System freezes when NOT in use - I'M STUCK!!

[LordX]

Client system is Windows 7 64bit.

There is no freezing while the client is using the system. In fact, he can use it all day long and there are no problems. However, when the system is left idle for a time (the exact time has not been calculated) - and he comes BACK to it - it is frozen. Will not come back up - and he is forced to hard shut down.

Things I have tried:
Disabled both sleep and hibernate to see if they were the issue. Did not solve.
Set the monitors to NEVER go to sleep/power off after idle - and turned on the screen saver - Did not solve.
Updated graphics driver to latest version - did not solve (side note here, it is an older graphics card, so the drivers had their last version a few years ago).

Other: The system is still accessible over the network when it is 'frozen' however the network connection is very slow (other systems access this computer for quickbooks etc). When the system is restarted, everything is back to normal. Also - the users mouse and keyboard are hard wired - so it's not a wireless input device issue.

Any tips or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Slaters Kustum Machines]

I've seen computer with dead CMOS batteries not resume and need hard shutdowns to come back up. I never thought to see if they were accessible over the network though. Did you check for BIOS updates or adjust the BIOS power settings?

 

[LordX]

No I didn't. The system is always plugged into power - so I never thought to check CMOS battery. Any particular power setting to check in the BIOS?

 

[Slaters Kustum Machines]

No I didn't. The system is always plugged into power - so I never thought to check CMOS battery. Any particular power setting to check in the BIOS?

There are a few differences between manufacturers, but you're looking for something related to power or sleep settings. You might try disabling sleep if it's an option.

 

[AlexCa]

I would also test with a new PSU (besides the usual hdd and ram tests).

 

[LordX]

You could also try something like Caffeine, either for diagnosis or just to make the problem go away.

I am going to try this! Thanks for the suggestion!!!

 

[Porthos]

I would also test with a new PSU (besides the usual hdd and ram tests).

Agreed.

 

[thecomputerguy]

Install some remote support software in there and when it locks up see if you can remote in and move around ... it won't fix the issue but it may help in troubleshooting a dead mouse/keyboard/monitor/video etc.

 

[Markverhyden]

Sounds like some process is going zombie. I'd make a note of the exact time the machine is hard power cycled and then go into event viewer to see if that shed's any light on the matter. Probably also run something to scan for PUP's, etc as well as Tweeking's AIO.

 

[ComputerRepairTech]

There is no freezing while the client is using the system. In fact, he can use it all day long and there are no problems. However, when the system is left idle for a time (the exact time has not been calculated) - and he comes BACK to it - it is frozen. Will not come back up - and he is forced to hard shut down.

100% of the time if he leaves it idle and comes back it will freeze? What is the smallest amount of time he has walked away and come back to see it frozen? Its completely frozen, even the the time in the bottom right corner doesnt update? If so the time its frozen on vs the time he got up can help you figure out the exact idle time.

Things I have tried:
Disabled both sleep and hibernate to see if they were the issue. Did not solve.
Set the monitors to NEVER go to sleep/power off after idle - and turned on the screen saver - Did not solve.
Updated graphics driver to latest version - did not solve (side note here, it is an older graphics card, so the drivers had their last version a few years ago).

You didn't actually mention what power plan its using, is it high performance? If its freezing and nothing is updating on the screen at all you could simply leave process monitor open and see whats happening at the time of the initial freeze.

Other: The system is still accessible over the network when it is 'frozen' however the network connection is very slow (other systems access this computer for quickbooks etc). When the system is restarted, everything is back to normal. Also - the users mouse and keyboard are hard wired - so it's not a wireless input device issue.

Any tips or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Thats weird, are there multiple hard drives in the computer?

 

[fencepost]

I would check the hard drive, both with any/all standard tests you do as well as checking the Windows event log for any sign of timeouts. When the system is recognized as idle it may be doing background scans, indexing, drive optimization, etc. and only then hitting a disk problem in a file that's normally never touched.

 

[nlinecomputers]

Sounds like some process is going zombie. I'd make a note of the exact time the machine is hard power cycled and then go into event viewer to see if that shed's any light on the matter. Probably also run something to scan for PUP's, etc as well as Tweeking's AIO.

Beat me to it. I was about to go on my mantra about event logs.

 

[seashore]

Client system is Windows 7 64bit.
Things I have tried:
Disabled both sleep and hibernate to see if they were the issue. Did not solve.
Set the monitors to NEVER go to sleep/power off after idle - and turned on the screen saver - Did not solve.
Updated graphics driver to latest version - did not solve (side note here, it is an older graphics card, so the drivers had their last version a few years ago).

You didn't mention it, but did you try disabling the option to turn off the hard disk after x minutes?

 

[frase]

Yeap Hard Drives overheating can cause this issue - as well as intermittent "blackouts" where the display loses connection.

 

[alexsmith2709]

You didn't mention it, but did you try disabling the option to turn off the hard disk after x minutes?

This was going to be my suggestion as well

 

[Steve202]

Sounds like some process is going zombie. I'd make a note of the exact time the machine is hard power cycled and then go into event viewer to see if that shed's any light on the matter. Probably also run something to scan for PUP's, etc as well as Tweeking's AIO.

I'd try this first. Hard you ruled out the hardware too?

 

[HFultzjr]

As mentioned........................
Check Event Viewer.

 

[LordX]

The hard drive was set to never power off (checked it today). I scanned the ssd (samsung 840) with hd tune. Both SMART and sector scan were fine.

I installed the caffeine program - so we will see how it works!

 

[Adept PC Repair]

Check for scheduled tasks when idle.

 

[LordX]

I called today to see if caffeine was working - so far so good.... but it is one day... so we will see.