Windows 7 freezes

[yodap]

You can download and run the WD diagnostic tool from their site if your drive didn't come with CD. Do you have another computer on which to do this?

 

[Digerati]

Heat is for sure not a problem

How do you know?

Using a 2nd PSU a great way to verify.

I doubt it is the HD, unless the HD has electrical problems - but like yodap suggested, you can test it.

Did you use TIM (thermal interface material) on the CPU?

If it locked during install, and the PSU is good, I would first suspect RAM. Try one stick at a time.

 

[Angelo]

ok so im back home. like I said before, i left the computer on safe mode while i was out, now that im back the computer still on and to my surprise it is working.

I tried different ram sticks and no luck.
i dont think it is a heat problem 1 bc i set the bios to shut down the pc if it heats up to 60 C and 2 bc right after a shut off the comp after it freezes, i go into the bios to check the temps ( it doesnt even get to 50 C).
Now that i know the computer works on safe mode, it rules out the hard drive.
Also, while on safe mode, i installed the audio and ethernet drivers.

any other suggestion?

oh im using the stock heatsink w the stuff that comes on it as the thermal paste.

 

[Digerati]

I tried different ram sticks and no luck.

What does that mean? Did you try one at a time? Have you tested your RAM. See my canned text below for testing RAM.

i dont think it is a heat problem 1 bc i set the bios to shut down the pc if it heats up to 60 C and 2 bc right after a shut off the comp after it freezes, i go into the bios to check the temps ( it doesnt even gets to 50 C).

While I start to get nervous when temps hit 60°C, that is not "too" high. I would move it up to 70° for testing.

Also note that heat sinks and fans are very effective at removing heat if the CPU is not working, and they are able to cool down the CPU very quickly - as in just a few seconds. And running the BIOS Setup Menu is probably the LEAST demanding task you can ask of a CPU. So during the time a system shutsdown, and reboots into the BIOS Setup Menu, it has had plenty of time to cool down. You should use hardware monitor that work in Windows - such as EasyTune as found on your Gigabyte motherboard utilities disk.

oh im using the stock heatsink w the stuff that comes on it as the thermal paste.

That's fine as long as you only used as much thermal paste as needed to apply a very thin layer of paste as any extra is actually counterproductive. The sole purpose of the thermal paste is to fill the microscopic pits and valleys in the mating surfaces, pushing out heat trapping air.

Also note if that stock HSF came with the "retail" (boxed) version of a CPU, using any other HSF voids the warranty and any damage will not be covered. Before any body has cows on that, read your EULAs - it's in there. Fortunately, the OEM HSF assemblies provided by Intel and AMD are good fan assemblies because the CPU makers do not want to pay to replace the CPU.

*****

You can test RAM using one of the following programs. Both require you to create and boot to a bootable floppy disk or CD to run the diagnostics. Allow the diagnostics to run for several passes or even overnight. You should have no reported errors.

Windows Memory Diagnostic - see the easy to follow instructions under Quick Start Information.
or
MemTest86+ (for more advanced users) - an excellent how-to guide is available here.
​

 

[Angelo]

here is another update.

I took apart my gaming pc bc i wanted to double check that the problem was not the PSU again. As soon as i plugged in my PSu (Corsair 750 watts-modular) the computer has been working as it should for a little less than an hr. Im keeping my fingers crossed!!! i have been installing some software and updates to put some load on the cpu/ memory and so far so good. So the problem seems to be caused by a bad power supply, at least for now.

Ill keep you guys updated!!
Thank you all for your feedback.

PS Digerati, thanks for the heads up about the CPU warranty, i did not know that.

 

[Angelo]

unfortunately the computer froze again. at this point idk what else to troubleshoot.

 

[Fire cat]

Hey guys!
I'm sorry if this has been allready suggested, but are you getting enough power to the PC?
Some people had freezing problems because of unsuffisant power.

Cheers,
Fire Cat

 

[Angelo]

Yea.. Right now I have it running on a 750watts PSU.. Plenty of power for an i5,6gb of ram, DVD/CD burner and a hard drive.

Thanks for your feedback tho

 

[Fire cat]

Yea.. Right now I have it running on a 750watts PSU.. Plenty of power for an i5,6gb of ram, DVD/CD burner and a hard drive.

Thanks for your feedback tho

Yep, that better be enough.

Cheers,
Fire Cat

 

[Digerati]

I'm confused. You said in your first post that you already tried a 2nd PSU.

 

[Angelo]

Yea.. I tried another psu (total of 3).

 

[quix]

ok so im back home. like I said before, i left the computer on safe mode while i was out, now that im back the computer still on and to my surprise it is working.

Yup. This could indicate that the freezing is triggered by something that is turned off in safe mode.
When I had this problem it was caused by the workstation service, but others have had other causes as well.
Here's how I isolated and repaired the faulty service that kept causing the freezes:
https://www.w7forums.com/windows-7-random-freezes-potential-solution-t3275.html
Bear in mind that my computer was freezing within 2 minutes of startup pretty consistently by the time I started going through the services, so it was fairly quick. If your freezes only occur randomly after several hours, then it's harder to deal with (then again, mine started by only freezing twice a day, then once an hour, then 2 minutes after startup... So yours might get worse quickly as well, and that would help you isolate the problem).

Let us know if you have any luck with this.

 

[clifford_cooley]

quix, I want to personally thank you for hanging around this thread helping those who have had the misfortune of system freezing. I wish I could help but I have not had this misfortune and therefore no experience in trouble shooting them.

:top: My hat goes off to you for helping where I cannot.

 

[Angelo]

I'll keep that in mind. I guess I have to go thru each service. Right now I'm actually installing windows in another hard drive just to rule out all the comp parts.
I'll let you know how it goes later. Can you tell me more about that workstation service. Is that the actual name of the service? Also, how dis you fix it? I mean, after all it is a fresh installation

 

[Angelo]

Unfortunately again this *** comp froze during the installation..I have it running w all the original components..I rule out everything expect for the video card, CPU and DVD burner. I tried another video card but it was the same exact one.

Should I install another OS to see what happens?

 

[quix]

You don't need to go through each service one by one (that would take a very long time, there are over 100). Instead you could disable all of them, sort them alphabetically, and enable the first (or the latter) half only... Then depending on the result you can either repeat this process with the first half, or the latter half, depending on whether or not you experienced freezing after booting back into normal mode... This is all explained in detail in the linked post, but in general, by eliminating half of the existing services with each iteration, the process of isolating the service that is causing the freezing will take about 7 iterations (log_2 of 128, a very rough estimate of the total number of services). This is a lot faster than enabling and disabling each service on its own, but it also assumes only one service is triggering the freezes (for all we know, it could be a combination of services).

If you type "services" in the start menu textbox, you can open services and see all the services and their descriptions.

this is the workstation service's description:

Creates and maintains client network connections to remote servers using the SMB protocol. If this service is stopped, these connections will be unavailable. If this service is disabled, any services that explicitly depend on it will fail to start.

It basically runs and manages network sharing related stuff.


The fix is to rename the original service file (the .dll of that service in System32) and then run the built in system file scan utility, which will think the .dll is missing and get a fresh one from the online repository. The method I found for getting this done is explained in the post linked in the previous post. There are probably other ways, but I don't know them.
Maybe a write error during the dvd burning caused that file to be corrupt, and then during the windows installation it was copied over to the computer with the corruption included... But this is just a guess. I have no idea what really causes these issues.
I've only installed one system from my 64-bit dvd (that's the one that had the freezing), as all my other computers are 32-bit.

 

[quix]

Unfortunately again this *** comp froze during the installation..I have it running w all the original components..I rule out everything expect for the video card, CPU and DVD burner. I tried another video card but it was the same exact one.

I'm very much inclined to suspect the installation dvd at this point. Would you mind trying to download and burn yourself a new copy (it's legal, you download the same version that you have a legal key for, and install it as if it was the original).
https://www.w7forums.com/windows-7-iso-official-direct-download-links-t2910.html

 

[Angelo]

I tried two different copies already, ultimate and home premium ( both legal copies).

 

[quix]

I tried two different copies already, ultimate and home premium ( both legal copies).

Then I'm at a loss for ideas.
At least the fact it doesn't freeze in safemode means there's still hope of isolating and removing the problem, though.

 

[Angelo]

Right but it does freeze during the installation.. I think I'm gonna leave it on over right on safe mode to see what happens..I'll let you guys know tomorrow morning.
Thank you all for your help.