Windows 7 freezes

Evening,

Ive been having ongoing problems with my pc lately. Ive posted regarding a problem before here: https://www.sevenforums.com/crashes-d...tml#post862612

Ive followed the advice from both on the forum here and the Tech guy who came out when i rang up re: the pcs warranty.

I was informed my pc was crashing regularly while under any sort of load (be it videos, lots of windows open etc) as a result of my graphics card overheating.
I took the side off the pc, cleaned it out, etc which seemed to help a bit but it was still happening unpredictably.

Today ive eventually bitten the bullet and gone out and upgraded the graphics card to a NVIDIA GeForce GT240. Installed no problems updated to the latest driver direct from the NVIDIA website and everything seemed fine untill now... Suddely without warning while i was playing online poker (playing 6 tables and had a few IE8 windows open) it suddenly froze so i had to manually reboot it (not the best when you're playing online poker!). Got back on after a few minutes only to have it happen again shortly after! No idea why.

I still have the side off the pc and the card feels fairly cool, fans working fine. According to 'Speccy' my CPU is running at 41C .

Ive had a look in the Event Viewer and cant see any reason for it other than the usual errors that were there before. Nobody seemed too worried about them in the previous thread though. Ive attached a print screen of the Event Viewer so you can see if anything catches your eye.

Any advice on what could be causing these freezes would be appreciasted. Just to clarify, its not just a program that freezes, everything suddenly freezes including the mouse with no response to hot keys etc. Only way to get things working again is a manual reboot.

Any help is much appreciated! Thanks.

Run driver verifier again - Driver Verifier - Enable and Disable

What brand/model PSU are you using?

Do you have ZoneAlarm firewall? No Firewall currently active. Ive got it disabled. I dont believe i have ZoneAlarm anyway - just norton and Windows own.
What anti-virus sw are you running? No antivirus active, again it's disabled. I have both Norton and AVG free installed though.

Firewall and Anti virus are disabled because of poker software i run. The antivirus/firewall stop them working properly.

Did you get a bluescreen. No BSOD. Everything just freezes solid with no response. Just looks like a print screen of my desktop.

Im not sure what PSU im using - how would i find out?

I have just input the verifier settings and am about to restart the pc.

Hi,

Norton is known to cause BSODs/Freezes so it would pay to remove that for now

Download the Norton Removal Tool (NRT); save to desktop. Boot into SAFEMODE - NO Networking. Tap F8 key during boot-up. Then go to desktop, RIGHT-click on the NRT icon and select Run as Administrator.

When complete - re-boot.

NRT - ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/englis...moval_Tool.exe

Install MS Security Essentials --> http://www.microsoft.com/Security_Essentials/

Then reset the Windows Firewall to its default settings -
START -> type cmd.exe -> right-click -> run as administrator -> type netsh advfirewall reset press enter

To find out what PSU you are using - look inside the case for the box that the power cord goes into. Then have a look for a label with a brand/model # on it.

Ive followed the advice above. Currently scanning the pc with Microsoft Security Essentials.

In the process of doing so i seem to have encountered another problem with the computer crashing all the time when trying to start windows. No idea why but im hoping it'll sort itself out once everythings installed now and settled down. I'll post again if this problem persists.

Lemur - Since installing the new graphics card yesterday its only crashed the 2 times both of which i was playing Poker however prior to this, it was crashing while watching videos or just having a lot of browsers open. Yesterday was the first time its crashed during poker (and hopefully the last).

Im now wondering if it could be the PSU... Details below:

Delta Electronics Inc
Model # DPS-250AB-22 D
Input 220-24-v 3.15A 50Hz
Output 250 Watts max (this seems quite low to me if im looking at the correct thing)

The graphics card says it requires atleast 300W

That PSU is more than a bit underpowered.

See how you go without Norton first.

Thanks for the advice.

If i was to go out and upgrade my PSU anyway, what type of spec should i be looking to get. Dont do too much gaming etc other than online poker, dual monitors and moderate/heavy internet use?

Also, how easy is it to install a PSU?

Thanks

I can't say for sure because I haven't seen your case, but usually changing a PSU is one of the easier operations to do on your PC.

Just unplug the cables - take the PSU out, slide the new one in and re-plug all the power cables.

As for a replacement - one of these should serve you well assuming you aren't looking at upgrading the rest of your PC at all: Newegg.com - CORSAIR CMPSU-450VX 450W ATX12V V2.2 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply