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Windows 7 freezes randomly. No BSOD. Now won't start.
I have an Asus N53jq laptop with Windows 7x64 SP1. In the past week, the screen has started freezing up randomly. It can happen at anytime: during startup, a minute after startup, or hours after startup. There is no BSOD or reboot or crash reports. Everything on the screen freezes and I lose mouse and keyboard control. Occasionally, the screen just goes black and I still have a moveable mouse cursor. The only way to get out is a hard shutdown. It can freeze in safe mode. Sometimes I get a bit of warning that it's about to crash as things start slowing down as if the machine is getting busy and eventually locks up. Once I notice that, it is too late load the processes list as Ctrl-Alt-Del no longer works. However I have left the processes and resource monitor open in advance and it did not show any excess processor usage at the time of a crash.
I can't recall anything significant I've changed in the computer to cause this and in any case I tried restoring to the earliest point I had in my computer but this didn't help. I've done the following to try and debug:
1. Run Webroot and SuperAntiSpyware scans. Nothing found.
2. Run sfc /scannow: results no errors
3. Run memtest and OCCT. No errors although did crash during OCCT gpu test but that may have just been the pc failing on its own. Later it did pass the GPU test.
4. Reinstalled video card drivers even though they were up to date: this appeared to help for a few hours but didn't solve the problem and may not have done anything at all.
5. Looked at event logs, forum pages and did dozens of other little tests and things over a few days but none reporting any errors.
So far this morning I haven't been able to get the PC to start. It's been starting now for about 20 minutes. It would get to the "Windows Starting" screen, then the hourglass would come up and stay there forever. After letting it sit for 15 minutes, it moved ahead. It is actually still starting as I write and I'm not positive it will actually start or be useable once it does, or if I will be able to do any further tests. Currently it is on the "welcome" screen after doing login and the hourglass is spinning. It is probably worth noting that the hard drive does not seem to be very active.
Another note. about 7 months ago, I had a bad memory chip that was causing BSODs. I had the memory replaced by Asus and haven't had any other problems until now. This problem is completely different than the other and I don't think they are related but thought it might be worth mentioning just in case.
One final note. This may just be a coincidence but I've had trouble during this same period with my wireless router stopping transmitting its signal several times a day. Other than that, my internet access seems completely normal.
Jon