Windows 7 Hang

[zigzag3143]

A few more things to add guys, I clean installed Windows 7 Professional again and I'm getting the same issues of it hanging....
Also I've noticed that when it hangs, sometimes an error will be given in the System logs like the one I posted above with the Windows Error Reporting Service failing to load (I checked in Windows Services and it does not say Started). Or, it may hang, and no error is given in the logs, however the Windows Error Reporting Service is Started!

Looks like sometimes it fails and sometimes it works when it tries to start Windows Error Reporting however in both cases it hangs the computer!

Any idea how this can be fixed?

the re-install was done with the same dvd you used for the first one? where did you get it? was it a download? what version?

IM begging to wonder about that dvd burn

 

[AngryJedi]

hey,
I downloaded it from here in fact, from The Official Windows 7 Respository.
The only change I made using Poweriso, I deleted the ei.cfg file from the sources directory so that I could select which version of Windows I wanted to install (Professional in this case), and then I burnt the modified iso from Poweriso itself.

yes, the reinstall was done with the same dvd

 

[AngryJedi]

Hi all,
Now everytime it freezes it shows up nothing in the Events log whatsoever...it happens randomly and once it was bad enough to make my whole computer freeze (including mouse)...
I'm exhausted out of ideas...I've already reinstalled Windows 7 three times now...has anyone else seen this sort of freezing before? What else can I do???
Please help

 

[H2SO4]

Hi all,
Now everytime it freezes it shows up nothing in the Events log whatsoever...it happens randomly and once it was bad enough to make my whole computer freeze (including mouse)...
I'm exhausted out of ideas...I've already reinstalled Windows 7 three times now...has anyone else seen this sort of freezing before? What else can I do???
Please help

Try this procedure to collect more info:

http://www.sevenforums.com/performa...-periodic-freezes-my-system-2.html#post294714

Obviously, your hangs don't happen only at midnight (like in that other thread), so adjust the timing accordingly. If you can generate an ETL logfile and put it up for download somewhere, it may be possible to shed more light on your periodic hangs.

 

[AngryJedi]

Hi H2SO4,
Thanks for the information, hopefully the low-level information will show something that the event logs do not! I will try this as soon as I get home from work! There is no specific time for which the hangs occur so should I run the first command after I start my computer until the hang occurs and then run the second?

Thanks a lot for your help.

Another thing I'm going to try is to run scandisk to see if my hard drive is failing because when the computer hangs, the hard drive light is constantly on but it doesn't make any seeking sounds. Any other suggestions that you have that I should try after I run that test?

 

[H2SO4]

Hi H2SO4,
Thanks for the information, hopefully the low-level information will show something that the event logs do not! I will try this as soon as I get home from work! There is no specific time for which the hangs occur so should I run the first command after I start my computer until the hang occurs and then run the second?

In that case, it's important to prevent the logfile from growing to a gargantuan size. One way to do that is to use "circular" logging - start wiping out older data when the max configured logfile size has been reached. Try using this command syntax to start the log:

xperf -on DiagEasy -MaxFile 30 -FileMode circular

That should limit the log to a 30MB circular buffer. It's vital that you stop the logging as soon as possible (within a half minute at most) after everything returns to normal, otherwise all useful info will eventually scroll out of the log.

Thanks a lot for your help.

No problem at all.

Another thing I'm going to try is to run scandisk to see if my hard drive is failing because when the computer hangs, the hard drive light is constantly on but it doesn't make any seeking sounds. Any other suggestions that you have that I should try after I run that test?

CHKDSK won't hurt, unless the HDD is already very unhealthy, but there's little point in speculating with these types of symptoms. The xperf log may reveal more.

 

[AngryJedi]

Hi H2SO4,
I'm currently installing the Windows Performance Toolkit so I wanted to share with you my latest findings. While I was running the scandisk on my C drive, during Step 4 (USN Journal Verification) near the end of the process it seemed to have hung just like it does in Windows with the HDD light on and no sound coming from the hard drive...after a minute or so, the computer started scanning again slowly. I'm not sure if that is normal in scandisk or whether its the same issue I'm experiencing in Windows.

Edit: However scandisk completed successfully

 

[AngryJedi]

Hey H2SO4,
I installed the toolkit but it says that xperf is an invalid command or program. Do I need to install that seperately?

 

[H2SO4]

Hey H2SO4,
I installed the toolkit but it says that xperf is an invalid command or program. Do I need to install that seperately?

No, it's installed by the WPT. You shouldn't need to do anything fancy.

Perhaps your PATH hasn't been modified to include the WPT directory. By default, it's this:

...\Program Files\Microsoft Windows Performance Toolkit\

Try changing into that directory and running the Xperf commands from there.

 

[AngryJedi]

that path doesn't exist on my computer ....I used the web installer from the link it was called Windows SDK 7.0
When I installed it I made sure everything was checked too!

 

[H2SO4]

that path doesn't exist on my computer ....I used the web installer from the link it was called Windows SDK 7.0
When I installed it I made sure everything was checked too!

Oh, FFS, it looks like they stuffed the WPT tools into the SDK download at some point during the last week or so

Now it's necessary to install the WPT manually. Can't stop progress I guess:

Installation

 

[AngryJedi]

hmm will I have to download the full ISO or something, I used the web installer and I can't find the xperf msi installers
is there some place where i can get the xperf msi online?

 

[AngryJedi]

i even downloaded the ISO and cannot find this xperf iso file :S
man they must've made a lot of changes in one week!

the installation method that you told me to refer is to confusing
it says the MSI files are located at SDKROOT\<path-goes-here>\xperf.
I have no clue where that is lol

 

[H2SO4]

i even downloaded the ISO and cannot find this xperf iso file :S
man they must've made a lot of changes in one week!

the installation method that you told me to refer is to confusing
it says the MSI files are located at SDKROOT\<path-goes-here>\xperf.
I have no clue where that is lol

Sorry mate. It looks like they rolled the WPT into that 4GB ISO image of the SDK somewhere, and that was done literally within the last few days.

I can't imagine it's a good idea to force everybody who'd like to use Xperf to download 3.98GB of additional gunk they almost certainly don't need, so eventually it'll probably once again become available as a separate download.

I'll write up a different way to collect similar info in a few hours... a bit tied up right now.

 

[AngryJedi]

Sure thing man,
Thanks a lot for your help btw
Also since I've run the scandisk my computer hasn't frozen yet ...lets just hope it lasts however to save us both the trouble lol

 

[AngryJedi]

so here's my latest discovery,
like I said yesterday my computer was working fine without any freezes. Today it was working fine as well no freezes at all. So thinking the error was gone, I uninstalled the SDK and shortly after the freeze happened not once but twice! The first time the event logger logged nothing but the second time this came up:

The driver detected a controller error on \Device\Ide\IdePort1.
Source: atapi
Event ID: 11

I'm not sure if initially the SDK had fixed the problem or if it was pure coincidence. Because when I said the problem had mysteriously dissapeared, the SDK was installed. I'm reinstalling the SDK to test out my theory. What can be done regarding that error?

 

[H2SO4]

so here's my latest discovery,
like I said yesterday my computer was working fine without any freezes. Today it was working fine as well no freezes at all. So thinking the error was gone, I uninstalled the SDK and shortly after the freeze happened not once but twice! The first time the event logger logged nothing but the second time this came up:

The driver detected a controller error on \Device\Ide\IdePort1.
Source: atapi
Event ID: 11

I'm not sure if initially the SDK had fixed the problem or if it was pure coincidence. Because when I said the problem had mysteriously dissapeared, the SDK was installed. I'm reinstalling the SDK to test out my theory. What can be done regarding that error?

The SDK is just a whole heap of files, most of them text. "Uninstalling" the SDK does little except to delete the files and remove some start menu links. Unfortunately, I'm 99.99% certain that the presence of the SDK has nothing to do with the symptom. It's just coincidence.

Those controller errors are hardware. If a substantial percentage of those "freeze" periods are accompanied by the event in question, I'm afraid the most likely explanation is broken hardware.

Can you search back through the event log for other instances of the error? (Right-click the log, "filter", select attributes that match the event.)

 

[AngryJedi]

I'll check the exact number when I'm home from work, but I remember seeing quite a few occurrences of that error. However the freeze only happened once with that error being logged. I saw about 4-5 occurrences in a row of that same error but didn't experience any freezing during those times. I'll check to make sure however but I do remember seeing more than one :S

 

[AngryJedi]

its been a full day almost since I reinstalled the SDK and so far I have had no freezes occur...no atapi errors have come up in the events log since then either!
this is a wierd issue :S

 

[AngryJedi]

ok so H2SO4,
it happened again...ya it was stupid for me to assume that the SDK somehow magically fixed it, but man I was so happy there for a second until it happened again
The freeze just occurred right now but once again no error was logged....any way to debug this sort of error without xperf or anywhere where i can get xperf?
I have a feeling that when the hard drive reaches a certain point in the data, it freezes then...maybe part of the disc is messed, but then again you are the expert