsair a while back.

[garyh]

I had a similar problem and it turned out my ram needed a higher voltage as it is very fast ram that runs at 2 GHZ. Since this was sorted out it has been 100 percent stable, I am running 64 bit ulimate.

How did you increase the voltage? I did upgrade my RAM to 4GB of Corsair a while back.

In the bios, try searching for overclocking and the model of your Mother board.

[siamect]

I had a similar problem and it turned out my ram needed a higher voltage as it is very fast ram that runs at 2 GHZ. Since this was sorted out it has been 100 percent stable, I am running 64 bit ulimate.

How did you increase the voltage? I did upgrade my RAM to 4GB of Corsair a while back.

In the bios, try searching for overclocking and the model of your Mother board.

Hmm dangerous stuff... Make sure you run a decent memory test for a few days before you decide that it is stable...

I had memory corruption and the computer worked fine for weeks. I caught it because some of my gitrepos went corrupt.

I would probably still not know if it wasn't for that...the only thing that I can remember that was odd was that firefox shut down on one particular website during that time...

[Totster]

I had the same problem..

Set you power plan to "high performance" (click on the battery icon on the task bar, it is probably set to "balanced" ), click on more power options if you can't see it.

Your problem will now be gone

Totster

[brownknees]

I had the same problem..

Set you power plan to "high performance" (click on the battery icon on the task bar, it is probably set to "balanced" ), click on more power options if you can't see it.

Your problem will now be gone

Totster

Nice to know my problem was not an isolated one! I bought a external cooling fan by "Belkan"and have used it for two evenings so far and no "freeze"up has happened yet!Tommorow on my day of it will get an all day trial so we will see what transpires then.

[eurovlad]

Freezing screen means usually a problem with heat. I'd checked is processor and video card fan is working. And cleaned from dust.

Second in priority is to change RAM which can cause problems like described.

But most likely, it is due to WIN7 demands on resources, which cause more heat. I use special Zalman fan for mine 4x cores in WIN7

If you use laptop and it worked fine with XP - you'd better switch back, or change it for more powerful one.

[Crushdepth]

Ok this is driving me nuts, here's what I've looked at so far:

* Checked all the cables and memory is seated properly.

* Check memory - with Memtest - no problem.

* Checked hard disk with Spinrite - no problems. Ran maintenance on it anyway, no change.

* Cleaned the heat sink (it was pretty gross, 4 years of dust), checked the CPU fan is working.

* Temperature - installed a monitor, my CPU (E6600) crit temp is rated at 60 degrees, it froze in the low 50s, although it did fluctuate a fair bit and got quite close to 60 for a few seconds here and there.

* It's plugged into an APC UPS.

When it freezes, it just locks. There are no error messages, whatever was being displayed at the time stays on screen but there is no cursor, not CTR-ALT-DEL, no nothing. This box has not given me any trouble before.

It's triple boot with Windows 7, Win XP and Ubuntu on it, same thing happens under each OS, so definitely hardware problem.

Could a power supply problem cause this kind of thing?

[siamect]

Ok this is driving me nuts, here's what I've looked at so far:

* Temperature - installed a monitor, my CPU (E6600) crit temp is rated at 60 degrees, it froze in the low 50s, although it did fluctuate a fair bit and got quite close to 60 for a few seconds here and there.

Could a power supply problem cause this kind of thing?

Does temperature jump up and down quickly several degrees...?

yes.... sound like something that could come from electrical noise but that is just a guess.

I would probably invest 500 baht in a new PS... If the alternative was to go nuts...

[garyh]

Ok this is driving me nuts, here's what I've looked at so far:

* Checked all the cables and memory is seated properly.

* Check memory - with Memtest - no problem.

* Checked hard disk with Spinrite - no problems. Ran maintenance on it anyway, no change.

* Cleaned the heat sink (it was pretty gross, 4 years of dust), checked the CPU fan is working.

* Temperature - installed a monitor, my CPU (E6600) crit temp is rated at 60 degrees, it froze in the low 50s, although it did fluctuate a fair bit and got quite close to 60 for a few seconds here and there.

* It's plugged into an APC UPS.

When it freezes, it just locks. There are no error messages, whatever was being displayed at the time stays on screen but there is no cursor, not CTR-ALT-DEL, no nothing. This box has not given me any trouble before.

It's triple boot with Windows 7, Win XP and Ubuntu on it, same thing happens under each OS, so definitely hardware problem.

Could a power supply problem cause this kind of thing?

Get a decent heatsink for the cpu, the factory ones are poor, make sure you have good thermal compound to refit also after cleaning it perfectly.

[Supernova]

Ok this is driving me nuts, here's what I've looked at so far:

* Checked all the cables and memory is seated properly.

* Check memory - with Memtest - no problem.

* Checked hard disk with Spinrite - no problems. Ran maintenance on it anyway, no change.

When it freezes, it just locks. There are no error messages, whatever was being displayed at the time stays on screen but there is no cursor, not CTR-ALT-DEL, no nothing. This box has not given me any trouble before.

It's triple boot with Windows 7, Win XP and Ubuntu on it, same thing happens under each OS, so definitely hardware problem.

Could a power supply problem cause this kind of thing?

If memory modules aren't seated properly, the system won't boot period (or the motherboard would generate a series of long beeps).

Memtest only tells half the story... Run a system torture test like Prime95 for at least 8 hours.

Download Prime95:

32-bit | 64-bit

Guidelines for Thorough Stability Testing

As for checking the harddisk, a simple chkdsk /r will do.

A faulty PSU can cause stability issues, but I wouldn't worry about it just yet. First, run a complete torture test and see what happens.

[welo]

CPU temp seems not optimal, but not overly hot either - judging from other reports. Check out this one

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/249655-2...emperature-high

Compared to what temperatures others report I don't think you can rule out an overheating issue.

You could try underclocking your CPU to rule out an overheating issue with the CPU - if your BIOS supports it. Sometimes this works by underclocking the Front Side Bus (FSB).

Or reseat the heatsink and re-apply the thermal paste. Quite a lot people suggest this on other forums as well. Stock cooler doesn't seem to be very good either. The guy actually brought down idle temperature to 18°(!) with a new cooler.

Btw do you have the Core2 Duo E6600 at 2.4Ghz or the Pentium E6600 at 3.06. They are both specified at 65W TDP (Thermal Design Power), but the first is 65nm, the latter 45nm. The 45nm Wolfdale seems to be clocked at the upper range compared to other models of the same architecture. I'd assume it might be more sensitive to heat issues.

EDIT: Seems my theory is wrong, the 45nm Wolfdale can handle up to 74°. And I assume you own the 65nm since you mentioned a 60° limit.

If you boot into the BIOS and have the CPU idle for some time, what are the temperature readings and does it crash?

I guess suspecting a power supply issue is very reasonable, too. A voltage drop might definitely cause freezes (or reboots). Don't know any other way to rule out this one than changing components (power supply and UPS). If you can rule out a heat issue (crash in the BIOS) I would go for this possibility.

Do you have an onboard GPU or an addon video card?

welo

Edited June 3, 2010 by welo

[Crushdepth]

Yes I have the Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz processor, separate graphics card. Changed the thermal paste, booted into Bios as suggested and let it run for a couple of hours - no crash! Temperature got up to about 56 degrees. But some of the voltage readings don't look good:

* VCORE voltage: 1.240V

* 3.3V voltage: 0.112V [this one is flagged red]

* 5V voltage: 4.864V

* 12V voltage: 11.182V

I don't know how these affect the system, but I presume the 3.3V reading is well outside acceptable ranges.

Time for a new power supply? Or could something else be causing the problem?

[garyh]

Yes I have the Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz processor, separate graphics card. Changed the thermal paste, booted into Bios as suggested and let it run for a couple of hours - no crash! Temperature got up to about 56 degrees. But some of the voltage readings don't look good:

* VCORE voltage: 1.240V

* 3.3V voltage: 0.112V [this one is flagged red]

* 5V voltage: 4.864V

* 12V voltage: 11.182V

I don't know how these affect the system, but I presume the 3.3V reading is well outside acceptable ranges.

Time for a new power supply? Or could something else be causing the problem?

If you are not sure about the psu (I think the bios should be right) take to a computer store and get them to check the voltages, if they a reasonable repairer they will have a in line voltage tester to check it while connected to the MB.