Solved Windows 7 freezing during gameplay after clean installation

[Bruhmis]

I reinstalled windows recently and since day 1 it has been freezing in certain games constantly. my drivers are fine, I have directx, .NET and all that installed, I'm not overclocking, it's not the power supply, and my PC is never under extreme stress when it happens.

the games it happens on:
Battlefield: Bad Company 2
Natural Selection 2
Tomb Raider
Far Cry 2


My Specs:
EVGA GTX 670
AMD FX-8150 x8
Gigabyte 990FXA-UD3
8 GB RAM
Windows 7 x64
Corsair 500w PSU

how can I diagnose and fix the problem?

 

[gregrocker]

Test the hardware, assure you have a Clean Boot, check the logs for repeat errors to resolve, utilize the System Resources in Troubleshooting Steps for Windows 7 to see if you can resolve the hang.

Win7 should never hang or bog on adequate, tested hardware with a perfect install. So check over the steps to get a perfect Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7 to see how what you did compares.

 

[Bruhmis]

Test the hardware, assure you have a Clean Boot, check the logs for repeat errors to resolve, utilize the System Resources in Troubleshooting Steps for Windows 7 to see if you can resolve the hang.

Win7 should never hang or bog on adequate, tested hardware with a perfect install. So check over the steps to get a perfect Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7 to see how what you did compares.

I'm fairly confident it's not the hardware since all of it is relatively new and never gave me problems before I reinstalled windows, and considering that the freezing happens on some really non-stressful games and doesn't happen on extremely taxing games it wouldn't make any sense for it to be a hardware problem. I don't know where windows stores logs about crashes, I've looked at the event viewer and all it tells me is ''the last shutdown was unexpected''. I don't know what you mean by ''assure you have a clean boot''.

edit: looking at the link you provided I know what you meant now, the only things I have in my startup are steam, skype and Xbox 360 accessories.

 

[gregrocker]

Did you hew closely to the steps for getting a perfect install? Particularly important is that drivers in Win7 are handled differently than XP, fully automated via the installer and optional Updates. So none should be imported unless they're missing after all rounds of Important and Optional Updates are done.

The Troubleshooting Steps will normally reveal clues once all the steps are worked through.

 

[Bruhmis]

Did you hew closely to the steps for getting a perfect install? Particularly important is that drivers in Win7 are handled differently than XP, fully automated via the installer and optional Updates. So none should be imported unless they're missing after all rounds of Important and Optional Updates are done.

The Troubleshooting Steps will normally reveal clues once all the steps are worked through.

yeah all drivers were manually installed afterwards. the only things that were imported were application files that were all put in a folder called windows.old automatically and I didn't import anything from that, I just deleted it. aside from that it was a completely clean installation.

 

[gregrocker]

What do you mean by

all drivers were manually installed afterwards

.
Did you read what I just wrote? You should use only the drivers given by the installer and updated via Windows Updates after enabling Automatically deliver drivers via Windows Update (Step 3).

 

[Bruhmis]

What do you mean by

all drivers were manually installed afterwards

.
Did you read what I just wrote? You should use only the drivers given by the installer and updated via Windows Updates after enabling Automatically deliver drivers via Windows Update (Step 3).

windows doesn't distribute the proper graphics drivers and I couldn't use windows update to begin with without manually installing drivers for my motherboard.

 

[gregrocker]

Are all Important and Optional Updates installed?

Work through the Troubleshooting Steps to gather clues. If you report back results we may have other steps.

 

[Bruhmis]

Are all Important and Optional Updates installed?

Work through the Troubleshooting Steps to gather clues. If you report back results we may have other steps.

yeah I installed everything it had aside from IE9 updates.

edit: I ran a health check and the only thing it found is that 2 USB devices don't have drivers and that windows isn't collecting enough data during crashes.

 

[MPN]

For many of problems that looks like what you are talking about, the RAM often is at fault.
There is 2 ways that i know of on how to check your RAM.

The fast way:

Since you have 8 GB i`m assuming you got 2x 4G sticks? Take 1 out and let the machine run, Start a game or what nuts. and if nothing happens swap it out for the other one and see if the machine crash.

The slower but more accurate way:

Download a program called Memtest. Hopefully some one can tell you more about that program ( i myself have not used it)

 

[Bruhmis]

For many of problems that looks like what you are talking about, the RAM often is at fault.
There is 2 ways that i know of on how to check your RAM.

The fast way:

Since you have 8 GB i`m assuming you got 2x 4G sticks? Take 1 out and let the machine run, Start a game or what nuts. and if nothing happens swap it out for the other one and see if the machine crash.

The slower but more accurate way:

Download a program called Memtest. Hopefully some one can tell you more about that program ( i myself have not used it)

thanks for the reply. I've used it before, I'll give it a try. what makes you think it's the RAM though? wouldn't more stressful games cause the same problem?

 

[MPN]

The reason why i think it might be the RAM, is cuse i had a similar problem.
Dos the freeze only happen while playing game? or dos it happens at random?

Have you taken a look in Event Viewer for any errors?

 

[gregrocker]

Are all Important and Optional Updates installed?

Work through the Troubleshooting Steps to gather clues. If you report back results we may have other steps.

yeah I installed everything it had aside from IE9 updates.

edit: I ran a health check and the only thing it found is that 2 USB devices don't have drivers and that windows isn't collecting enough data during crashes.

Continue with the troubleshooting tests including hardware tests. Run SFC /SCANNOW Command to check system file integrity.

 

[Bruhmis]

The reason why i think it might be the RAM, is cuse i had a similar problem.
Dos the freeze only happen while playing game? or dos it happens at random?

Have you taken a look in Event Viewer for any errors?

it only happens while playing games, and very specific games. I ran memtest86+ for 3 hours and it found no errors.

 

[Bruhmis]

Are all Important and Optional Updates installed?

Work through the Troubleshooting Steps to gather clues. If you report back results we may have other steps.

yeah I installed everything it had aside from IE9 updates.

edit: I ran a health check and the only thing it found is that 2 USB devices don't have drivers and that windows isn't collecting enough data during crashes.

Continue with the troubleshooting tests including hardware tests. Run SFC /SCANNOW Command to check system file integrity.

I ran SFC /SCANNOW and it found no errors. I've done basically everything on that list aside from a disk check which I've scheduled for the next time my PC starts. anything else I can try?

 

[gregrocker]

Do the Disk Check to check the HD condition. I'd also do the HD Diagnostic extended CD scan.

Have you googled the text and identifying numbers of repeat errors in the Admin log to resolve them? The patterns will become apparent and you'll learn more about them.

I'd also check the Performance log for errors around the time you have the freezes.

Have you gone over your build to check all of the cables, connections and BIOS settings? I'd check for BIOS update and consider resetting BIOS to defaults after noting the SATA controller setting.

I'd also consider wiping the HD of all code from DVD using Diskpart Clean Command
then following the steps to get a perfect Clean Reinstall .

 

[Bruhmis]

Do the Disk Check to check the HD condition. I'd also do the HD Diagnostic extended CD scan.

Have you googled the text and identifying numbers of repeat errors in the Admin log to resolve them? The patterns will become apparent and you'll learn more about them.

I'd also check the Performance log for errors around the time you have the freezes.

Have you gone over your build to check all of the cables, connections and BIOS settings? I'd check for BIOS update and consider resetting BIOS to defaults after noting the SATA controller setting.

I'd also consider wiping the HD of all code from DVD using Diskpart Clean Command
then following the steps to get a perfect Clean Reinstall .

there's nothing in the admin log because it's not collecting data when it happens. that was the one problem the health check managed to find. the only things that come up in event viewer are ''windows shutdown unexpectedly''. I wouldn't know what to look for if I checked my BIOS settings. I updated my BIOS after I installed windows which was like a month ago so it's up to date.

 

[Bruhmis]

Do the Disk Check to check the HD condition. I'd also do the HD Diagnostic extended CD scan.

Have you googled the text and identifying numbers of repeat errors in the Admin log to resolve them? The patterns will become apparent and you'll learn more about them.

I'd also check the Performance log for errors around the time you have the freezes.

Have you gone over your build to check all of the cables, connections and BIOS settings? I'd check for BIOS update and consider resetting BIOS to defaults after noting the SATA controller setting.

I'd also consider wiping the HD of all code from DVD using Diskpart Clean Command
then following the steps to get a perfect Clean Reinstall .

I did the disk check but I have no idea how to view the results.

 

[Bruhmis]

it seems that I might have been mistaken in my assumption that it only happens in certain games. among the games I previously thought to be exempt of this problem, 2 of them have since caused it on single occasions.

 

[gregrocker]

Check Disk (chkdsk) - Read Event Viewer Log - Windows 7 Forums