ok - computer problem - random freezing

[roborobs computer repair]

ok, so my computer is randomly freezing the wierd thing is if you are using it it won't freeze however if you leave it sit it will go to screensaver and then randomly freeze and lock down. any ideas what could be causing this? I've dont a virus scan I checked Items running. Have not run it in safe mode yet but will do. any ideas?

 

[FoolishTech]

viruses don't usually cause freezing. Your problem could be hardware related.

Run full hardware diagnostics and get back to us. Check at least RAM, HDD, CPU/VGA Temp, and look for crowning/blow caps on the mobo.

Example: I'm having a similar problem on my personal laptop *after* I replaced the existing HDD with a new hybrid. Granted I haven't ran any tests on it yet but I'm certain that is the issue.

 

[16k_zx81]

RAM test. Result?
HDD test. Result?
Does it do it out of Windows?
Does it do it in SAFE mode?
If windows, what have you done to check out possible causes within the OS?

 

[roborobs computer repair]

Well amazingly enough ran the stress test on the CPU and even running at 100% for over an hour the computer didn't freeze.

All Memory,CPU, and Motherboard test have come back negative. I ran one test on the Hard-drive however I think I"m going to run a different one on it. any programs you may suggest?

I have not tried in Safe-mode as of yet.

 

[NYJimbo]

The coming out of screensaver mode would be something I would chase down. Just sayin......

 

[SilverLeaf]

Just a thought, but if the screensaver is graphics intensive (lots of 3D rendering), it might be heating up the GPU enough to put it over the edge...causing the freeze, especially if a fan has failed on the card.

 

[colonydata]

brings back nightmares. i build a computer from a barebones bundle we bought on tiger direct. it did the same thing.

we replaced everything but the case on that computer and it kept locking up like that.

we never figured out what was wrong with that thing.

 

[Mr.Mike]

Just a thought, but if the screensaver is graphics intensive (lots of 3D rendering), it might be heating up the GPU enough to put it over the edge...causing the freeze, especially if a fan has failed on the card.

If he has XP SP2 on an older pentium III machine, with <1Gb ram and onboard graphics I would agree with you, but we don't have his hardware specs do we?

 

[roborobs computer repair]

If he has XP SP2 on an older pentium III machine, with <1Gb ram and onboard graphics I would agree with you, but we don't have his hardware specs do we?

No it is a Toshiba Laptop with Windows 7 on it - actually my personal computer. I'm using it right now. It is kind of odd when you leave it alone sometimes it will go to the screensaver and freeze shortly there after and sometimes it will just freeze on the regular screen without going to screensaver.

 

[roborobs computer repair]

I am linking my system report to this - it is in a zip as it is HTML files created by FreshDiagnosis. Benchmarks are located at the bottom of the list to the left.

system Report

 

[16k_zx81]

Yeah ok so the only time it freezes is when it comes out from screensaver?

Seems like the thing to do would be to disable the screensaver.

 

[roborobs computer repair]

It will also freeze when it is just sitting there before it even goes into screensaver.

 

[frodo7200]

had a problem like this before and it was the wifi card locking up. does it do it in safe mode?

 

[TLE]

Did this laptop have Win 7 originally?

Sounds like a power saving issue to me. I would be tempted to run 'powercfg -energy' to look for potential issues, and 'powercfg -requests' to look at the last powersaving requests.

 

[300DDR]

I ran one test on the Hard-drive however I think I"m going to run a different one on it. any programs you may suggest?

Could definitely be hard drive. To check for slow and bad sectors (either can cause freezing) try http://hddscan.com/ --> surface scan.

If it happens more often in screen saver (and it's a graphic intensive screen saver), it could be graphics related.

And RAM could definitely do it as well (among other things). When you run RAM tests you should run looped for hours at a time to really test well.

 

[shamrin]

ok, so my computer is randomly freezing the wierd thing is if you are using it it won't freeze however if you leave it sit it will go to screensaver and then randomly freeze and lock down. any ideas what could be causing this? I've dont a virus scan I checked Items running. Have not run it in safe mode yet but will do. any ideas?

Whenever the outside temperatures go up you can often see machines coming in with heat problems. I'm having the same problem as you and have finally figured out, after changing RAM, PSU and video card, that I've got a latent unmeasurable heat problem that's cropped up because the ambient temperatures in the house are up higher than normal. If I stress the CPU with the Mersenne Prime 95 test, I can get it to crash cold after only a few minutes.

I see you're in Florida, you might want to check to see if your computer is under water as well.

 

[Mr.Mike]

I see you're in Florida, you might want to check to see if your computer is under water as well.

Water cooled system?

 

[roborobs computer repair]

Whenever the outside temperatures go up you can often see machines coming in with heat problems. I'm having the same problem as you and have finally figured out, after changing RAM, PSU and video card, that I've got a latent unmeasurable heat problem that's cropped up because the ambient temperatures in the house are up higher than normal. If I stress the CPU with the Mersenne Prime 95 test, I can get it to crash cold after only a few minutes.

I see you're in Florida, you might want to check to see if your computer is under water as well.

Water cooled system?

Well the appropriate answer to both would be no. but it was a funny statement considering the weather here lately. Debby dumped a ton of rain and two tornadoes right behind my house. I am currently Running HDDScan on the hard drive.

 

[Chewie]

My money would normally be on power saving; though I can't put a finger on it, I'm positive I've read a Win7 KB article mentioning hanging coming out of sleep etc.
The freezing before screensaver might still be related, merely freezing as it actually starts to go into screensaver mode.
You could check that wi-fi or USB ports and such like aren't beng turned off to save power, to eliminate them from the cause.

I said normally as I had similar issues last year after installing an Agility3 in my desktop. I don't let it sleep at all, merely turn off video, but I started finding it frozen first thing in the morning, and resetting would cause the SSD to disappear. Powering off/on would cause no issues.
The Agility3 had a habit of disappearing after system lock-ups but no-one else mentioned resetting rather than rebooting so I didn't know whether this was a common link.
Anyway, OCZ fixed the issue months ago with a firmware update and I haven't woken to a blank screen lockup since then.

 

[sys-eng]

I know that some laptop models have heat problems caused by the heatsink no contacting the hot device. The distance apart cannot be filled with themal paste alone so copper shims are used.

I have four deskptops now with random freezing. All of those had bad capacitors which I replaced. I have never seen any SW test that could find a bad capacitor.