Windows 7 freezes after a period of inactivity

[justinlee]

I have this problem with Windows and it's getting really annoying. At first i thought it only happened when recovering from sleep mode but i have since been proved wrong.

I have gone into Power Options and set my laptop to never go into sleep, never dim the screen and never turn off the display. I then went into advanced power settings and set the hard drive to never turn off. This has not helped at all!

I have since realised that Windows 7 will only freeze after a period of inactivity whether there is an open program or not.

Now, i know this is a problem which is effecting a lot of people so has anyone got any suggestions as to what may be the cause?

 

[FredeGail]

Hello justinlee & Welcome to SevenForums!

Your operation system could be infected.
Here's a couple of troubleshooting steps.

Option 1
Make the popular command in your command prompt. You may run it a couple of times. A lot of more information at the link below.

SFC /SCANNOW Command - SevenForums tutorial

Option 2
I'd like to suggest you to suggest a full scan of Malwarebytes as it's an epic tool! Again, linked below.

Malwarebytes

Option 3
If none of the troubleshooting steps above fixed it, I'd to a system restore. What it does, is that it will put your Windows to a date where "it was fine". If it's bad explained there's a link below.

System Restore

   Tip

I'd wait to hear others suggestion before jumping into a restore

Leftover thoughts
We have a thread here!
Thread 1

Do you have any costume screensaver installed?

I hope this helps,
FredeGail

 

[justinlee]

Hello FredeGail and thanks for your reply, but...

1. I have tried the SFC / SCANNOW command a number of times and it brings up nothing.

2. I already have MBAM (PRO) and my system is clean of any virus/malware/spyware.

3. I have done a full system/image restore in the past to solve this problem and it keeps coming back.

There is an inherant problem with Windows 7 and this issue, so system restore will only apply a very short term fix. Unless i can find the route cause it is just going to keep on returning regadless of system restore.

 

[justinlee]

I have a feeling this is down the the NVIDIA driver!

 

[FredeGail]

IF you feel that way, try going to Nvidia's website and download their latest driver. In the setup, you'll have the opportunity to do a "Clean Install", which will remove all the previous drivers.

Best Regards,
FredeGail

 

[justinlee]

I went on NVIDIA's website and this is what they say...

"The manufacturer of this system requires that you download the driver for your GPU from their support site.

The GeForce M series and GeForce Go series notebook GPUs use drivers that have been customized by the notebook manufacturers to support hot key functions, power management functions, lid close and suspend/resume behavior. NVIDIA has worked with some notebook manufacturers to provide notebook-specific driver updates, however, most notebook driver updates must come from the notebook manufacturer. Additionally, the desktop GeForce graphics drivers will not install on Geforce M series and Quadro M series notebook GPU's."

Btw, my laptop is a Sony Vaio and according to Sony there are no updates for their NVIDIA driver but according to NVIDIA's website there is a newer version out. Not sure if installing the driver from NVIDIA themselves will cause more issues than it will do good. I suppose i could always make a backup and system image before i do so but i will want to use that as a last option.

I have tried a few other things like turn off my AV, MBAM t& wireless to see if it may be those causing conflicts but no joy as yet.

 

[MvdB]

It's a long shot but simple to test. I myself had identical (sounding) problems and got it fixed by turning off my smartcard reader:


View attachment 163043

both in the above screen and de corresponding USB drivers. Strange but true... and started to go wrong AFTER updating some W7 updates + SP1. So... not saying it is the smartcard reader alone... but maybe some interaction with a recent update.

 

[justinlee]

Ok, i have found the problem and it has something to do with the display as when i change the display from Windows Aero theme to Windows Classic the problem no longer occurs.

Update.. 08/07/2011

I have changed the theme back to Windows Aero and removed my personalised desktop background the issue has been fixed. I suggest if you are having this problem it may be as simple as getting rid of your desktop background and using a pre-installed one as it seems as if some personalised one's cause a conflict.

 

[MvdB]

Ok, i have found the problem and it has something to do with the display as when i change the display from Windows Aero theme to Windows Classic the problem no longer occurs.

Update.. 08/07/2011

I have changed the theme back to Windows Aero and removed my personalised desktop background the issue has been fixed. I suggest if you are having this problem it may be as simple as getting rid of your desktop background and using a pre-installed one as it seems as if some personalised one's cause a conflict.

Happy it's solved and thanks for posting back!
Could you mark the thread solved at the top of this thread?
Thanks!

 

[SpellStorm]

A [somewhat low-tech] solution!

Hi all
after a long time of being seriously pissed off about this consistent problem, and the lack of any real solution, aside from disabling Auto-hide feature on the taskbar combined with disabling monitor shut-off after inactivity, I decided that I had enough!

Being a futures contracts trader, screen real estate is very important to me so disabling the auto-hide is really more than annoyance [and hell if I'm gonna give up my awesome desktop backgrounds!], I figured if my PC never actually went into "idle" mode [whatever the hell that is - every "powersaving" option is completely disabled and it still locks up after about 10-20 mins of inactivity] than this problem would go away.

So I programmed a little script (using AutoHotKey) that detects whether there is no input for 5 minutes from the user, it moves the mouse to the Start button and clicks it 2 times and returns to where it has been. The script knows not to do it in any fullscreen application as not to disturb movies or games, and the actual action doesn't seem to disturb any possible process that I can think of.

It has been a week since implementing the script to windows and not a single freeze since!
An almost perfect solution to someone who doesn't want to disable the auto hide IMHO.



The script:

;record the desktop resolution to check if fullscreen
ScWidth  = %A_ScreenWidth%
ScHeight = %A_ScreenHeight%
Loop
{
    Sleep 60000
    WinGetClass Class, A
    WinGetPos,,,W,H, A
    ;check for fullscreen
    If ( Class <> "Progman" and Class <> "WorkerW" )
    {
        If ( A_ScreenWidth <> ScWidth  or  A_ScreenHeight <> ScHeight or ( W > ScWidth - 9  and  H > ScHeight- 9) )
        {
            Continue ;fullscreen detected! - restart loop
        }
    }
    ifGreater A_TimeIdle, 300000 ;check how much time was idle and click the lower left corner screen
    {
        WinGetClass last, A
        CoordMode, Mouse, Screen
        MouseGetPos, xMouse, yMouse
        MouseMove, 0, %ScHeight%
        Sleep 1000
        Click
        Sleep 1000
        Click
        Sleep 1000
        WinActivate %last%
        MouseMove, %xMouse%, %yMouse%
    }
}

If any of you want the script compiled to an .exe file so you can run it without installing AHK just say so I'll make one

 

[thirdman]

I had the same issue with my Samsung laptop.

It turned out the desktop background was causing the hang-up. I had it set up to switch the background using my photos in the photo directory periodically and it seems to cause the hang whenever that was kicked in. Interestingly, the hang only happened when the PC was inactive.
I now set the background to fixed black color, and I no longer have this issue.