Completely random computer freeze-ups! Help!!!

[waterinthefuel]

I can't figure this out! I'm usually the one helping people with their computer issues, but this has me beat.

At random, my computer will completely freeze. At first the mouse pointer will stop moving, and then they keyboard stops responding a moment later. You can do nothing but hard-boot the computer to get it back. It used to sometimes hang up on POST on reboot, but recently, it seems to be ok.

I can't test or diagnose anything when it freezes as it's dead to any input. I cleaned out the computer of all dust, etc, it's clean and fine. It never happens when I'm playing a game so I don't think it's heat related. I updated the graphics driver, so that's not it.

I'm stumped. I can't recreate it at will, even if I want to. It'll just freeze while doing nothing but having the screen saver on. It'll freeze in the middle of typing. It'll freeze in the middle of browsing a web page. It's completely random. It might do it 5 times in one day, and none the next and one time for each day after that.

Temps look fine while it's operating and if it was heat related it would freeze while playing a game, but it doesn't. What the heck is causing this?

 

[Tail_Gunner]

Re: Completely random computer freeze-ups! Help!!!

What OS are your using....And is that comp still a 6 gig ram monster

 

[waterinthefuel]

Re: Completely random computer freeze-ups! Help!!!

I have 8 gigs of RAM and I'm running Win 7 64 bit.

 

[Tail_Gunner]

Re: Completely random computer freeze-ups! Help!!!

I have 8 gigs of RAM and I'm running Win 7 64 bit.

And a nvidia vid card?

http://www.google.com/#hl=en&q=nvid...drivers+crashing&gs_rfai=&fp=ad526d12389e3c08


http://social.technet.microsoft.com...e/thread/88e9d3df-ccdb-488c-9023-7c3b19f411dd

I just went to ATI problem gone

 

[Laddies]

Re: Completely random computer freeze-ups! Help!!!

I had Alltel wireless and switched to a new computer with windows 7 and had the same problem after about a month when I dumped Norton, my carrier finally admited that window 7 is not compatable with the alltel system so I had to switch to Verison to fix the problem

 

[dolluper]

Re: Completely random computer freeze-ups! Help!!!

A bad stick of ram can do it....or an update that didn't go so right

 

[SteveRoss]

Re: Completely random computer freeze-ups! Help!!!

Stick with Windows XP !!! Never a problem here, and copies are always easy to get !!

 

[ezmobee]

Re: Completely random computer freeze-ups! Help!!!

Bad stick of RAM or a failing hard drive.

 

[j_martin]

Re: Completely random computer freeze-ups! Help!!!

Go here
http://www.memtest.org/

With a good (borrowed) computer, download the bootable ISO file. Burn it to a CD (image burn). Boot it in your computer. Sit on your hands till red shows up on the screen. Guess which stick of memory is bad and remove it. Repeat till you guess right. Replace the bad stick.

hope it helps
John

 

[j_martin]

Re: Completely random computer freeze-ups! Help!!!

Around here, completely random computer freezes are usually follow by completely random computer flights.

 

[bruceb58]

Re: Completely random computer freeze-ups! Help!!!

Unfortunately, there are so many things it could be. I would do the mem test first as the previous poster said. Two of my computers have had similar problems. One was a bad power supply and another was a bad video card. Problem is that it could be other things as well.

 

[waterinthefuel]

Re: Completely random computer freeze-ups! Help!!!

And a nvidia vid card?

http://www.google.com/#hl=en&q=nvid...drivers+crashing&gs_rfai=&fp=ad526d12389e3c08


http://social.technet.microsoft.com...e/thread/88e9d3df-ccdb-488c-9023-7c3b19f411dd

I just went to ATI problem gone

Not just an Nvidia card, but the Nvidia 9800GTX+, one of the ones specifically mentioned as having a problem.

I'll run memtest and see what I get.

Thanks for the help from everyone.

 

[roncoop75]

Re: Completely random computer freeze-ups! Help!!!

Did you look in the "Event Viewer" to see if it's maybe the same thing causing the error every time?

It's far from perfect, or even useful sometimes, but it's the first place I look when I get random freezes. Driver issues are usually pretty obvious in there, if that's your problem.

 

[j_martin]

Re: Completely random computer freeze-ups! Help!!!

Unfortunately, there are so many things it could be. I would do the mem test first as the previous poster said. Two of my computers have had similar problems. One was a bad power supply and another was a bad video card. Problem is that it could be other things as well.

In my experience.
Memory 50%
Add on Hardware, Vid, nics, etc. 15%
Drivers, especially on bloatware machines, like HP 10%
External crud, bad parallel, usb, network cables, etc. 10%
Power 5%

........ random flight 10%

If it can get smart enough to BSOD, and you have memory dump set up, you can analyze that dump. Usually the killer is in the top 3 modules in memory.

 

[waterinthefuel]

Re: Completely random computer freeze-ups! Help!!!

Did you look in the "Event Viewer" to see if it's maybe the same thing causing the error every time?

It's far from perfect, or even useful sometimes, but it's the first place I look when I get random freezes. Driver issues are usually pretty obvious in there, if that's your problem.

I don't get a blue screen of death. My computer completely freezes. No mouse, no keyboard, nothing. The screen image is perfect, but unmovable. I can't view the event manager when it freezes because nothing responds. The ONLY option I have when it freezes is to do a hard boot. That's why it's so hard to diagnose.

 

[Tail_Gunner]

Re: Completely random computer freeze-ups! Help!!!

Not just an Nvidia card, but the Nvidia 9800GTX+, one of the ones specifically mentioned as having a problem.

I'll run memtest and see what I get.

Thanks for the help from everyone.

Its the drivers that can crash 7...Look at your event viewer as mentioned

http://www.google.com/#hl=en&q=nvid...=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=&fp=ad526d12389e3c08