Freeze in Windows 7

[kenC]

Hi....just recently found this place and have been reading the forum threads etc, .......looks a great place.

Hope I'm posting in the correct place.

I hope someone can help with a problem I've been having with a new PC with Windows 7

The PC freezes about twice a day on average. Mouse/keyboard stops working.....I'm usually doing nothing but looking at a web page,in fact one day I was away in another room and when I came back the PC had rebooted.
Anyway, after about 2 minutes the PC shuts down and reboots into a black screen with white writing saying that Windows had a problem and shut down to save data. It asks if I want to start in Safe/normal etc and then I start it normally and a box appears saying that "Windows has recovered from an unexpected shutdown. A problem caused Windows to stop working correctly and that a solution will be sent if possible"
I'm not holding my breath for that!

In the Action Centre there are two messages regarding the Video Card......one says that's it's closed 27 times and the other says 5 times!
This is maybe my problem???

I've looked in Device Manager and there are no new drivers and it says that things are working OK.

I've been into Safe Mode and run chk dsk and saw no problems there.

Task manager won't come up when the freeze happens.

I realize that as it's new I could return it but apart from this prob. it's working fine and I've installed all the prgs I use and tweaked it to work as I like it (thanks to your columns)

Any ideas welcome....thanks.

One more freeze: screen said 'Driver Power State failure'

First time I've seen that one. Help!

 

[torrentg]

Hi. Yes, it is a great forum here. Welcome.

Check out my posts related to 0x116 by following this link.

You can also follow this link to post crash dumps if needed.

 

[stripedbassman]

win7 bsod

OK i am running rc and rtm versions and full pro 64 bit on three different pc`s.
i am no expert by any-means but i do a lot of testing for my own purposes.
I am always scouring forums for the right answer it can get frustrating at times so here goes.
i have if rarely seen BSOD on any of my versions. i am always adding different programs to see how they run different drivers etc..

My BSOD experience was with razor deathadder mouse driver.I almost through it out the window.My fix was no deathadder drivers and no win7 deathadder drivers.
basic hd-compliant Microsoft driver. still working on this one i wont let it beat me.

These are the first thing i check.

1.What was the last hardware or driver you installed.(try uninstalling them also reinstall hardware)
2.did you open you're case to install something maybe something came ajar or not installed properly.(CPU fan,sata cable, power to motherboard etc..)
3.Always load BIOS defaults.(then try again)

Win7 has a power saver mode that i would recommend to anyone to adjust these settings turn off or disable most of these options .
goto control panel - hardware and sound - power options
there you will see Balanced (recommended) to the right of that you will see
Change plan settings (click on that) you will go to new window.
There you will see you're energy plan(Display and computer sleep).
Now below them you will see change advance power settings click on that.
Here you will find all the options you need to adjust power settings.

Remember win7 is still in its infincey so all manufacturers are still playing catch up.
Win7 has tried to incorporate most of the manufactures drivers so if you let win7 install drivers and then you go and download drivers from a vendors site these drivers may conflict and BSOD may occur.

Hope this helps.

 

[kenC]

Thanks to both of you:

Stripedbassman.......machine is only 4 weeks old. Power settings are still as set when bought.
Case has not been opened (wouldn't know what to do if I did!!
Only progs added are the same ones I used on XP pro....freshly downloaded.
Don't know how to load bios......is it necessary on a new laptop?

TorrentG
Read those threads you refer to but there doesn't seem to be an answer that describes my prob.

Tried to copy minidump but Windows says it can't open those type of files !!!

BTW.....that first link you gave goes nowhere but I searched for it.

 

[torrentg]

The minidump will in all likelihood not offer any help as we already know the error we're dealing with. If you still would like us to look at it, you can follow this.

The best things you can do is to update everything to the latest. When I say everything, I mean everything.

Drivers for all devices you can think of. Motherboard drivers. Motherboard bios even. Video card driver. Mouse and keyboard. Visit maker's sites. Windows Update after you do this.

Set your motherboard bios to be right for your system RAM after you install latest (or now if none newer.) Use CPU-Z spd tab to find the particular RAM you're running, then visit the maker's page for proper Vdimm (voltage) and timings. Adjust bios accordingly.

Make sure you are not overclocking anything. Run with a room fan blowing inside the open case as a final test if nothing else has helped.

 

[kenC]

Can't post the minidump as I said in my last post.

It's going to take a while to follow all your suggestions (although I will)

Although I notice that most stuff was installed on the laptop in August.....will drivers really have changed much in that time?

Could you tell me if these shutdowns are doing any harm to my system/harddrive?

On the odd occasion (twice) I've had to use the power switch to shut down.....after waiting an hour....is this harmful??

No shutdowns today ......PC been on around 7 hours

Thanks for your time/help

 

[stripedbassman]

BlueScreenView - blue screen of death (STOP error) information.

try this program it will give you bsod errors

 

[kenC]

Thanks for that: it showed the 0x116 error as we thought and also the Driver State one as 0x0000009f

I googled that and it seems to have something to do with the shutdown and start-up

I've checked all the drivers and all are correct and the best for my PC

I went into the Action Centre and came up with the following:

The computer has rebooted from a bugcheck. The bugcheck was: 0x00000116 (0xfffffa8008585010, 0xfffff88004638490, 0x0000000000000000, 0x0000000000000002). A dump was saved in: C:\Windows\MEMORY.DMP. Report Id: 112509-23712-01.

All that windows says is to check the video card driver as it stopped working,but the check says it's OK.....what next??

PC worked fine for 9 hrs yesterday and this morning shut down twice in the first 20 mins! so it doesn't seem to be a heating problem.

 

[kenC]

Oops....meant to attach the Action Centre report

 

[kenC]

Ignoring:

I took a longer look at the error report from the above prog: Attached

This Dxgkrnl.sys seems to be linked to DirectX .I don't remember that being among the drivers. How do I find it?

 

[stripedbassman]

you may have to uninstall the drivers for you're nvidia card and reinstall
Phyxion.net | Driver Sweeper 2.1.0 released | Driver Sweeper | Driver Sweeper
it calls for this to be done in safe mode
here you can find the newest drivers
download from Guru3D.com
i am using 195.62 nvidia drivers for my card.
Drivers - Download NVIDIA Drivers this is nvidias driver page.

I hate to say if all else fails 4weeks old you must have warranty on the laptop could be a bad video chip in the laptop.if possible return to vendor.i`m not saying give up that easy though.
maybe one of the win7 gurus here can also help out.

 

[kenC]

Direct x

Ignoring:

I took a longer look at the error report from the above prog: Attached

This Dxgkrnl.sys seems to be linked to DirectX .I don't remember that being among the drivers. How do I find it?

 

[stripedbassman]

win7 is running directx11
listen try running memtest to check memory.
there is 2 versions windows MemTest: RAM reliability tester for Windows
and boot Memtest86+ - Advanced Memory Diagnostic Tool (recommended)
also the uninstall reinstall of drivers.
Phyxion.net | Driver Sweeper 2.1.0 released | Driver Sweeper | Driver Sweeper
use this in safe mode

download from Guru3D.com
latest nvidia drivers here

4week old laptop should have warranty if all else fails maybe return to vendor.

 

[kenC]

Sorry....that 'ignoring' in my last post was in response to a spam post which had been removed by the time I posted!

I'll try that attachment again.

 

[stripedbassman]

keep us posted kenc

 

[stripedbassman]

try the uninstall and reinstall check the ram give it a go can`t hurt.