Windows 7 random freezes, crashes.. please, help.

[Syclya]

Hey everyone, I've been plagued with a computer problem since building my new setup and seeing as I am in the middle of college classes (with much of the work on-line), these random crashes and problems are becoming more and more devastating.

My problems are random freezes and shutdowns. No BSOD's, the computer will just randomly freeze with the screens frozen in place, mouse pointer and all, requiring me to usually shut off the power supply.. sometimes the power button works fine.

Or the screens go black and it reboots.

What I've tried..

sfc /scannow - no errors
Prime95 running for hours - no errors
memtested sticks of ram - no errors
re-installed windows
wiped current ATI drivers, put on apparently more stable 9.12 and hotfix
disabled onboard sound, put a creative card in with up to date drivers
all drivers are up to date

I've been browsing thread after thread over the internet, trying -everything-.. and no luck. Below is my system, with the latest error reports.. ANY HELP would be greatly appreciated.

Oh, another note.. very often when accessing web pages, I get 'this server cannot be found' and have to spam refresh until the page loads. My roommate on the same internet connection is not having this problem.. my ethernet, onboard, has up to date drivers.

Also, I seem to have a odd amount of 'screen flicker' for such a beefy, insane, video card. In youtube videos, hulu and in some games.

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ASRock P55 Extreme LGA 1156 Intel P55 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail56314104

SAPPHIRE 100282SR Radeon HD 5850 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card w/ATI Eyefinity - Retail56314104

Thermaltake TR2 W0388RU 600W ATX 12V v2.2 Power Supply - Retail56314104

Intel Core i5-750 Lynnfield 2.66GHz LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80605I5750 - Retail56314104

G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-4GBNQ - Retail56314104

Western Digital Caviar Black WD5001AALS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive56314104

Creative Sound Blaster Audigy SE 7.1 Channels PCI Interface Sound Card - OEM56314104

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Latest errors:

A fatal hardware error has occurred.
=========
Reported by component: Processor Core
Error Source: Machine Check Exception
Error Type: Internal Unclassified Error
Processor ID: 4

The details view of this entry contains further information.
=========

===========
The computer has rebooted from a bugcheck. The bugcheck was: 0x00000124 (0x0000000000000000, 0xfffffa80051248f8, 0x0000000000000000, 0x0000000000000000). A dump was saved in: C:\Windows\Minidump\021510-19953-01.dmp. Report Id: 021510-19953-01.
===========

===========
Audit events have been dropped by the transport. 0
============

The minidump file is attached to this post.

 

[Ian]

Welcome Syclya Good to have you on the forums!

Hopefully someone that can read minidumps will check out this thread to give a more detailed analysis.

The "Machine Check Exception" could indicate a problem with overheating or overclocking. Is your machine (mainly CPU/RAM) running at stock speed and is there adequate cooling? Your PSU should be able to handle a machine with those specs.

How often does this problem occur?

 

[Syclya]

Thanks for the welcome. No overheating, the CPU is nearly always at 35-37 C even under high load, the only way I made it increase was running the torture test in prime 95 and even then it was stable and didn't overheat. CPU and ram both running at stock speed, no overclocking. The problem occurs randomly, but at least every few hours.

 

[Veedaz]

Hi Syclya

Two things can you test your PSU with a multi meter ? and have you got the latest CCC and drivers for your 5850 not the hotfix ? if you have could you try another GPU or run on just MOBO graphics to see if you still get errors.

 

[Syclya]

I don't have a multi meter, but at this point, sure considering getting one! I'm running the 9.12 drivers with hotfix, over the latest 10.1 drivers.. but both drivers produce the same problems. It's because I was told the old drivers run better/might fix my problem, but I ran both sets of drivers for days.. problem never changed. Searching for another video card to try that, as well.

 

[Veedaz]

As a quick test just pull the GPU and run on MOBO graphics and see what happens.

 

[Eniac]

I have the same problem with Windows 7 freezing. It has happend since the day I installed it.

Fortunately I decided to install on a new harddisk, so I still have my Windows XP and select which disk to boot from. This makes it alot easier to do various tests.

After some testing I tried to prevent Windows Update from downloading any drivers for my hardware after a clean Windows 7 install. All works fine!
Then I let it update the drivers for my ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 from Windows Update - all freezes!

Clean Windows 7 install again. Instead of installing display drivers from Windows Update I checked ATI (AMD) website and found a newer driver. I downloaded it and installed. Everything still works fine!

Then I tried to install Zone Alarm (which also does som driver stuff) - all freezes!
Fortunately i could remove it again from safe mode.

From my own experience and what I've read in other blogs it seems like there are som major issues concerning Windows 7 and drivers. Instead of giving errors it seems to crash the system if there are any issues with a driver.

If you can run in safe mode without any crash It's probably a driver-issue like mine. Though it can be any driver causing the problem, you might take it one step at the time.
For now I'm staying with XP while trying to get Windows 7 up and running with all drivers and apps etc.

 

[Veedaz]

Hi Eniac and welcome to Windows 7 Forums

Looks like you have things under control and thanks for the post

 

[Nibiru2012]

Then I tried to install Zone Alarm (which also does som driver stuff) - all freezes!
Fortunately i could remove it again from safe mode.

It's ZoneAlarm that's causing the issues, not Windows 7. I run Avira Premium Internet Security and have ZERO issues.

 

[Kamegatta]

My computer freezes as well but i do not require a hard reset to get it back to normal. It does it on its own, but it is rather annoying as when i am typing or whatever, the keyboard and mouse is just irresponsive for 10 seconds and then everything that i have typed will just appear and everything will be back to normal for a few minutes, and then a random freeze up..

Anyone else having this problem?

 

[tommygil]

I read one post that a solution to windows 7 freezing was to raise the memory voltage from 8.6V to 9V. Somebody tried that, and had no freezes. Has anyone else tried that, and does anyone know how to do that?

 

[tommygil]

My Windows 7 Dell Studio XPX freezes up at least 5 times a day. The cursor gets stuck, and I wait several minutes, but it doesn't get unstuck. So, I have to do a hard reboot (turn off and on the machine).

I tested the system in safe mode- ran it all evening, and no freezes- which means that there is nothing wrong with the mousepad.

The ":technical assistance" ??? team at Dell suggests that I need to re-install Windows 7.
Give me a break. I have read that someone re-installed Windows 7 three times, and that didn't solve their freezing.

Someone suggested raising the voltage on the memory- also going to ASU on the motherboard?

I am waiting for a patch from Microsoft. There are over 5000 posts on this subject, so that should be enough of an issue to warrant creating a patch to solve the freezing problem....

 

[clifford_cooley]

I read one post that a solution to windows 7 freezing was to raise the memory voltage from 8.6V to 9V. Somebody tried that, and had no freezes. Has anyone else tried that, and does anyone know how to do that?

You can adjust the voltage levels of CPU and Memory in your system BIOS. 8.6V and 9V are way to high a voltage for both CPU and Memory.

I don't remember a time the voltages were so high. The old 486 systems 20 years ago, the CPU's were 5V and 3.3V. The voltages have been getting lower and lower for greater cooling with faster speeds.

 

[Eniac]

It's ZoneAlarm that's causing the issues, not Windows 7. I run Avira Premium Internet Security and have ZERO issues.

I know it is Zone Alarm failing, but I also blame Microsoft a bit for not handling these issues better. I haven't seen any pervious Windows versions failing that hard to what seems to be a driver issue.

 

[Pnazz]

I'm also having the same issue with random freezes. The computer freezes sometimes when it's idle, sometimes when I'm starting a program or just trying to launch a web browser or email. I know it's a driver issue because it seems to run just fine in safe mode. I am running the 10.1 version of CCC for my Radeon HD5770 Graphics card and also the most up to date driver for my X-Fi Platinum sound card. Not sure what other drivers could be causing the issue.

 

[Eniac]

I am running the 10.1 version of CCC for my Radeon HD5770 Graphics card and also the most up to date driver for my X-Fi Platinum sound card. Not sure what other drivers could be causing the issue.

I have the ATI Radeon 3870x2. I don't know if it's a specific ATI issue. I ignored the driver update suggested by Windows Update (as well as other hardware-drivers) and downloaded the newest driver from ATI homepage. This driver is (was?) newer than the one on Windows Update, and I haven't had any problems since then.

 

[Pnazz]

I updated to the most recent 10.3 drivers that were just released and my cpu hasn't frozen since the update. I hope that solved the problem.. I'll keep you posted.