Windows 7: Windows 7 Pro 64 Bit Hangs - Not Responding

I apologize for this post as the same question and topic has probably been asked hundreds of times before and I have read many of them.

I am using Windows 7 Professional 64 bit on a Dell desktop PC with 8 Gb of RAM, an Intel Core 2 Quad 9400/2.66GHz6M, 1333FSB processor and a EVGA Nvidia GE Force GT2400 graphics card. The graphics card has the current driver version installed. The machine has the following internal hard drives installed: C drive for Windows 7 and other software only, D drive for data only and an H drive as a scratch disk for Adobe PhotoShop CS6. The 3 hard drives have plenty of free empty space. I have run a memory test and the memory tests good.

The machine randomly hangs and freezes with no apparent pattern. It didn’t just start one day so I can’t attribute a specific reason for the hanging. Sometimes I can go for days with no problems but then some days it hangs and does not responds many times during the day. Sometimes if I wait long enough it will recover and start responding. Many times I have to push the power button and power the machine OFF. Sometimes when it hangs and I click the mouse on the Start button to restart the machine or I hit Alt-Ctrl-Delete or Ctrl-Shift-Esc to bring up the Task Manager the screen turns a very light and faint color and I normally have to power down the machine and re-boot. I never get the BSOD so I think that is good. Today the machine hung 6 or 7 times requiring me to power down and re-boot the machine. To give you an idea of start up time, from the time I pushed the power button ON to restart the machine it took 1 minute 20 seconds for the password field to appear and 4 minutes 10 seconds for all of the screen icons to fully appear.

The machine was purchased with Windows XP and Windows 7 was installed with a clean install on the machine January of 2012 so Windows 7 has been on the machine for a while. The MicroSoft automatic updates have all installed successfully with no troubles.

I have the current versions of the following security software installed:

ESET NOD32 anti-virus
COMODO free firewall
Super Anti-Spyware - free version
Malware-bytes Anti Malware - free version
CCleaner - I have disabled most of the startup programs

I run scans regularly and to my knowledge the machine is virus and malware free.

When the hanging becomes very severe I run ChkDisk on the C drive and run CCleaner to clean the registry. When I do this the hanging appears to improve for several days but then the hanging - not responding returns.

In the past I have run SFC Scannow. I run it several times back to back and the results tell me that some of the system files could not be replaced or repaired. The scan log is extremely large and I don’t know how to read the entries so I don’t know if SFC Scannow is helping me or not.

This Windows 7 professional machine is connected to a hard wire Ethernet network with two other Windows 7 Professional desktop machines. This machine is the ONLY machine that has the hanging - not responding problem. The other two machines run perfectly. When I unplug the hanging machine from the network I still have the problem.

If I take the machine to a PC repair shop they will probably spend a minimal amount of time troubleshooting then tell me Windows 7 needs to be re-installed which I can do myself. I do not want to re-install Windows 7 because of all of the software that is currently installed on the machine with all of the software settings and options, etc. plus all of the email messages. The entire machine is backed up. I use Rebit backup software which continuously backs up when Rebit see a change in a file.

I have read about troubleshooting this problem by doing a clean boot. You repeatedly reboot with various services dis-abled. In the end you can hopefully determine which services are causing the hang problem. Seems like a very long and difficult troubleshooting process especially when my hanging - not responding problem does not happen everyday.

Sorry again for the long post but I wanted to provide as much information as I could.

I have total trust in Windows Seven Forum - does anyone have ideas as to what I can do to fix this hanging - not responding problem?

Thanks very much - Bill

Try safe mode and the Troubleshoot Application Conflicts by Performing a Clean Startup.
I know you said you do not feel like doing it, but do it anyway.

You could also look into a Repair Install since you stated you dont want to lose everything, but you said that sfc reports several errors and items found missing. This would allow you to keep all your programs.

Andrew, I like your candor about the "Try safe mode and the Troubleshoot Application Conflicts by Performing a Clean Startup. I know you said you do not feel like doing it, but do it anyway."

I will read that link. I am aware of the Repair Install but I an nervous that it won't go well.

Thanks for your help!

Repair installs are done all the time here. Its usually the last resort for errors in the sfc scan, as the files can be manually pulled from the log and then once you know what they are, can be copied from the original disk.

However, the quickest way to get you back and running is always a repair or clean install. Especially if there are multiple errors in the sfc log.

Let us know if you have any issues, more then happy to help.

Andrew -

Tonight I tried the Clean Startup from Safe Mode. I had to use Safe Mode because the machine would hang all of the time. I followed the instruction from the link you gave me. I checked the Hide all Microsoft Services and clicked on Disable All. Then I restarted the machine. The machine was hanging very badly all afternoon but after I did the Clean Startup it didn't hang one time all night when I was working in Adobe Photoshop as I am a professional photographer. I will see how the machine performs for the next couple of days and continue through the instructions.

I have a question. I would have thought that when I disabled all services and restarted the machine, it wouldn't work well because the services were not enabled. I am understanding this correctly? Why does Windows continue to operate with all the services disabled?

Thanks again very much for your help. I really appreciate it. I will report back in a few days as to my troubleshooting progress.

Bill

Since you stated this solved the issue, This means that a program is causing this issue.
Narrow down the problem by slowly re-enabling some startup programs. I recommend only 3 at a time at the most, and test for 30 minutes to an hour. No freezing? Keep adding until you find the culprit.

Info:

A clean boot is different from safe mode.

In safe mode, only critical Windows services and basic drivers startup with windows. Only the files needed to get windows to run and startup. Only Microsoft stuff, no third party anything.

In a clean boot, all Windows services are active and started, as well as full and third party drivers but third party startup programs are disabled.

In regular boot, All windows services, drivers, and third party startup programs are enabled.

This is why troubleshooting in this matter helps to quickly identify the issue at hand.
If problems in safe mode: It means ether bad windows install, or hardware failure.
If safe mode is fine, but clean boot isnt, its a third party driver.
If clean boot is fine, but normal isnt, its a third party program that starts with the system.

could also be your ram has started going bad try a memtest on it. Memtest86+ - Advanced Memory Diagnostic Tool

If this was my machine I would remove the gpu drivers and any associated software, run Driver Sweeper from safe mode, reboot and do a clean install of the latest gpu drivers.

What's in a dump files?

I would give serious consideration to getting rid of Comodo firewall. I had a similar experience and Comodo was the cause. I switched to Eset Smart Security and haven't had an issue since.