Windows goes coma on me

I've bought this computer nearly a year ago. Windows 7 - 64 bit.

From time to time, any software I am running just stops responding. Acutally I believe it's windows explorer that stops responding. I can still move my mouse around, but if I click on anything nothing happens.

The thing is that if I wait for about 15 minutes, it will eventually come back to normal all of a sudden.

Weird thing, if I restart the computer while it is doing the problem, after windows restarts, it goes right back into unresponsive state! I have to wait for it to pass this weird state on its own. Nothing I can do.

If I CTRL-ALT-DEL, I will get the menu screen that allows me to launch the task manager, but if I do so, the task manager just won't launch (until windows explorer comes back to life)

I've always had this problem from time to time, but it used to be once a month or so... not a big deal. But recently it's been happening about 3 times a week, I need a fix...


Also, might be a concidence, but I've never had this problem while playing a game, it seems to happen mostly while I'm browsing the web.


Computer specs

Mobo : ASUS P6X58D-E
Intel Core i7 960 3.2GHZ
12 GB Corsair triple channel RAM (3X4GB)
Asus Radeon 6970 GPU
OS is installed on a 120GB OCZ Vertex 2 SSD
Secondary hard drive : Caviar Black 1TB
Creative X-FI Platinum sound card
DirectX 11.0 (latest version)



Tried and unsucessful troubleshooting :
-I've used a temperature monitoring software and all temps are normal so this is not an overheating problem.
-I've disabled my anti-virus software.
-I've installed all windows updates available.
-Defragged the hard drives.
-Updated video and sound drivers.



Any help would be greatly appreciated... I'm left clueless as why this is happening.

I'll look into that. Hope I won't screw up anything...

Hello redstorm & welcome,

* Did your computer come with an Anti Virus program preinstalled?
If so how did you remove it?

* Please list ALL the Security programs installed on your computer.

Your problem may be caused by many things > RAM problems >graphics drivers > overclocking > heat issues > using more than one AntiVirus at the same time > etc etc.

I suggest you do the two things below...

System File Check

Run a system file check to verify and repair your system files.
To do this type cmd in search, right click to run as administrator, then
SFC /SCANNOW

It may need to be run up to three times before successful

Event viewer.

Type eventvwr in search and go to the windows log>application tab.
Look for RED errors in the left hand column that say app hang, or app crash, or anything related to the CURRENT problem.
Note the event ID and source codes and look them up in Google.
Let us know what you found.

FYI.

SFC /SCANNOW Command - System File Checker

Repair Install

Clean Install Windows 7

SFC Scannow returned :

Verification 100% complete

Windows resource protection did not find any integrity violations

I encountered "the problem" today. Opened event viewer right after the computer came back to normal.

Nothing unusual in the windows log / application tabs

In the windows log / system tab however, around the time of the lockup, I see an ERROR type log. Here are the details


Microsoft Antimalware real-time protection feature has encountered an error and failed.
Feature: Behavior monitoring.
Error code : 0x80004005
Error description : unspecified error
Reason : the filter driver requires an up-to-date engine in order to function.
You must install the latest definition updates in order to enable the real time protection.
Log name : system
Source : microsoft antimalware
Event ID : 3002

FYI...

Event ID: 3002 Source: microsoft antimalware

Event ID: 3002 Source: Microsoft Antimalware

Did your computer come with a pre installed Anti Virus Program?
If so, how did you remove it?

Is your MSE up to date?

There were no pre-installed anti virus programs, as far as I can remember

I had the computer custom assembled and then installed a retail version of windows 7 on it.

I've disabled the behavior monitoring feature of MSE. Lets see if the problem occurs again...