Random computer freezes after installing new SSD

Arc - you're taking this a bit personally. All I said was that some of the advice you gave I had done. I'm not sure what the problem is. Anyway let me try to recall all the steps that I have taken and some of the tests that I have already carried out so that everyone is on the same page.

1. cloned corsair f60 ssd to samsung 840 evo.
2. took corsair ssd out. put samsung ssd in.
3. computer freezing occured. thought it was a problem with the cloning.
4. did a fresh install on the samsung 840 evo. Problem still exists.
5. put the corsair ssd back in and thought everything was ok. freezes occured including a BSOD.
6. cloned the corsair to samsung 840 evo.
7. put the samsung back in. problem still persists
8. checked sata and power cables.
9. checked for unseated ram.
10. updated the firmware on samsung ssd and updated the bios from F9 to F11.
11. installed intel rapid storage drivers.

Tests carried out:
Ran sfc scannow - no integrity violations found on Windows.
Ran TDSSKiller - no problems detected.
Hot cpu tester 4 - ran for 6 hours, no errors reported.
Windows memory diagnostic standard test - no errors.
Windows memory diagnostic extended test - no errors.
memtest86 5.01 - ran for about 7 hours 5 passes made - no errors.

Tests I haven't done include checking the power supply but may have found a way to do this by buying a power tester unit.

Temps 35 degrees celcius to about 45 degrees celcius for all cores at idle or doing browsing etc.
Gpu temps 30 degrees celcius at idle.
Temps after playing a game are usually about the 50s or sometimes nearly 60 degrees celcius for all cores on the cpu.
Similar temps with the gpu.

Hopefully that gives people an idea of the things that I have tried and I don't get repeat questions or advice. If you know anything else I should do then please say so.

Arc - I'm not going to lie, I was a bit annoyed when I saw some of the advice in your post since I felt like you took no account of the things I already tried such as updating the bios etc. I know people want to try and be helpful but posting things or asking questions that I have already answered just gives me the impression that people can't be bothered to read the full thread. Quite simply I don't want to constantly repeat things that I have already done. It doesn't help me or give me any further insight into the problem.

Anyway I said my piece and if you feel that you don't want to help someone like me then that's fine. Let's not derail the thread any further.

On to business now, I think I have finally found the cause of the freezes on the computer and its not the SSD. I believe it's the graphics card driver that I have for the GTX460 on my machine that's the main cause of the problem. If I recall correctly the last thing I did on the 60gb SSD before cloning to the Samsung SSD was do a Windows update. This update included some drivers for the GTX460 and I think this is the reason why when I plugged the 60gb SSD back in, it also experienced freezing. It's caused by the driver. Doing some research and reading through the GeForce forums has been an eye opener for me and it seems that I'm not the only person to experience random freezes. Apparently both the 400 and 500 series of graphics cards are affected.

I have the exact same problem that I've been dealing with for a year since it was built. The only exception is I use the intel 4000 onboard graphics video card. Did your computer freezing stop for good?
I upgraded my power supply and it worked for a couple of months and then froze. Now it can freeze at any time. Once a week, day, or Month. Very annoying problem.

Yes Avaava, once I rolled the graphics card driver back the problem stopped for good, I have since updated the graphics card and have not experienced any random freezes. In my case it was definitely the graphics card driver that caused the problem and not faulty hardware.

Why did you upgrade the power supply Avaava? Did you suspect this to be the problem?

I've been having precisely this issue since installing a Samsung 850 EVO in a SATA II laptop. Did you find a cure? I know it's not the SSD as I've already replaced it once with another new one. I've also done a clean install of Win7x64 twice, to no avail.

Hi Ranger4. Well, the list of what I've tried is long, but here goes at attempting to describe most of it. I've reinstalled Win7x64 onto a clean drive, twice. Second time after having replaced the drive with a second SSD from Samsung (via Amazon, who didn't quibble.) After both installations, I immediately updated Win7 (with a few hundred updates) before instaling Office 2010 and any other programs. Like 'Unknown Hero', below, I thought it might be my graphics driver because of the way the machine just locks, arbitrarily, and then the mouse, keyboard, everything is frozen with the only recourse being a hard boot. But I've rolled back the graphics driver to the one provided on the SONY support site for my machine (a VAIO VGN-SR29-VN) and the problem has since reoccurred.

I've read on another forum where someone else had the same issue and resolved it by switching from AHCI to IDE mode in their BIOS, but my BIOS is so lightweight that I don't even have that option. My Samsung Magician software informs me that AHCI is enabled, and that's it. Can't disable it in BIOS, so I can't see if that would cure things. I have just disabled 'RAPID' Real-Time Acceleration mode via the Samsung Magician software, but I don't yet know if that will help as it's not been long enough since doing it to test whether the issue will reoccur.

A bit more background: I installed the Samsung 850 EVO in my SATA II VAIO. It's around 7 years old, but it's in perfect nick and it's running an Intel Centrino Duo-Core 2.4Ghz so I thought it was worth the investment. Whenever the issue occurs the machine simply freezes and I have to perform a hard power off reboot. Immediately after doing that I see a DOS screen saying "WARNING. Hard disk failure imminent. Backup all important files and data and press F1 to continue." Which I do (press F1, that is) and then select 'Start Windows Normally' and just carry on. Another issue (although probably related) is every few hours or every day or two, you can never tell when it will happen, Windows Explorer simply stops working. When this happens I still have mouse and keyboard functionality, so I can 'restart Explorer' without having to do a hard reboot.

Hi Ranger4. Yes, I do think it's a question of old hardware not coping well with the speed of the SSD. I've disabled RAPID from within the Samsung Magician s/w and so far the fault hasn't reoccurred, although it's only been around 24 hours and sometimes there would be a day or two between occurrences, so we'll see how things go. The machine did originally come with Vista, although I'd been running 7x64 on it for a while, having installed it clean on the previous HDD. I did a clean install to the SSD, as well (not a migration.) I'll see how I get on for the next couple of days. I may just have to return to an HDD. Shame, really, as the machine itself is fast enough with a decent enough CPU and utilising 4GB or RAM as it's running on 64 bits. Thank you for your advice. I don't reckon that disabling RAPID (which just writes to RAM to speed up I/O) will actually cure it, but who knows, so far so good ....