Win 7 Home Premium x64 Randomly Freezes requiring hard boot

[Max Hartrate]

I recently upgraded my own custom built PC by replacing the primary HDD with a 500GB Samsung SSD, a new graphics card and installed OEM Windows Home Premium x64. From the beginning, I have experienced random freezes that require a hard boot, at least once a day. There’s never a BSOD. The freezes occur while I’m browsing, playing games, or doing nothing at all. The computer will crash immediately in sleep mode and restart, so I have disabled the power settings. I don’t know if that’s a separate problem or not. I built this rig in 2007 with XPSP3 that worked more or less fine for years.



Here's the rig:

OS Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit CPU Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4 GHz Motherboard Asus P5N-E SLI Memory 2 x 2GB Graphics Card(s) Gigabyte GTX 750 TI 2GB Hard Drives Samsung SSD 850 EVO 500 GB My power supply is a 600WCooler Master RS-600-PCAR-E3.



I have updated graphics and WiFi network card device drivers with no resolution. My HP 2575 all-in-one drivers seemed to be involved (Event viewer), so I completely uninstalled them. No help.

I’ve looked for the dump files, and there is nothing in there - ever. (show hidden files is checked. If anything was there I would see it).

I’ve gone to the Startup and Recovery Settings and set the “write debugging information” to:

Small memory dump, uncheck automatically restart, and set the small dump directory to”

%SystemRoot%\Minidump

There’s no memory.dmp file either.

The event viewer consistently shows two things:

Critical: The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly. (8:35:25 AM on ‎6/‎13/‎15)

Error: The previous system shutdown at 8:05:58 AM on ‎6/‎13/‎2015 was unexpected. (8:35:34 AM 6/13/15)

When I look for an event at the time 8:05:58 AM on ‎6/‎13/‎15, I don’t see anything.

It’s the same pattern whenever this happens.


WTH is going on? :banghead: Help would be much appreciated.



(If I didn’t post this in the right place, or broke a forum rule- don’t crucify me, I’m a n00b. Point me to the right place.)

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Have you Googled deeply into Samsung SSD issues? They have had several problems recently regarding firmware and their Magician software.

I don't own a Samsung, so did not pay a lot of attention to the details. I do know that sleep issues can be related to firmware.

Walk down these search results as a starting point:

https://www.google.com/search?hl=en...afe=images&as_filetype=&as_rights=&gws_rd=ssl

 

[GokAy]

Are you installing the full suite of Nvidia drivers including GeForce Experience?

Clean uninstall Nvidia drivers and install only graphics and PhysX drivers. See if it will help.

You can also try a CMOS clear, load defaults in BIOS.

 

[Max Hartrate]

Have you Googled deeply into Samsung SSD issues? They have had several problems recently regarding firmware and their Magician software.

I don't own a Samsung, so did not pay a lot of attention to the details. I do know that sleep issues can be related to firmware.

Walk down these search results as a starting point:

https://www.google.com/search?hl=en...afe=images&as_filetype=&as_rights=&gws_rd=ssl

I will investigate. Thank you.

 

[Max Hartrate]

Are you installing the full suite of Nvidia drivers including GeForce Experience?

Clean uninstall Nvidia drivers and install only graphics and PhysX drivers. See if it will help.

You can also try a CMOS clear, load defaults in BIOS.

I will try this also. Thank you.

 

[Max Hartrate]

Update- The ONLY two things I did were:

1. Installed the SSD Magician, but I did not update the firmware. I get a message that says Magician is not properly communicating with the drive. I did not go down that road any further or update the firmware.

I have experienced my issue only once since my OP. I also experienced a true BSOD once.

2. I uninstalled all of the Ge Force Experience and fluff. I reinstalled ONLY the driver.

I'm guessing the GeForce experience suite of stuff was the main (perhaps only) culprit as GokAy suspected.

 

[GokAy]

Can you check something please? Download AS SSD benchmark and run it (no need to actually start a benchmark). On upper left it will say either in green or red text the driver being used. If you are unsure post a screenshot. I suspect your SATA operation mode is set to IDE or RAID in BIOS.

 

[Max Hartrate]

can you check something please? Download as ssd benchmark and run it (no need to actually start a benchmark). On upper left it will say either in green or red text the driver being used. If you are unsure post a screenshot. I suspect your sata operation mode is set to ide or raid in bios.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi and welcome to SevenForums,
I would suggest you prep the ssd for clean install,
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/149969-ssd-install-transfer-operating-system.html

Prepare the SSD – You first have to initialize the SSD to create the MBR. You can do that with Disk Management or with this program (which you will need later anyhow).

Then you need to align the SSD and define an active partition on it. You use an elevated Command Prompt with the following commands:

Diskpart
List disk
Select disk n (where n is the number that was given for your SSD in List disk)
Clean
Create partition primary align=1024
Format fs=ntfs quick
Active (assuming you want to install an OS)
Exit

 

[Max Hartrate]

Thanks for the suggestion, but why would I want/need to do that? (No snarky here - honest question )

When I upgraded a few months ago, I did a clean fresh install on the SSD -no ghosting, no migration, nuthin'. Minty fresh Win 7 OEM install on a new drive.

Thanks.

 

[GokAy]

Those sequential speeds are barely above a HDD.
You should be getting 250-270MB/s with SATA II (3 Gbps)

I will say try but couldn't see SATA operation mode in BIOS for your motherboard:
- edit registry to enable AHCI - http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/61869-ahci-enable-windows-7-vista.html
- change SATA operation Mode in BIOS to AHCI (sometimes worded as Native).