First crash with Windows 7 - what happened?

haku7 · 04 Oct 2012

Hello Ms. KoolKat,

OK, went ahead. Attached are all results. To my somewhat uneducated PC eye, everything looks normal now. And the AMD Quick Stream error message doesn't show up anymore, while the folder containing the Quick Stream files has gone to computer nirvana.

Attached all files you may or may not find relevant:

- The 7Forum diagnostic tool zipped report
- The Speccy log after close of all operations
- FurMark screenshots and logs

Everything seems to run smoothly - except for:

1) A slightly longer delay (black screen) between the Windows Welcome screen and the first Desktop appearance (it used to be just a flash, now it takes round about 6-10 seconds - this may be due to more and more background files being installed on this new computer)
2) The taskbar below the desktop screen appearing a fraction earlier than the desktop b.g. image itself (they used to come up simultaneously, as far as I could tell)
3) The desktop icon thumbnails not forming as swiftly as before (this used to be almost instantaneous - but this slight hesitation may be due to the thumbnail cache being solicited more and more, as more and more programs, folders, graphics and other items are being transferred to this new computer of mine)

However, none of these tiny changes are really bothering me.

So, pending you finding any more suspicious things and/or giving me tips about some of the mentioned delays (but I would be loath to impose more on your time), we may consider this matter resolved. Please mark it as such, if you consider this to be the case.

Thanking you again for your valued help.

Best regards,

haku6 - which also translates as Harry

koolkat77 · 04 Oct 2012

They look okay to me :)

Try reducing the items at start-up.
Startup Programs - Change

haku7 · 06 Oct 2012

Hi again Koolkat!

Maybe what happened now is no longer a BSOD matter, but it seems that renewing the ATI/AMD drivers has produced an unwanted effect, which I discovered yesterday. If someone else is more 'specialized' in the matter at hand, please redirect me to her/him. Thank you.

This is the new problem:

I have arranged for power management to put the machine in sleep mode after 45 minutes. When after that amount of time, I try to put the machine out of its "sleep", there is some HD activity, but the screen remains black - except, after a certain time, a blinking white cursor top left of the screen (as in DOS mode). When I then hard stop the machine, holding the shut off button pressed for a few seconds, then start it up again, there is again HD activity, now for a relatively long time (about 1'), after which the Win startup screen appears saying that Windows resumes, followed by the password screen as if indeed coming out of slumber. I have also arranged Power Management in such way that coming out of sleep requires a password. A fraction of a second after pressing enter, the computer resumes indeed where it was before I left it.

The question is: what test can I do to check whatever may have gone wrong somewhere.

Thanks for your patience.

haku7

NoelDP · 06 Oct 2012

I had this problem with one machine, and discovered it was the BIOS settings causing the problem.
Check what the Sleep settings are in the BIOS - it may be set for either S1 or S3, or the combo S1/S3 - see what happens if you change that setting. I ended up using pure S1.

Britton30 · 06 Oct 2012

Greeting Harry.
It is true the tweaking software that worked well in XP can really fouls up w7. I am a Norton security user but I would not use 360 or Norton Utilities. The only Registry cleaner many of us use/trust is CCleaner.

Assessment:
I think there is some bad/defective hardware in your new PC. Sudden and unexplained shut downs you describe can point to an under powered Power Supply Unit (PSU) or voltage modules on the motherboard.

Your first indicates your PC has been powered on for about 12 days, now 16 I think. Personally I would return this PC to the builder for a replacement or repair under their warranty program.
I'm sorry I can't read much of your data in, Dutch?

haku7 · 07 Oct 2012

NoelDP said:

I had this problem with one machine, and discovered it was the BIOS settings causing the problem.
Check what the Sleep settings are in the BIOS - it may be set for either S1 or S3, or the combo S1/S3 - see what happens if you change that setting. I ended up using pure S1.

Thanks Noel!

It sure can't hurt to try out your suggestion. I'll do this as soon as I'm back home behind my computer, Monday evening. However, meanwhile, I set back all Windows Energy Management schemes to default and - lo and behold! no more problems. So, the hitch lies in one of the settings. I don't think it's a hardware situation, though. Because, immediately after setting the PC back to the default energy schemes, I tried out every item that could have made the thing go wrong - sleep and slumber mode, stopping hard disk, screen, and what have you - on a short term basis. Result: nothing went wrong in any setting. I guess, it is a combination of one or other which played havoc.

I'll keep you informed about the S1 vs S1/S3 situation, Noel. Info also valid for Britton.

Thanks to both.

haku6

NoelDP · 07 Oct 2012

I found while I was messing around with my system, that if you set the Sleep time to 2 minutes, and the Hibernate time to 10 minutes, then you could repro the failure every time, so long as you waited until AFTER the 10 minutes was up.
It took a while for that penny to drop :)

haku7 · 08 Oct 2012

Hi,

I even think problems happen each time you set up Sleep AND hibernate together, whatever the individual time settings! Default does not do this.

Let's call this Solved. But I have my thoughts about such a problem floating around since the inception of Win 7...

haku7