Windows 7 periodically Freezes.

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  1. Posts : 1,686
    Windows 7 x64 Ultimate and numerous virtual machines
       #11

    AS bobafetthotmail states You MUST CHECK the ram voltage in the bios with the ram voltage needed (should be stated on the manufacturer's site or on the RAM's documentation), and adjust it if necessary.
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  2. Posts : 75
    Windows 7 professional 64 bit
    Thread Starter
       #12

    Oh that's been checked. It's set at 1.5 which is what the RAM spec is. Thanks.
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  3. Posts : 1,686
    Windows 7 x64 Ultimate and numerous virtual machines
       #13

    Tweakit said:
    Oh that's been checked. It's set at 1.5 which is what the RAM spec is. Thanks.
    If possible try bumping up the RAM voltage to the next value, say 1.6 or 1.65 and see if it becomes stable.
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  4. Posts : 75
    Windows 7 professional 64 bit
    Thread Starter
       #14

    I did that. Bumped the RAM volts to 1.6 from 1.5. No change. Made errors within 10 minutes of testing.
    Other ideas??
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  5. Posts : 1,686
    Windows 7 x64 Ultimate and numerous virtual machines
       #15

    Tweakit said:
    I did that. Bumped the RAM volts to 1.6 from 1.5. No change. Made errors within 10 minutes of testing.
    Other ideas??
    Is there a BIOS update for your motherboard?
    About the only thing I can think of after all you have checked and tested is a suspect motherboard. If there is an update to the bios this may fix it, if not I would be seeking advice from Giga Byte to RMA if under warranty.
    Before you do that try this.
    A power supply can cause issues like this if some of the capacitors are getting weak causing voltage fluctuations on the high current low voltage supplies, see if you can borrow one for troubleshooting purposes. Never attempt repairs of any kind on the PSU.
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  6. Posts : 1,711
    Win 7 Pro 64-bit 7601
       #16

    Tweakit said:
    I could take one stick out as previously suggested and try it in both slots but it’s starting to look like what I see may not be stick or slot related but something that happens on a particular boot up that determines how things are read and written to the ram. In other words it’s starting to look like this problem may not be memory or mobo slot related but something deeper in the mobo circuitry. I’m pretty baffled and I’d love to get some suggestions.
    No offence, but we already said how to troubleshoot your machine. If you follow our advice you may actually find the culprit, otherwise you are just wasting your and our time. I understand that it's extremely annoying to properly test hardware, but impatience isn't going to help.

    Once again I repeat:
    -take away all ram, reset voltages to 1.5
    -pick a single ram bank
    -place it in the first slot (look at the motheboard manual to determine what is the first slot for it)
    -run memtest for at least 6-7 passes. It's long, but if you do less it's not catching errors.

    If it goes well, that ram bank is fine, now we can start testing the motherboard.
    Test the same ram bank in another slot (again check the manual to make sure the motherboard accepts a single ram in that particular slot slot) following the same procedure as above.

    If no errors after you tested it in all the slots, then the motherboard is fine.

    Last you can test other ram banks following same procedure.

    After you did this, report back your findings.
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  7. Posts : 75
    Windows 7 professional 64 bit
    Thread Starter
       #17

    BINGO! I did the bios update and ran Memtest86+ overnight and then rebooting and rerunning many times (more than enough to have seen the problem if it were still there). I never got a single error! Curiously the bios update did not list any fixes for memory issues so I guess they don’t itemize all the fixed included. I’ll have to run the computer for about a week before I can be sure this has solved the Freeze problem I reported with my initial post. Since I’ll be away, it’ll be a few weeks till I can be sure. Once I figure that part out, I’ll reply and mark this as ‘solved’ if appropriate.
    In the meantime my thanks to those who helped with this and particularly to ‘Indianatone’ for suggesting the bios update. :)
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  8. Posts : 75
    Windows 7 professional 64 bit
    Thread Starter
       #18

    OK, I’m following up with a status on this. While the bios update solved the memory issue, it apparently has not solved the Freeze issue. I’m still getting the Freezes I described in my 1st post to this thread. I think the biggest clues on this are the entries from the Event Viewer that are also seen in my first post. I suspect this has something to do with the “Windows Error Reporting Service.” From the events I listed in the 1st post it appears this service starts up at the beginning of a freeze and stops at or near the end of a Freeze. I’m not sure what this service does or if I can disable it or why it seems to Freeze up my computer. If it caused every computer to Freeze up I would expect a lot of folks to be irritated or for uSoft to have fixed it. From all the tests that have been run, I think we’ve ruled out hardware problems and corrupted OS files, viruses etc. It may be more software or conflict type stuff but I’m not that much of an expert.
    Any suggestions or other clues on this?
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  9. Posts : 1,686
    Windows 7 x64 Ultimate and numerous virtual machines
       #19

    OK so the computer is freezing. The hard drive light is on which means it is writing something to the hard drive. What are you doing at this point? Playing games, saving a document or working on pictures or any other large files? Have you tinkered in any way with the virtual memory settings (from default)?
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  10. Posts : 75
    Windows 7 professional 64 bit
    Thread Starter
       #20

    Actually the hard drive lite is on solid during a Freeze, but Process Explorer does not detect any HD activity! Weird, I know. Any other times the drive lite is on you can see what is using the drive in process explorer. It doesn't matter what I'm doing with the computer. Often i'm just surfing the web when the freeze occurs. I've not touched the virtual memory settings. I assume they are at default.
    The biggest clue I have is that the Freeze starts when the "Windows Error Reporting Service" enters the running state and the computer returns to normal when WER service enters the Stopped state! It seems pretty clear that when WER runs it Freezes up the computer. I guess I could try disabling this service but it seems like it really shouldn't be causing Freezes unless there is a problem with it or something related to it.
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