Random hang, no bsod, no error

Hey guys, awesome forum. So I just installed Windows 7 Ultimate on my custom built machine. It has been working flawlessly on Vista x64 for quite some time now and the only issue I had on that was not coming out of sleep about 10% of the time.

Win 7 randomly hangs with no indication of why. It could happen while installing a driver or update, looking at system information, or simply checking email in IE8.

I am currently running it in Safe Mode because I rarely can go 5 minutes without a hang / manual reboot. So far in Safe Mode it is working fine, as far as I can tell.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated, this is really frustrating, as you can imagine.

Thanks!

The fact that it seems fine (as it's never happened - not even once?) in safe mode is A Good Thing, because it suggests that the causes are software-based. Something that loads in normal mode but not safe mode is presumably the culprit.

One way to start troubleshooting is with the MSCONFIG utility. Start off by choosing the "diagnostic" startup mode and rebooting. If that works, as in there are no hangs, go to "selective" startup and disable/enable the various optional components until you zero-in on the culprit.

If "diagnostic" mode doesn't stop the hangs from occurring in normal mode, uninstall your anti-virus and any 3rd-party firewalls (disabling them is not enough). Test what happens when running without them.

Thanks for the quick reply H2SO4. I will be sure to use the all-handy msconfig.

I actually do not have any sort of anti-virus or firewall installed, I was waiting until I fixed this issue before I installed Kaspersky 2010 on there. This is a very clean instance of Win 7, just a fresh format/install, windows updates, and 3 driver updates (mobo, audio, and graphics). In fact the only 2 programs that can even be uninstalled are Flash and nVidia drivers.

I'll keep you posted.

I have an update that might help, might not. So in a recent system boot trying to get stuff working, it hanged even before the logon screen was displayed (after the windows logo, before login).

Wouldn't this indicate that it's not an issue of what software is actually running on the system (since nothing [or very little] is running before logged in)?

Thoughts?

transpar3nt said:

...
Wouldn't this indicate that it's not an issue of what software is actually running on the system (since nothing [or very little] is running before logged in)?

No, that would be an incorrect conclusion. In fact, the majority of "software" happens irrespective of whether a user is logged on or not. Hence, just because a symptom occurs before anybody logs on does not in any way rule out a software cause.

That's the "good news"

Okay so I might be speaking too soon but I'm pretty sure at this point that it was the GeForce drivers that were giving me problems. I had assumed it wouldn't be since I had already tried the ones from Windows Update as well as from nVidia. But now, with all graphics drivers removed, it's working fine.

I found a forum recommending using an old version of the drivers (one step back, version 190.62), I will give that a shot and let you know.

Update: all attempts so far of installing drivers for my graphics card have led to the system hanging at random times. No fix as far as I can tell.

transpar3nt said:

Update: all attempts so far of installing drivers for my graphics card have led to the system hanging at random times. No fix as far as I can tell.

Has it ever happened in safe mode - even once?

Does it happen when running under MSCONFIG's "diagnostic" mode?

H2SO4 said:

transpar3nt said:

Update: all attempts so far of installing drivers for my graphics card have led to the system hanging at random times. No fix as far as I can tell.

Has it ever happened in safe mode - even once?

Does it happen when running under MSCONFIG's "diagnostic" mode?

Nope, has never happened under safe mode or the diag mode. Graphics drivers are not enabled under either of those. If the hang happens at all, it always happens within 5 minutes of using the machine.

I have now removed the drivers and have been using the system for over an hour (installing things, changing settings, installed antivirus) and it is working great... except I know video games won't work lol.

If I continue to see no issue with that being the only change made, I will be sending a detailed error report to nVidia, and crossing my fingers.

Hey transpar3nt, I'm having the same problem, random freezes with an 8800GT on windows 7, but fine on vista. If I turn the resolution down to 1280 x 800, the problem stops. However, I don't particularly want to run at this res, considering I normally run at 1680 x 1050.

Any news on whether this is a Windows 7 or Nvidia issue?