Solved PC freezes for 2 min, HDD light solid, mouse still moves, clock stops

[mikeh420]

just before my last HDD failed, the PC would freeze for 2 minutes or so with the HDD light solid, somtimes in a browser, somtimes watching a vid file, now that I have a replacement drive, the same thing still happens

the mouse still moves, but the clock stops and catches up when the computer un-freezes

I changed the SATA cable, updated the BIOS, loaded the recommended chipset software, also updated the vid driver

I am about to reload Win 7 from scratch, since this install is from 2010, hoping a fresh install will fix.

any ideas? could it be the M/B?

I have:

Win 7 Ultimate 64 bit
Biostar G31-M7 TE with a Pentium Dual Core E5200 @ 2.5 GHz
1x 2 GB RAM
Nvidia GeForce 8400 GS 512MB PCI-E
Western Digital 500 GB HDD
Plextor DVD/RW

 

[mikeh420]

I am also getting numerous errors in the Event Viewer while using the DVD drive

"The driver detected a controller error on \Device\Ide\IdePort2"

there are no Event Viewer entries at the times that the PC freezes up

 

[LazyLizard]

Pretty likely the MB the way you describe it.
If it happens fairly often (i.e. it is reproducable) I'd try and boot a LINUX type system from CD or USB flash
(e.g. Knoppix, Ubuntu) to see if similar issues appear on a non-Microsoft Windows operation system. If it does then there's proof of hardware failure.
But the best hardware diagnostics might not bring up anything and you still have a HW issue.
Since it is your own rig and not someone else's you have to fix in a hurry the best might be to go ahead and reinstall Win7, work with the latest drivers (from manufacturers websites!) and test it for a few days with video and web browsing before you load the rest of your software.

Hope that makes sense.

 

[AddRAM]

What are you using to do your re-installs ?

 

[mikeh420]

What are you using to do your re-installs ?

I've been using Windows Image Backup and a previous system image

 

[LazyLizard]

... and I thought we are talking backup, format and a clean install from genuine media????? :huh:

If you are saying your system image is from a time where the machine was working well then I suppose you have a case. But it's not a reinstall.

My tip is to reinstall from an authentic disk, install clean drivers and test the MB.
That should give you an answer.

 

[gregrocker]

Unplug the DVD drive and see if the problems persist.

THen unplug the HD and boot into a Linux Knoppix or Hiren’s BootCD 15.1 to see how those OS's function from the boot disk which will help isolate the problem further.

You can also change out the HD to test install to know if its causing your problems.

Since you wish to reinstall, follow these steps to get a perfect baseline Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7 which are the same for retail. In particular drivers are handled differently in Win7 than XP, provided by the installer and quickly updated via optional Windows Updates. The developments made in Win7 with drivers allow Win8 to have no driver interaction with the user at all. I would only change out drivers which are missing after all Updates are completed.

 

[mikeh420]

... and I thought we are talking backup, format and a clean install from genuine media????? :huh:

If you are saying your system image is from a time where the machine was working well then I suppose you have a case. But it's not a reinstall.

My tip is to reinstall from an authentic disk, install clean drivers and test the MB.
That should give you an answer.

That's exactly what I'm planning to do tomorrow, I have backups of data and apps ready to go.

I've restored the image twice due to HDD failures, but it was originally installed in 2010 from an authentic disk.

Thanks everyone for all the comments, I'll post results later this week.

 

[gregrocker]

To save hours of updating up to and including SP1, you'll want the latest official installer which is in Step 1 of the Reinstall tutorial, along with tool to burn to DVD or write to flash stick in Step 2.

 

[lehnerus2000]

Have you tried booting your PC with the DVD drive disconnected?

I had a problem with a dodgy power connector on one of my DVD drives (on the power cable).
It caused boot problems on my PC.

 

[mikeh420]

Have you tried booting your PC with the DVD drive disconnected?

I had a problem with a dodgy power connector on one of my DVD drives (on the power cable).
It caused boot problems on my PC.

tried that just now, still the same error

I had an old IDE drive connected, and since the Event Viewer error referred to an Ide Port, I disconnected it and still got errors

I have the main HDD on SATA port 1, I had the DVD on port 2, then moved it to port 3 when I started noticing the error.

 

[frumbert]

sounds to me like a controller on the motherboard is going; or in one case on my own PC a channel on the power supply wasn't feeding enough voltage (says my multimeter). So bits of the MB would have had enough power whilst others didn't, so replacing the power supply was enough - luckily the MB survived it happily. I wouldn't try the reinstall from scratch thing until you've verified what you can about the hardware. Try the usual fixes - place the power supply, unseat reseat all the components you can (incl. cpu - power pc on without cpu, then off, then replace cpu - that'll reset the MB/Bios and any crazy charges left in it).

 

[mikeh420]

never thought of the power supply, but it is possible

I'll try that tomorrow, I think I have a spare PS

 

[AddRAM]

You need to get the good ISO from the tutorial on to a dvd and install windows. Your image could have easily gotten corrupted if it`s that old.

When you say things like " from scratch " and " a fresh install " that tells us you`re doing a clean install. An image is not a clean install, but I think you now know that.

If this is a new hard drive, what have you got to loose ? If you have your key do a CLEAN INSTALL as per the tutorial. Even if you don`t have a key, do it to see if your image is the problem.

 

[mikeh420]

Frumbert, I think you hit it head on

I replaced the power supply, and after 3 hours no more errors or freeze ups (so far), I even copied a music CD; using the CD/DVD burner always caused atapi and disk errors, none this time

Funny thing is, I recently replaced a power supply that had a noisy fan, it seems the one I replaced it with is bad! So now I'm using the noisy but good power supply.

Thanks Frumbert

sounds to me like a controller on the motherboard is going; or in one case on my own PC a channel on the power supply wasn't feeding enough voltage (says my multimeter). So bits of the MB would have had enough power whilst others didn't, so replacing the power supply was enough - luckily the MB survived it happily. I wouldn't try the reinstall from scratch thing until you've verified what you can about the hardware. Try the usual fixes - place the power supply, unseat reseat all the components you can (incl. cpu - power pc on without cpu, then off, then replace cpu - that'll reset the MB/Bios and any crazy charges left in it).

 

[AlterUrEgo]

I had a older power supply take a slow dump on me a while back. Took a heck of a long time to figure out that it was at fault. Bought a more powerful one and PC has been running like a champ since.
Power supply is something that you just don't think of crapping out and one of those things thats its good to have a spare around. I was at the point I was going to reinstall the OS just to have the same problems crop up again.