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Windows 7 freezes

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by cap'n billy

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My Windows 7 Home Premium has developed a habit of completely freezing up on me from time to time. When I say completely I mean just that. No mouse movement, nothing I do on the keyboard has any effect, CNTRL-ALT-DEL has no effect, nothing. It will freeze when I'm browsing, it will freeze when I'm doing nothing with no windows open. The only thing that will get out of it is the Reset button. There is no pattern to this; sometimes it does it 2 or 3 times a day, other times it goes for 4 or 5 days at a time without doing it. The first time it happened I used System Restore to take it back to well before it first happened, but that didn't work. I installed this OS in October, and before I do a clean reinstall I would like to know if anyone here has any ideas that may enable me to avoid that drastic step.

Here is my basic info:
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E6750 @ 2.66GHz 2.66 GHz
RAM: 4 GB (3.37 GB usable)
System type: 32-bit
Motherboard: ASUS P5GC-MX/1333

17 replies

by balge

hi
try looking at event viewer for errors, check temperatures - fans and vents, and device manager for problem devices? Try removing and replacing peripherals
A repair install would be a less drastic first step if it should be OS related
cheers

by cap'n billy

... for both replies. I've done what you both suggested, and am now in the process of removing and replacing peripherals one by one. Actually I'm removing a peripheral, waiting to see if the problem still occurs, and when it does replacing it and going to the next one. The problem is occurring more often now, so makes my job easier. Got two peripherals to go.

If this doesn't work, and I suspect it won't, I'll consider the repair install, but such installations with previous OSs have always resulted in a clean install shortly thereafter. A clean installation is no problem for me, as I keep my OS & programs on a dedicated hard drive and everything else on separate drives.

Thanx again for your ideas.

by kristain

You need to apply Registry Booster to have a deep scans of the registry to check for errors and conflicts. It repairs and optimizes the registry to peak performance and stability. The Registry Booster can be used as a precaution on a periodic basis to scan the registry and make it ?clean?. This will greatly enhance your system?s performance and stability. You?ll see immediate increases in speed and decreases in system conflicts. Hence avoid freezing problems.

by russpe

I had the same issue with that exact motherboard, turned out it was the network card driver. Download the latest driver from asus(NOT from ms update) boot up in safe mode without networking, remove the device from device manager, then reboot. It will pick up the network card, just point it to the location of the newly downloaded driver when it pops up with the new hardware wizard and you 'hopefully' should be all good!

by cap'n billy

... having a little trouble implementing it. I've searched the ASUS site for a network card driver but can't find anything that resembles one for my card or any other. If you could provide a little information that would assist me in finding it I would very much appreciate it.

Edit: After doing a little more digging I found this driver: http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?SLanguage=en-us
but am a bit uncertain about using it. If I use the procedure you mention, it looks like I will be replacing the driver for my Atheron L2 T Controller with this one, which makes me a bit nervous.

2nd Edit: I finally determined that the driver was for an ASUS card, and naturally would not work for mine. I couldn't find a Windows 7 driver for my Atheron card, but found a Vista one. Not sure I want to try that, so will check further before I try that solution.

Meanwhile, back to the peripherals, the last one I uninstalled was my Epson Pro 3800 printer about 24 hours ago and the problem has not recurred since then. We'll see.

3rd Edit: This is becoming monotonous. It just occurred to me that I'm already running the card with a Vista driver, since a Windows 7 one is apparently not available. Since the problem has not recurred since I uninstalled the printer, guess I'll wait and see if it does. If so, I'll try the procedure with the downloaded Vista driver. If that is not successful, I'll buy a new card from a company that updates its drivers.

Thanks!

by cap'n billy

Yeah, as a matter of fact I'm getting almost optimistic that the problem was the printer. As you might have expected, that was the last peripheral I uninstalled, having tried everything else first. The problem hasn't recurred since then, which is about 4 days now. Unless I need to use the printer before then, I'll reinstall it (with a fresh driver from the Epson site) in about 3 days and take it from there.

Thanks for your input, and for coming back to check.

by santeewelding

Good luck.

My Epson of some years ago, beloved and fully functioning, got consigned to an industrial dumpster in the dark, late at night, after having wiped my fingerprints...

Get with the new age.

by cap'n billy

Well, along with my other two Epson printers, its always done what I want with the results I wanted (Until it started freezing my computer, if it IS the culprit). Any suggestions to assist me in joining this new age?

by santeewelding

First, cruise a neighborhood near you zoned for commercial/industrial. Locate a dumpster to which no padlock or other device has been attached to prevent unpaid and unauthorized access.

Look both ways in the wee hours.

Dump.

Buy something new with the conviction that, "All ye who enter here..." are forlorn.

by mandai75

Try to upgrade the BIOS, and check the motherboard compatibility. If it is done,
please update the chipset software

by pty27

Hi, don't know if it's related to your issue. Mine had the same pattern and I tried sysrestore and driver update.
What solved my problem is the PS2...for some reason, when I unplugged my mouse and used USB devices only the problem vanished!! I've had more than 3 months without this issue.

by cap'n billy

... for your suggestions (those that were meant to help, anyway). I'm pretty certain that I have found and corrected the problem, a faulty printer driver. Naturally, that was the last hardware driver I removed, having removed and replaced everything else. I removed it about a week ago and replaced it with a new one a couple of days ago, and the problem hasn't yet recurred.

I saw a lot of good suggestions about checking the temperatures, upgrading the bios, upgrading the network card driver and other things, which I intend to do for system maintenance, and thanks for all of those.

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