7 freezes while browsing Internet

[saru]

azure power - you had a 64bit system ?

 

[Azure Prower]

azure power - you had a 64bit system ?

I've only had a 64-bit OS ever since I built this machine I have.

 

[adamj777]

I have been suffering with this problem for months now and it finally got to a point where I would routinely crash about 30 minutes into browsing. I had tried every proposed fix presented in this forum with no success.

The problem reached a head only a few weeks ago, after updating all my motherboard drivers. I was overhauling my system after neglecting it for a few months. I thought I had tried everything in terms of removing all my drivers and replacing them with alternates from Microsoft, the manufacturer of the device/chipset, and my motherboard maker. Finally, I opened a call with Microsoft.

They had me perform a whole bunch of actions, including resetting the IP stack and performing an in-place upgrade of windows. By this time, I was very cautious of making only one change at a time, writing it down, and then trying to play a movie to see if the browser (and then computer) would freeze. Sadly, none of their steps worked. The last step (and the final step in Microsoft's troubleshooting methodology, by the way) was to erase everything and re-install Windows from scratch.

Again, I was cautious to install one driver at a time and test movie playing. To my surprise, I started to run into trouble after I installed the onboard NIC driver but the trouble was not the same. It could have been a fluke with my Internet connection. After the next step, however, the problem returned as it was originally. This was after installing the driver provided by my motherboard manufacturer for the SATA RAID controller. (I am using RAIDed configuration.)

The problem was the Intel Rapid Storage Technology driver!

Unfortunately, I was using the latest version of the driver provided by Gigabyte. My only option would be to downgrade but the driver is non-downgradeable! I decided to look for the driver on Intel's site. Intel provided a more recent version of the driver. Once I installed it, all my problems went away!

I am currently using all the current drivers from my motherboard manufacturer, except for the onboard SATA RAID driver, which was downloaded directly from Intel, and everything works great.

For those who would like to know. I have a Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R (Rev 1.0) motherboard. I will be looking to post this thread on Gigabyte's forums as well.

Thanks for all your help and good luck!

 

[Tews]

Thanks for the fix, and welcome to Seven Forums!

 

[IanSnyder]

I actually just registered here because I also HAD this problem, I'm quite sure it's fixed for good now, all that was needed was a simple driver update.

According to what I learned, my drivers for that certain hardware was ANCIENT.
so, I updated them, and my computer now has an uptime of 5 days, no freezing.

the drivers I updated were;
Atheros AR8121/AR811.
HP 802.11a/b/g Wireless.
of course to the latest version.

Hope this late information helps.
I'm running Windows 7 Ultimate x64 so you know.

 

[Osiris Fox]

adamj777 can you please be more specific on which driver should be uninstalled? I too am having this problem. I do not have a gigabyte mobo like you, my GC is, although I think that is irreverent. I just look for a different driver that manages my network? Hope to hear a response from someone, this problem is driving me mad

Fox

 

[hexaae]

I've had a Pavilion DV5 1110el and experienced this problem only starting with Win7 x86 (with Vista x86 everything was ok).
I've apparently solved it some months ago by installing many of the hotfixes collected in the final SP1 published some days ago. Moreover I did change the default Device Manager/Computer/ACPI x86 based computer -> Computer/PC based on advanced configuration and power interface (ACPI), the other available driver.

Now I've changed laptop 4 days ago to a new powerful GX660-262it with Win7 x64 and today it freezed!
The problem is that I have SP1 already installed (so the same hotfixes of the past didn't help) but this time I don't have another choice for ACPI x64 based computer default driver! Have to live with this sneaky random problem forever?

 

[roncerr]

...Now I've changed laptop 4 days ago to a new powerful GX660-262it with Win7 x64 and today it freezed!...Have to live with this sneaky random problem forever?

Since this is not a common problem with Windows 7, why not forget your past problems/solutions and just return it as defective? That is unless it ran fine for 3 days and you changed something that made it freeze on the 4th day. In that case try a system restore to the last time it was ok.

 

[hexaae]

There is no need for a system restore: nothing has changed. It simply happens randomly, without any change to the OS/drivers/installed apps, as reported by many users. HW is perfect, RAM is ok without errors. It just happens, randomly and due to the nature of the problem there is no trace in the Event Viewer
It's a problem in Windows itself/hardware IMHO. All I can do is keep my eyes open for new hotfixes hoping for a solution, one day: http://kbupdate.info

 

[roncerr]

"Freezing while browsing" happens to me sometimes. I'm using IE8 and hopeful things may improve when switching over to IE9. I understand IE9 final is available but I don't see it on WU yet.

I assume you're familiar with things like disk cleanup, error checking, and sfc /scannow (also with the IE reset button).

 

[hexaae]

"Freezing while browsing" happens to me sometimes. I'm using IE8 and hopeful things may improve when switching over to IE9. I understand IE9 final is available but I don't see it on WU yet.

I assume you're familiar with things like disk cleanup, error checking, and sfc /scannow (also with the IE reset button).

Yes I am. Everything is OK and no error or integrity violation reported...
Sometimes happens without running IE anyway.

The other day I re-formatted everything and done a clean 7 x64 install. I'll report if it happens again.

 

[BugMeister]

re the OP,
you can prevent ie9 from attempting to shift into sharing the gfx hardware
- could that be what's been happening, if your card is struggling, it might slow down ie9..??

just a thought....

http://www.nirmaltv.com/2010/09/16/how-to-disable-hardware-acceleration-in-ie9/

 

[mathemaddicts]

Crossing my fingers

Well, I have had the random system freezes as well as a multitude of other issues. I decided, after a fresh install of the OS (64-bit) to do what was suggested elsewhere - I uninstalled Intel's Rapid Storage Technology.

Now, to be fair, it's only been twenty minutes without a freeze up, but prior to the uninstall the system would freeze every minute or so (especially when running a browser).

I am curious as to how many who are having this issue have RST installed and running. I was going to upgrade to the latest version of RST, but sadly could not log on for long enough time to download it without freezing up.

I promise to keep you updated.

EDIT: One minute after the post... system froze...

 

[fireberd]

I am also having the I.E.9 freezing problem. It's intermittent and random, it locked up this morning while on the USA Today site. It may have started after one of the patch tuesday's a while back. I was using the 64 bit version and switched to the 32 bit version in case flash was the cause but it didn't make any difference. When it locks up, it takes a while to even be able to close it with the Task Manager. Fortunately it doesn't lock up the entire PC as I can start Firefox and use that.

I don't have any virus/spyware issues (I have MSE and also a paid version of Malwarebytes that runs a daily scan) and it's basically a "vanilla" system with no tweaks and very few startup programs. Drivers are up to date.

I have a dual boot with Vista 32 on this machine and there is no problems with I.E.9 (at least yet) under Vista 32 with the exact same hardware. This also leads me to believe it was Microsoft "self inflicted" with one of their updates/security patches for I.E.9. Hopefully Microsoft will eventually fix it.

 

[mathemaddicts]

I found out that it was a bad motherboard. I am not saying that this is your issue, but it definitely was mine.

 

[fireberd]

As Vista 32 bit uses the same hardware and does not have the problem, hardware is not what I would consider. As I noted, it started after one of the Microsoft updates (but I don't know exactly when so I can't start uninstalling the updates in that timeframe).

My entire PC does not lock up, just Internet Explorer 9 with the spinning indicator that is shown when a page is loading or waiting for a response from a remote server.

 

[roncerr]

...My entire PC does not lock up, just Internet Explorer 9 with the spinning indicator that is shown when a page is loading or waiting for a response from a remote server.

You could try a reset...Tools/Internet Options/Advanced/Reset.

 

[fireberd]

I've tried the reset (one of my favorite fixes for flakey I.E. problems).

 

[Azure Prower]

I still to this day have the same freezing problem. But I've ruled it out it being due to browsing the internet.

So far, what has starved off the freezing for like a week or two is changing the XMP settings on my RAM in BIOS. But that's only a temporary fix as the freezes come back.

I've tried going from 8 gig ram to 6 gig and finally 4 gig to no success. The freezes still occur in Windows 7. Nothing comes up on memtest.

Tried playing with the voltages under the guidance of Corsair RAM GUY. Still get the freezes. Even updated my BIOS. Running out of ideas.

 

[roncerr]

I still to this day have the same freezing problem...Running out of ideas.

Not sure what you mean by "the same", but yes, we all experience freezing sometimes. It's Windows 7 and Vista's version of Windows 98's BSOD. I recently had a freezing problem with only one website on only one Windows 7/IE8 PC. Running IE in "without addons" mode made no difference. So instead of doing a full reset of IE (and loosing some personalizations) I thought I would do a Disk Cleanup instead. Since addons were not the issue, I cleaned everything except "downloaded program files". After that the website worked normally: www.twit.tv