Windows 7: PC freezes for 2 min, HDD light solid, mouse still moves, clock stops

just before my last HDD failed, the PC would freeze for 2 minutes or so with the HDD light solid, somtimes in a browser, somtimes watching a vid file, now that I have a replacement drive, the same thing still happens

the mouse still moves, but the clock stops and catches up when the computer un-freezes

I changed the SATA cable, updated the BIOS, loaded the recommended chipset software, also updated the vid driver

I am about to reload Win 7 from scratch, since this install is from 2010, hoping a fresh install will fix.

any ideas? could it be the M/B?

I have:

Win 7 Ultimate 64 bit
Biostar G31-M7 TE with a Pentium Dual Core E5200 @ 2.5 GHz
1x 2 GB RAM
Nvidia GeForce 8400 GS 512MB PCI-E
Western Digital 500 GB HDD
Plextor DVD/RW

I am also getting numerous errors in the Event Viewer while using the DVD drive

"The driver detected a controller error on \Device\Ide\IdePort2"

there are no Event Viewer entries at the times that the PC freezes up

Pretty likely the MB the way you describe it.
If it happens fairly often (i.e. it is reproducable) I'd try and boot a LINUX type system from CD or USB flash
(e.g. Knoppix, Ubuntu) to see if similar issues appear on a non-Microsoft Windows operation system. If it does then there's proof of hardware failure.
But the best hardware diagnostics might not bring up anything and you still have a HW issue.
Since it is your own rig and not someone else's you have to fix in a hurry the best might be to go ahead and reinstall Windows 7, work with the latest drivers (from manufacturers websites!) and test it for a few days with video and web browsing before you load the rest of your software.

Hope that makes sense.

What are you using to do your re-installs ?

I've been using Windows Image Backup and a previous system image

... and I thought we are talking backup, format and a clean install from genuine media?????

If you are saying your system image is from a time where the machine was working well then I suppose you have a case. But it's not a reinstall.

My tip is to reinstall from an authentic disk, install clean drivers and test the MB.
That should give you an answer.

Unplug the DVD drive and see if the problems persist.

THen unplug the HD and boot into a Linux Knoppix or Hiren’s BootCD 15.1 to see how those OS's function from the boot disk which will help isolate the problem further.

You can also change out the HD to test install to know if its causing your problems.

Since you wish to reinstall, follow these steps to get a perfect baseline Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7 which are the same for retail. In particular drivers are handled differently in Windows 7 than XP, provided by the installer and quickly updated via optional Windows Updates. The developments made in Windows 7 with drivers allow Win8 to have no driver interaction with the user at all. I would only change out drivers which are missing after all Updates are completed.

That's exactly what I'm planning to do tomorrow, I have backups of data and apps ready to go.

I've restored the image twice due to HDD failures, but it was originally installed in 2010 from an authentic disk.

Thanks everyone for all the comments, I'll post results later this week.

To save hours of updating up to and including SP1, you'll want the latest official installer which is in Step 1 of the Reinstall tutorial, along with tool to burn to DVD or write to flash stick in Step 2.

Have you tried booting your PC with the DVD drive disconnected?

I had a problem with a dodgy power connector on one of my DVD drives (on the power cable).
It caused boot problems on my PC.