Windows 7: Frequent Windows 7 freezes on new Lenovo G570

Lozaketh · 14 Jun 2012

Hi all,

My first time posting to a forum like this, usually I just read existing responses but this time my skills have failed me. I got a new Lenovo G570 which has been frequently freezing up, requiring a restart. Frequency varies from every 20 minutes to a few hours, in a wide variety of states and activities, sometimes even while installing updates at shutdown. Computer use seems to make it slightly worse. It can sit for 8 hours or more without problem if nothing is done right after boot, or if firefox is just up and sitting there. With Windows Media Player going, it lasts about 4 or 5 hours maybe. This is with me not interacting with it at all. When I do, it lasts much longer if I use the touchpad and leave the USB mouse unconnected.

I'm using Win 7 Home Premium 64 bit, OEM from Lenovo. I reinstalled it once using the system recovery utility from Lenovo, OneKey Recovery.

Performance is good right up until the point of the freeze, when everything immediately halts. Sounds will become a (near?) constant tone. The computer does not automatically restart or show any error screen.

My great appreciation for any help with this.

ETA: I also ran it in safe mode for a day, simultaneously using WMP, Open Office, and USB mouse, and there were no problems.

writhziden · 15 Jun 2012

I see an AfaTech device on your system that is out of date. It is also a USB device, possibly a TV Tuner?

This may be contributing to your crashes. Remove it and go through the following steps:

Start with USB Driver - General Fix for Problems to resolve the USB issues. Also, USB ports can sometimes enter a safe power state to protect the system from power surges due to USB devices. To reset the USB ports to a nominal power state:
1. Shut down and turn off the computer.
2. Unplug the computer from the wall or surge protector (then remove the battery if it is a laptop).
3. "Remove the computer from any port replicator or docking station, disconnect
  cables to printers or devices such as external monitors, USB memory sticks or SD cards, headset or external speakers, mouse or auxiliary keyboard, turn off WIFI and Bluetooth wireless devices." (Use Hard Reset to Resolve Hardware and Software Issues HP Pavilion dv5000 Notebook PC series - HP Customer Care (United States - English))
4. Hold down the power button for 30 seconds. This closes the circuit and ensures all
  power from components is drained to clear the software connections between the BIOS
  and hardware and clear any corruption in the temporary memory.
5. (If it is a laptop, plug the battery back into the laptop and then) Plug the computer back into the wall. Do not reconnect any unnecessary peripherals; monitor, keyboard,
  and mouse should suffice and be the only peripherals reconnected.
6. Turn it on to reinitialize the software connections between the BIOS and hardware

Lozaketh · 17 Jun 2012

I followed your advice and then ran the computer for 23 hours, windows media player going the whole time (computer muted for 16 hours of that), and no freezes occurred. It seems to have worked, thank you!!

I'm still a little confused as to what was going on. The only USB devices I've ever connected are a Sandisk flash drive, a Seagate external HD, and a Logitech mouse. They also are all things I'd love to be able to use. I'll start selectively using them and see what happens, but am curious about any offhand thoughts you may have.

One other thing happened that might have solved problems. Before reinstalling Win 7, the computer once froze while installing updates at shutdown. After this, there was a new folder in C: with a long alphanumeric name, that I couldn't access. This time I was avoiding doing any such updates in case they failed to complete, but I misunderstood something and ~40 updates were installed when I shut down to follow your instructions. They all went fine though, and no mysterious folder in C:

Does it seem likely that a windows fix patched this problem? I looked at installed updates and saw many windows updates, hotfixes, and security updates, but no drivers. (I have also not sought out driver updates since reinstalling Windows, as I tried that last time without success and it seemed to complicate diagnosis. I realize that such updates may well help the problem.)

I'm going to be increasing the computer use and see if anything happens, but I've also attached the new output of the BSOD reports.

Lozaketh · 17 Jun 2012

I plugged my USB Logitech mouse into the computer and got WMP going again, and within ~15 minutes the computer had frozen. Hmm, driver issue?

Lozaketh · 17 Jun 2012

After I plugged in the mouse and it crashed, I then repeated your instructions. Like before there was nothing plugged in when I turned it on but the power adapter, but the computer crashed after 30 minutes or so. I then repeated your directions again, holding down the power button for 2 minutes or so, and the computer ran before 2 or 3 hours before crashing.

I'm surprised by this, since I seem to have done the exact same thing as I did before. Last time the comp ran for 23 hours without incident, at which point I plugged in the mouse.

writhziden · 17 Jun 2012

Have you upgraded any hardware on the system since you bought it?

Lozaketh · 17 Jun 2012

Nope, I just took it out of the box and plugged in the battery.

I'm starting to think it's some hardware defect, but I used safe mode for a day, along with constant mouse use, without any problem. Possibly it just didn't happen to occur. (I also misspoke earlier about using media player in safe mode, as that doesn't seem possible by default in that mode.)

writhziden · 17 Jun 2012

Safe Mode also does not stress the system the same way that normal mode does. It can hide hardware problems for that reason.

However, the main reason Safe Mode generally works better than normal modes is there are less drivers loaded services starting. We should check for driver issues and for any service conflicts. Let's start with driver issues first:

Run Driver Verifier to find any issues. To run Driver Verifier, do the following:
a. Backup your system and user files
b. Create a system restore point
c. If you do not have a Windows 7 DVD, Create a system repair disc
d. In Windows 7:
- Click the Start Menu
- Type verifier in Search programs and files (do not hit enter)
- Right click verifier and click Run as administrator
- Put a tick in Create custom settings (for code developers) and click next
- Put a tick in Select individual settings from a full list and click next
- Set up the individual settings as in the image and click next
  Attachment 216933
- Put a tick in Select driver names from a list
- Put a tick next to all non-Microsoft drivers.
- Click Finish.
- Restart your computer.
If Windows cannot start in normal mode with driver verifier running, start in safe mode. If it cannot start in safe mode or normal mode, restore the system restore point using System Restore OPTION TWO.

If you are unable to start Windows with all drivers being verified or if the blue screen crashes fail to create .dmp files, run them in groups of 5 or 10 until you find a group that causes blue screen crashes and stores the blue screen .dmp files.
The idea with Verifier is to cause the system to crash, so do the things you normally do that cause crashes. After you have a few crashes, upload the crash reports for us to take a look and try to find patterns.

When you are ready to disable Verifier: Start Menu -> All Programs -> Accessories -> Right click Command Prompt -> Run as administrator -> Type the following command and then Enter:
verifier /reset
-> Restart your computer.

Lozaketh · 17 Jun 2012

Thanks for the detailed response!

I'll get Verifier going. I used it once before while trying to troubleshoot this, and there didn't seem to be a dump file after a crash occurred. Is it a hit and miss process, possibly taking a few crashes until something gets logged? At the time I thought that because I was not actually getting the Blue Screen of Death, the system was hit with the freezing error too suddenly to log anything.

karlsnooks · 17 Jun 2012

Lozaketh,
Check following list very carefully to see if all prerequisites are present for a DMP file.

MEMORY DUMPS - REQUIREMENTS

Enable automatic management of the Paging file
WIN + PAUSE/BREAK key combo |
Advanced system settings (left-hand side) |
Advanced tab, Performance section, Settings |
Advanced tab, Virtual Memory section, Change |
checkmark Automatically manage paging file size for all drives |
OK | OK | OK

STARTUP AND RECOVERY SETTINGS
WIN + PAUSE/BREAK key combo |
Advanced system settings (left-hand side) |
Advanced tab, Startup and Recovery section, Settings |
System Failure section | checkmark Write an Event to the system log
| uncheck Automatically restart |

Under Write debugging information, select Small memory dump |
in the Small dump directory: box, enter %SystemRoot%\Minidump| OK

If you get a crazy message from Win 7 about your paging file being too small, then just ignore the message since we have already made sure that the paging file is set to be managed by Win 7.

ENABLE THE WINDOWS ERROR REPORTING SERVICE
WIN key | type SERVICES.MSC | ENTER |
Scroll down to Windows Error Reporting Service |
Rt-clk on Windows Error Reporting Service | Properties |
General tab | for Startup type, choose Automatic |
In Service status, Start button (unless grayed out) | OK

ASSURE THAT CCLEANER IS NOT DELETING DUMPS
CCLEANER | Cleaner icon | Windows tab | System category |
Uncheck Memory Dumps
· WINDOWS ERROR REPORTING SERVICE must NOT be disabled!
· WIN | Services.msc | Enter
· Under Name, locate Windows Error Reporting Service
· If Status is not Started, then
Right-click on Windows Error Reporting Service |choose START
· If Startup Type is not Automatic, then
Right-click on Windows Error Reporting Service |
choose Properties | General tab |
set Startup type to Automatic
· Close Services.msc (I like to use ALT + F4)

After a crash, the minidump file will be in C:\Windows\Minidump

Windows 7: Frequent Windows 7 freezes on new Lenovo G570

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