Solved Image and sound freezes, need to force-restart 10x a day

[Technoir]

Hi all,

This has been happening for a while.

My PC (DELL XPS desktop) often freezes (impossible to move anything, and the sound gets stuck on one note if playing a sound)... and the only way to stop it to litterally hold down the power button and restart.

Ten times a day.

I changed the graphics card, but no improvement still.
Is this a software problem, or hardware issue?

Thank you

 

[johnhoh]

could be a lot of things, but yes it sounds like hardware. That same thing happened to me recently and it was because the motherboard had gone bad. Here are a few things to try

1) post your detailed specs so we know what we're dealing with
System Info - See Your System Specs - Windows 7 Help Forums

2) do start > run > msinfo32 > components > problem devices then copy and paste here anything that is in the right hand pane. If your device drivers are all okay that right hand pane will be blank. This will tell us if you have any driver conflicts

3) Disable all your audio devices as described here (they will be listed under sound/video/game controllers). In the case that this problem is due to your audio device, the freezes will stop. If they do stop, your audio device has gone bad and you will need to buy a $10 new pci-e sound card.
How to remove a device in Windows Device Manager

4) If none of the above leads to a solution and the problems continue, reboot into safe mode and run that way for a few hours. If you freeze in safe mode you certainly have a hardware problem, probably the motherboard but not for sure yet, so

5) the next step is to run a bootable memtest86 and let it do a full 8-pass memory test.
Memtest86+ - Advanced Memory Diagnostic Tool

 

[Technoir]

Thanks a lot for your reply!

1)
BIOS Version/Date DELL INC. A16, 2/4/2010
SMBIOS Version 2.5
Windows Directory C:\Windows
System Directory C:\Windows\system32
Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume2
Locale United States
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "6.1.7601.17514"
User Name NL-PC\NL
Time Zone China Standard Time
Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 8.00 GB
Total Physical Memory 7.99 GB
Available Physical Memory 5.63 GB
Total Virtual Memory 16.1 GB
Available Virtual Memory 13.6 GB
Page File Space 8.11 GB
Page File C:\pagefile.sys

2) [two items]
SBRE ROOT\LEGACY_SBRE\0000 This device is not present, is not working properly, or does not have all its drivers installed.

SonicWALL Virtual NIC ROOT\SWVNIC\0000 This device is disabled.


3) Disabled all audio. Problem persists.

4) Not performed yet.

 

[johnhoh]

We still need your system specs. Please follow the steps in this link, especially item #5 here

System Info - See Your System Specs - Windows 7 Help Forums

The problem devices you posted are possibly the issue here. Suggest you run an online scan for viruses and malware and remove them if they are found. Free Online Virus Scan - Bitdefender Online Virus Scanner

Go ahead and re-enable your audio.

The SBRE ROOT\LEGACY_SBRE\0000 error needs to be cleared. Two steps to do so is to update all your drivers first. You can do that by running SDI Lite. The full version is way too big so run the lite version and once the app is open make sure you "download indexes" as your first step. Here is the link: Download

After that is done, reboot. If the problem persists then suggest you take the following steps to fix that SBRE error. Do start > programs > accessories > right click on Command Prompt and select Run As Administrator, this takes you to a black window known as an elevated command prompt, then type in SC DELETE SBRE and press enter, then reboot

 

[Technoir]

Hello,

Audio enabled
Antivirus ran
System specs: I entered it directly into Windows 7 Forum using the app.
SDI Lite: I downloaded it, but the folder contains several EXE files (screenshot attached). Confused as to which one to run..?

 

[johnhoh]

just click SDI_auto.bat and it should go from there. Did the bitdefender scan come up with anything?

 

[Technoir]

just click SDI_auto.bat and it should go from there. Did the bitdefender scan come up with anything?

The SDI_auto.bat file was small and didn't do anything, so I tried with SDI_x64_R1751.exe and it showed a long list of drivers I supposedly needed to update. I checked all and it took over 3h to load them. Next step (I suppose this is where the drivers get actually installed), the monitor went black almost immediately. I didn't touch it for 3h thinking it may actually be installing drivers, even with the black monitor.
I force restarted it by pushing the power button.

Bitdefender didn't find anything serious.

Searched Problem File, and 2 items still there:
SBRE ROOT\LEGACY_SBRE\0000 This device is not present, is not working properly, or does not have all its drivers installed.
SonicWALL Virtual NIC ROOT\SWVNIC\0000 This device is disabled.

 

[johnhoh]

Do start > programs > accessories > right click on Command Prompt and select Run As Administrator, this takes you to a black window known as an elevated command prompt, then type in SC DELETE SBRE and press enter, then reboot

 

[johnhoh]

it would be good to see a screenshot of your device manager, startup programs, and startup services, which will be at least three screenshots depending on how big they are. To shows device manager do start > run > devmgmt.msc To show startup programs and services check out this link. MSCONFIG: speeding up Windows 7 startup

 

[johnhoh]

sorry man but that's too many services to filter through. Need you to just do screenshots of msconfig > startup and msconfig > services as discussed in my link in post #9. And for msconfig > services makes sure you check "hide all microsoft services"

As for sonicwall, the question is whether or not you use the sonicwall VPN service or not. If you do, suggest you reinstall their package here:
How to install or uninstall Global VPN Client (GVC) (SW3990)

And if you do not need a VPN, you need to uninstall that sonicwall device permanently. Instructions to remove it are here:
Unable to uninstall Global VPN Client (GVC) adapter (SW4045)

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
One thing I do notice is you have avast and avira installed
Those are 2 antivirus programs and one too many

 

[johnhoh]

Its up to you whether or not you need a VPN. If not, then uninstall sonicwall (or just uncheck the sonicwall services box). But if you need a VPN, then re-install sonicwall. Same feedback and links as post #13.

 

[Technoir]

Hi, sorry I got it wrong, now attached the correct screenshots from msconfig.

I completely removed SonicWall/VPN, as I don't think I need it. Checked in "Problem Devices" and it is no longer visible either. Now I just need to test whether my pc will continue to randomly freeze (mostly while surfing the internet)

Update: The problem persists. I suppose next I would need to run the machine in Safe Mode.

 

[Technoir]

The issue did not occur while running Safe Mode.
I understand this means it is not a hardware issue, but a software issue.

 

[johnhoh]

If it had frozen in safe mode I'd say it was a hardware issue for sure, but even though it was stable in safe mode that does not rule out hardware. For instance the video card runs with just a vga driver in safe mode and is hardly taxed at all, creating very little heat, so a bad video card may be fine in safe mode but fail in normal mode. just saying.

there are a few steps you might take next, its up to you what order you do them, but start with a clean boot

- do a clean boot and see if you are stable

Troubleshoot Application Conflicts by Performing a Clean Startup - Windows 7 Help Forums

- post in the bsod section after capturing log file, which sometimes points directly to the issue. We did not start there because you had problem devices and those needed to be cleared up first.

Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) Posting Instructions - Windows 7 Help Forums

- since the issue happens surfing the net, try using a different browser. Also try disabling hardware acceleration within the browser.

- if you have a spare video card, try swapping video cards.

- run an 8-pass bootable test of memory using free memtest86+

MemTest86 - Download now!

 

[Technoir]

Still working on it, please keep this thread active. Thank you.

Update #1: No problem so far while running in clean mode.

 

[Technoir]

RE issue: Image/sound freezes randomly while using the internet, I need to hold power button to turn off.

Video Card is new, but did not resolve issue
Safe Mode: Problem does not take place.. yet
Clean Boot: Problem persists even if all non-MS Services are OFF, although less often
Memtest passed
BSOD file attached.


Thank you!

 

[Technoir]

Hi all,

Can I assume that the motherboard is toast?

Thank you

 

[Technoir]

Still hoping for a solution. Can I assume that I need to change the motherboard?

 

[johnhoh]

if you have been on just the one hard drive all this time then before buying a motherboard I would disconnect the hard drive and boot from a bootable linux usb flash drive, then surf the net and watch videos using linux firefox for a few hours. If everything is perfect doing this then its also possible the issue is your hard drive.

UNetbootin - Homepage and Downloads