Computer freezing (no BSOD) - hard disk or graphics card?

Hi
Wondering if people can help me troubleshoot this problem I'm having.

I've got a Win 7 64bit installation that keeps freezing. I've got two hard disks - windows & programs etc. on old 250gb and new 1tb disk for my docs/pics etc. I've got an ATI Radeon 7500 graphics card installed as well.

Ever since I set this system up it freezes. It can be while anything is happening - word processing, web browsing, installing updates, playing COD - there doesn't seem to be a pattern.

Because it doesn't get to BSOD I get no error reports. The whole system freezes and has to be restarted. Sometimes startup repair appears and finds nothing.

Last week I tried a repair install of Windows 7 - this really didn't help as it seemed to make it worse, it installed but it crashed every time it tried to install the updates & then would spend the next 20 minutes reverting the updates. So last night I formatted the 250gb disk and did a clean install. This morning it crashed again on the updates!

I'm toying with the idea of buying a new h/d but thought it might be worth seeing if the graphics card is also causing the issue - how would I best go about troubleshooting the graphics card to see if that's the problem?

Any ideas would be great as my wife is ready to kill me as she uses the computer for work, whereas I get a nice stable laptop provided by my work!

If you need more info let me know :)

Thanks

Nick

NickFrancis said:

Hi
Wondering if people can help me troubleshoot this problem I'm having.

I've got a Win 7 64bit installation that keeps freezing. I've got two hard disks - windows & programs etc. on old 250gb and new 1tb disk for my docs/pics etc. I've got an ATI Radeon 7500 graphics card installed as well.

Ever since I set this system up it freezes. It can be while anything is happening - word processing, web browsing, installing updates, playing COD - there doesn't seem to be a pattern.

Because it doesn't get to BSOD I get no error reports. The whole system freezes and has to be restarted. Sometimes startup repair appears and finds nothing.

Last week I tried a repair install of Windows 7 - this really didn't help as it seemed to make it worse, it installed but it crashed every time it tried to install the updates & then would spend the next 20 minutes reverting the updates. So last night I formatted the 250gb disk and did a clean install. This morning it crashed again on the updates!

I'm toying with the idea of buying a new h/d but thought it might be worth seeing if the graphics card is also causing the issue - how would I best go about troubleshooting the graphics card to see if that's the problem?

Any ideas would be great as my wife is ready to kill me as she uses the computer for work, whereas I get a nice stable laptop provided by my work!

If you need more info let me know :)

Thanks

Nick

There are several ways to find what the problem is. The best is to go into event viewer (type eventvwr in search). Event viewer (local) and look for the critical errors listed in the last day, week, etc. Then go to the windows log>application tab. Finally the windows Logs>system tabs.

You want to look for all errors (they have red in the left column ).

When you find them you want to look for critical errors that say app hang, app crash, or anything that relates to the problem.

When you find them please note the event ID, and the source codes and tell us what they are.

Hi both

Thanks for the quick responses.

@Golden:
In the process of running the spec tool & will update - need to get .net framework first as this is a clean install.

I've already run the Samsung HDD Diagnostics & it came up fine

@ZigZag3143
Local Event Viewer
EventID 41 Source: Kernel-Power

Application Tab (no criticals - these were all errors)
EventID 2001 Source: Microsoft Office 12
EventID 10005 Source: MSiInstaller
EventID 11935 Source: MSiInstaller

System Tab
EventID 41 Source: Kernel-Power


Hope I've done that right! Sleep deprived at the moment!

Let me know if there is more info you need.

Thanks for your help

Nick

NickFrancis said:

Hi both

Thanks for the quick responses.

@Golden:
In the process of running the spec tool & will update - need to get .net framework first as this is a clean install.

I've already run the Samsung HDD Diagnostics & it came up fine

@ZigZag3143
Local Event Viewer
EventID 41 Source: Kernel-Power

Application Tab (no criticals - these were all errors)
EventID 2001 Source: Microsoft Office 12
EventID 10005 Source: MSiInstaller
EventID 11935 Source: MSiInstaller

System Tab
EventID 41 Source: Kernel-Power


Hope I've done that right! Sleep deprived at the moment!

Let me know if there is more info you need.

Thanks for your help

Nick

Nick Hi

Unfortunately that event ID and source is just saying the computer was not shut down cleanly but then we know that because it crashed.

The app tab not critical either

Why dont you follow Golden's suggestions and let us know the results.

Hi
Thanks both

Ran ESTools overnight & it came back all ok. I couldn't find any evidence of it producing any sort of report to post but it said Hard Disk was error free.

Having to post this on my laptop as desktop froze twice when trying to reply - both times it was when trying to load IE with about 5 tabs open.

When I'm back home I'll check windows update & then run chkdsk and report back :)

Thanks again,

Nick

Hi
Installed all available updates.

Ran chkdsk - below is output from it:

Code:

C:\Windows\system32>chkdsk
The type of the file system is NTFS.
 
WARNING! F parameter not specified.
Running CHKDSK in read-only mode.
 
CHKDSK is verifying files (stage 1 of 3)...
90880 file records processed.
File verification completed.
115 large file records processed.
0 bad file records processed.
0 EA records processed.
41 reparse records processed.
CHKDSK is verifying indexes (stage 2 of 3)...
127366 index entries processed.
Index verification completed.
0 unindexed files scanned.
0 unindexed files recovered.
CHKDSK is verifying security descriptors (stage 3 of 3)...
90880 file SDs/SIDs processed.
Security descriptor verification completed.
18244 data files processed.
CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal...
33810192 USN bytes processed.
Usn Journal verification completed.
Windows has checked the file system and found no problems.
 
244139773 KB total disk space.
32464564 KB in 70955 files.
51484 KB in 18245 indexes.
0 KB in bad sectors.
197697 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
211426028 KB available on disk.
 
4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
61034943 total allocation units on disk.
52856507 allocation units available on disk.

Is there a possibility it's the graphics card?

When I installed it it didn't come with a manual. It came with two power connectors (I presume for the fan?) - I was only able to attach one as I didn't have two of the right adaptor, have been meaning to buy another one but not got round to it yet.

Will hopefully take the case off later and have a look inside.

Nick

Just to give a bit more info to see if it helps at all.


Took the case off and noted the following: I have a 400w PSU (iMicro LC-8400BTX)


I also had a look at the graphics card. On the attached image you can see the two brown, yellow & black leads coming out of the graphics card. One set is connected to the PSU, the other is not connected to anything. Should it be?

Will wait to hear from you - thank you for all your help so far.


Nick