Frequent Windows 7 freezes on new Lenovo G570

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.

I see an AfaTech device on your system that is out of date.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 http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/165554-usb-driver-general-fix-problems.html 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

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.

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?

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.

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

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.)

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
    View 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 http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/700-system-restore.html 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.

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.

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

[FONT=&quot]MEMORY DUMPS - REQUIREMENTS[/FONT]


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

Thanks for the list! I unchecked "Automatically restart", changed the dump from a kernel dump to a small memory dump, and did everything to activate the error reporting service. I couldn't find ccleaner, I'm guessing this is software that I haven't installed? Everything else in the list was already set as indicated. (Mentioning this in case it's useful information.)

Yes. Thanks for the info.

CCleaner is a very solid piece of software. (The original name, before product became universally popular, was CrapCleaner or CrudCleaner.)

I mentioned CCleaner since this is the most popular 3rd party product in this area and the only one that we will recommend as CCleaner enjoys, rightfully, an excellent reputation. There is a link for CCleaner in my signature, if you are interested.

I had a crash, but starting up the computer again there is no C:/Windows/Minidump folder. Can the verifier still sometimes fail to log a crash report, even with everything configured correctly?

A second questions is whether I should rename or move existing crash reports (once I have them). Will they be overwritten by new reports?

Hah, just got my first real BSOD. An odd situation to be happy about that

Carry out the procedure given in post #10 precisely and you will have a minidump folder.

Afterwards you can check the existence of the minidump folder by:
run cmd.exe
type in following and hit enter:
wmic recoveros get /all /format:list > %userprofile%\desktop\dmpinfo.txt

that will put a file called dmpinfo.txt on your desktop.
Upload that file as an attachment:
Post the file/snapshot:
Post a File or Screenshot in Seven Forums

Lozaketh said:

Hah, just got my first real BSOD. An odd situation to be happy about that

Click to expand...

Excellent. Now if you carried out post #10 correctly you will have .DMP file in:

%systemroot%\Minidump

WIN + E | F4 | clear out the field | type %systemroot%\minidump


Please submit the dmpinfo.txt file.

thanks,

So it appears that my BSOD crashed, as just after I posted I noticed that it was stuck saying "Initializing disk for memory dump" or something to that effect. Still in the same state after work, I turned off the power.

There was a dump file, though I don't know if it's valid. I've attached that and the dmpinfo file, and I'll continue trying to collect more reports.

In Windows Vista and later operating systems, this bug check occurs only in the following circumstances.

• WHEA is not fully initialized.
  
  
• All processors that rendezvous have no errors in their registers.

For other circumstances, this bug check has been replaced with bug Check 0x124: WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR in Windows Vista and later operating systems.
For more information about Machine Check Architecture (MCA), see the Intel or AMD Web sites.

Click to expand...

The above quote was taken from: Bug Check 0x9C: MACHINE_CHECK_EXCEPTION


Begin by disabling Verifier; I do not think it will help in this instance.

The crash may indicate a hardware related crash and if so, it is likely caused by a faulty processor. Other possible causes are service conflicts or a damaged Windows installation. See if you have a service or startup conflict first: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorial...ation-conflicts-performing-clean-startup.html and leave only your antivirus software enabled in startup programs and services.

You may also look into uninstalling McAfee and replacing with Microsoft Security Essentials to be sure McAfee is not causing the service conflict. The following links will help with that step:

• How to uninstall or reinstall supported McAfee products using the McAfee Consumer Products Removal tool (MCPR.exe)
  
  
• I recommend either of these:
  • Microsoft Security Essentials - Free Antivirus for Windows coupled with Malwarebytes. Do not start the free trial of Malwarebytes. Just use the standalone version, update it, and scan your computer once a week with Malwarebytes and with Microsoft Security Essentials.
    
    
  • http://www.sevenforums.com/system-s...-system-security-combination.html#post1732627

Lozaketh,
You will be able to provide more dumps if you change a setting. From the file you submitted:

OverwriteExistingDebugFile=TRUE

Click to expand...

I've added a few more words to my write-up to make sure that this point is covered correctly:

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 Overwrite any existing file is checked, then:
Ø Under Write debugging information, select Kernel memory dump
Ø Uncheck Overwrite any existing file
Ø Under Write debugging information, select Small memory dump
Ø OK button

Thanks for all the help everyone! I wanted to add a conclusion.

After spending the above several weeks trying to solve the problem, and getting feedback and evidence that the problem was likely hardware related, I had the computer picked up by a nearby repair center. Their diagnostics failed to notice the problem. (The center partners with Lenovo, and the assessment and potential repairs were free.) I then contacted Lenovo, who had UPS pick the computer up, and they said that the warehouse would issue a full credit to my CC account. 2 weeks passed without credit, I got in touch with Lenovo again, who sent a "reminder" to the warehouse, and a few days ago I received a credit for the full cost of the computer.

Thanks again for the help everyone. Despite the slow resolution, it would have been slower without it.