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#31
I was having similar problems, but with build 7600 (64 bit), the system was fine for weeks, I went on vacation and came back and it suddenly started hanging for no apparent reason.
I went through my services, and set all non-essential ones to manual where they were automatic, removed all entries from my startup and it still hung. No reasons were given in system log so I had no idea where to go, then after some googling, I tried all the previously mentioned fixes:
disabling legacy USB
disabling AHCI
disabled all fancy motherboard settings, eg AM2 boost/auto overclocking etc
disabled ACPI
configured my setup to run in test mode to disable driver signing
of course, it still hung! Although I noticed that if it hung when I had music playing, the sound would become terribly distorted, as if the sample rate set in my sound options didn't match the sample rate my media player was outputting to.
Sure enough, after I updated my sound drivers (realtek high definition audio) which reset my sample rate to 24bit, 48000Hz, I haven't had a system hang once. (it's only been a day, but it usually hangs about every 2 or so hours, I'll let you know if I was wrong)
So, I know everyone says update your drivers, but are you remembering to update your audio drivers from the microsoft ones to your card's manufacturers'?
Hope this helps someone!
<edit>
Update:
Still crashes!
Although windows is definitely more stable after updating my audio drivers, it crashed again today. Just before grinding to a halt this time though, I received a balloon message from my audio driver telling me that I'd unplugged my speakers (I hadn't) which leads me to confirm my suspicions that this was a problem with my soundcard/audio drivers. I'm experimenting now with legacy audio support (I didn't realise how much of a pain it would be to access my BIOS after disabling legacy USB support lol! I need a PS/2 keyboard now!) and the "exclusive access mode" present in the ausio options. Ultimately I'll have to disable my sound entirely to be sure this is the source of my problem.
I do of course realise that audio this isn't the cause of everyone's problems, I just think it's important that it's known that it can be, and a record of my steps to try and fix this is kept.
Last edited by richardmilne; 20 Oct 2009 at 07:29.