Windows 7 freezes

[Ivydrive]

Evening,

Ive been having ongoing problems with my pc lately. Ive posted regarding a problem before here: http://www.sevenforums.com/crashes-debugging/99833-windows-7-crashing.html#post862612

Ive followed the advice from both on the forum here and the Tech guy who came out when i rang up re: the pcs warranty.

I was informed my pc was crashing regularly while under any sort of load (be it videos, lots of windows open etc) as a result of my graphics card overheating.
I took the side off the pc, cleaned it out, etc which seemed to help a bit but it was still happening unpredictably.

Today ive eventually bitten the bullet and gone out and upgraded the graphics card to a NVIDIA GeForce GT240. Installed no problems updated to the latest driver direct from the NVIDIA website and everything seemed fine untill now... Suddely without warning while i was playing online poker (playing 6 tables and had a few IE8 windows open) it suddenly froze so i had to manually reboot it (not the best when you're playing online poker!). Got back on after a few minutes only to have it happen again shortly after! No idea why.

I still have the side off the pc and the card feels fairly cool, fans working fine. According to 'Speccy' my CPU is running at 41C .

Ive had a look in the Event Viewer and cant see any reason for it other than the usual errors that were there before. Nobody seemed too worried about them in the previous thread though. Ive attached a print screen of the Event Viewer so you can see if anything catches your eye.

Any advice on what could be causing these freezes would be appreciasted. Just to clarify, its not just a program that freezes, everything suddenly freezes including the mouse with no response to hot keys etc. Only way to get things working again is a manual reboot.

Any help is much appreciated! Thanks.

 

[Lemur]

Do you have ZoneAlarm firewall?
What anti-virus sw are you running?
Did you get a bluescreen. If yes please
http://www.sevenforums.com/crashes-debugging/96879-blue-screen-death-bsod-posting-instructions.html

 

[reventon]

Run driver verifier again - http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/101379-driver-verifier-enable-disable.html

What brand/model PSU are you using?

 

[Ivydrive]

Do you have ZoneAlarm firewall? No Firewall currently active. Ive got it disabled. I dont believe i have ZoneAlarm anyway - just norton and Windows own.
What anti-virus sw are you running? No antivirus active, again it's disabled. I have both Norton and AVG free installed though.

Firewall and Anti virus are disabled because of poker software i run. The antivirus/firewall stop them working properly.

Did you get a bluescreen. No BSOD. Everything just freezes solid with no response. Just looks like a print screen of my desktop.

Im not sure what PSU im using - how would i find out?

I have just input the verifier settings and am about to restart the pc.

 

[reventon]

Hi,

Norton is known to cause BSODs/Freezes so it would pay to remove that for now

Download the Norton Removal Tool (NRT); save to desktop. Boot into SAFEMODE - NO Networking. Tap F8 key during boot-up. Then go to desktop, RIGHT-click on the NRT icon and select Run as Administrator.

When complete - re-boot.

NRT - ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/english_us_canada/removal_tools/Norton_Removal_Tool.exe

Install MS Security Essentials --> http://www.microsoft.com/Security_Essentials/

Then reset the Windows Firewall to its default settings -
START -> type cmd.exe -> right-click -> run as administrator -> type netsh advfirewall reset press enter

To find out what PSU you are using - look inside the case for the box that the power cord goes into. Then have a look for a label with a brand/model # on it.

 

[Lemur]

The only time your computer freezes is playing this poker game? I'm guessing it might be Flash-based. Make sure you have the latest version of Flash, if the assumption on the game is true.

Reventon, from what I've read it sees the PSU has not been a problem - though you would think it would be.

 

[Ivydrive]

Ive followed the advice above. Currently scanning the pc with Microsoft Security Essentials.

In the process of doing so i seem to have encountered another problem with the computer crashing all the time when trying to start windows. No idea why but im hoping it'll sort itself out once everythings installed now and settled down. I'll post again if this problem persists.

Lemur - Since installing the new graphics card yesterday its only crashed the 2 times both of which i was playing Poker however prior to this, it was crashing while watching videos or just having a lot of browsers open. Yesterday was the first time its crashed during poker (and hopefully the last).

Im now wondering if it could be the PSU... Details below:

Delta Electronics Inc
Model # DPS-250AB-22 D
Input 220-24-v 3.15A 50Hz
Output 250 Watts max (this seems quite low to me if im looking at the correct thing)

The graphics card says it requires atleast 300W

 

[reventon]

That PSU is more than a bit underpowered.

See how you go without Norton first.

 

[Ivydrive]

Thanks for the advice.

If i was to go out and upgrade my PSU anyway, what type of spec should i be looking to get. Dont do too much gaming etc other than online poker, dual monitors and moderate/heavy internet use?

Also, how easy is it to install a PSU?

Thanks

 

[reventon]

I can't say for sure because I haven't seen your case, but usually changing a PSU is one of the easier operations to do on your PC.

Just unplug the cables - take the PSU out, slide the new one in and re-plug all the power cables.

As for a replacement - one of these should serve you well assuming you aren't looking at upgrading the rest of your PC at all: Newegg.com - CORSAIR CMPSU-450VX 450W ATX12V V2.2 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply

 

[Ivydrive]

Many thanks for the advice and info.

Ive been out and bought a new PSU from PC World (big UK PC chainstore) as i didnt have the patience to wait for the postman
Sadly they didnt have exactly what i wanted in stock so i opted for the cheaper option HIGHPOWER PUFP-405 ATX PC Power Supply Unit

Fairly basic i know but should atleast do a better job for the time being.
Fitted it which proved fun. Had to take the fan out to fit it in and then had to move the Hard disc because one of the wires wouldnt reach both the Hard disc and CD drive.

Fingers crossed it'll run OK now with all the tweaks made today! I wont hold my breath though

Thanks again.

 

[Ivydrive]

Oh dear... Its happened again In the middle of Poker again which is strange... Im wondering if its a totally unrelated problem to the original one as poker never seemed to be an issue before.

The PC generally seems a bit better since the upgrades. Ive scanned it with both AVG and Microsoft Essentials for viruses and both scans came out clean. Ive updated everything i can think of including Flash Player to the latest available version.

I guess it could be the poker software itself but im playing at Full Tilt which is the second biggest Poker client in the world and are usually pretty reliable.

Is there anyway of narrowing down the cause of these freezes. Sometimes it will totally freeze solid including the mouse. Othertimes everything freezes except the mouse so you can still move it around. Nothing responds though if you click it and shortly after the cursor will freeze aswell.

Just wish i could get this sorted now as im starting to pull my hair out with it!
Not too sure where i'd be without the help on this forum!

 

[Ivydrive]

BUMP

and also a bit of extra info that upon further investigation appears may be more significant than i first thought.

When i start up the pc and the desktop loads theres been a short beep recently. Well... 3 shortbeeps very close together (i think its 3. theyre so close its hard to tell) in quite a deep muted tone (like a typical error tone).
It usually happens 3 times with each set of beeps about 60 seconds apart.

It appears this means a problem with the RAM? If this is the case could this be the cause of the random freezing?

 

[Jonathan_King]

Reventon is busy, so I will be taking over, at least for now.

Test RAM: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/105647-ram-test-memtest86.html

It certainly can be a cause of freezing.

Do these freezes happen at all when you aren't playing poker?

Please follow these directions again: http://www.sevenforums.com/crashes-debugging/96879-blue-screen-death-bsod-posting-instructions.html

Could you get a report of all your system temps with Speedfan?

 

[Ivydrive]

Many thanks for the help. Much appreciated.

Im thinking it may not be the RAM now. The beeps happen after ive logged in basically when the desktop loads up as opposed to during the computer turning on.

I created a CD and ran the Memory test for 5 and half hours yesterday evening but it came up with no errors after 4 passes.

I've uploaded a print screen of my current PC temps and fan RPMs. The pc wasn't under any stress at the time.

From what ive seen, yes the computer now only freezes while im playing poker.

The odd thing is it always used to be fine with poker and froze when i watched videos or had a lot of internet windows open etc. i upgraded both the PSU and graphics card hoping this would solve the problem. Since the upgrade its only crashed during poker.

I'll try playing a session of poker at micro stakes so it doesnt cost me a fortune if/when it freezes and keep an eye on the temps and see if any spike underload.

 

[Ivydrive]

Just a quick update. I have played a set of sngs at Full Tilt just now playing 9 tables at one point with no problem. I kept an eye on the Speedfan readings which seemed largely fine. Temp1 increased to 50C at one point early on but only briefly before dropping down to mid 40s again.

Having almost completed the mini session, just 2 tables left open and everything froze again! Totally unpredictable and no apparant reason as usual. When it froze i had speedfan still open and the highest temperature reading was Temp 1 at 46C. CPU usage was 5.5% so it wouldnt appear to be a temperature or stress problem?

Any ideas?

Thanks

 

[Ivydrive]

Anyone help please?
Sorry if i sound impatient. Just trying to get it fixed asap so i can play again.

 

[Ivydrive]

BUMP

Just realised I never attached the health report or BSOD dump file before either so they are now attached as requested. Hopefully these will help give some answers.

Look forward to hearing off someone.

Much appreciated as always!

 

[Jonathan_King]

Let me ask, does the problem happen in Safe Mode?

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/69585-safe-mode.html

If you must have internet access, because you have nothing to do without it, boot into Safe Mode with Networking. At least then you can surf the web.

 

[Ivydrive]

Thanks for replying.

I have followed your advice, started it in Safe mode with networking and played a session of Poker without a problem.

I then put it back to normal mode, set up to play some poker and played another session without a problem (first time ive got through a whole session without a crash since installing the new hardware...)

I was starting to the think i'd somehow fixed the problem as everything has worked fine all day untill 20 minutes ago...

I was just browsing the internet, had a few windows open, nothing too stressful (Facebook, a forum, gmail & twitter). Was browsing twitter when it decided to freeze once again! I dont even have any poker software open so its obviously not just limited to poker.

Any other ideas? Guessing the health report or BSOD dump file didnt give any answers?