Computer freezing after 3 to 8 minutes, help please

[ualdriver]

I build this machine a year or two ago. All of a sudden today, it has started freezing after about 3-8 minutes of operation after boot up. Basically the computer boots up normally and operates totally normally. After a short while (3 to 8 minutes), computer operation freezes. I can still move the mouse around, the screen looks normal, but nothing works. Next to the mouse cursor, the little circle spins like the computer is trying to do something. I can't click on the start button, click on icons, move the open windows around- nothing. After a couple minutes of freezing, all the icons on the desktop disappear, but the background image stays. Then the blue screen of death about a minute thereafter. Then after a couple of minutes the computer tries to reboot, unsuccessfully. Although I can turn the power button off and reboot fine manually.

Here's what I have done so far, which has been of zero help. I went to a system restore point when the computer was working fine. I went into msconfig and unchecked all the boxes in the Services tab except the "Microsoft Corporation" stuff. I went to the startup tab and unchecked everything. I rolled the video driver back, even though the driver wasn't updated today or in the past week or so I don't think.

Even in when running the computer in SAFE mode with no network capability, the system freezes after about 3 to 8 minutes. I was thinking that maybe it was a virus, but I can't get through an entire system scan in Normal or Safe mode because the system freezes up.

Any advice appreciated. I've pretty much done everything I know how to do.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Windows 7 64 bit
P6X58D-E Motherboard
Core i7
Corsair Dominator 6GB RAM DDR3
HD5870 Sapphire Graphics Card
OCZ Vertex 2 120GB boot drive
WD Velociraptor storage drive
SoundBlaster XFI

 

[ualdriver]

And as a follow-up to the above......where do I even start with a problem like this? How do I know if it is a hardware problem or a software problem?

 

[AnonymouseUser]

And as a follow-up to the above......where do I even start with a problem like this? How do I know if it is a hardware problem or a software problem?

Boot a Linux Live CD/USB. If it continues to lock up it's a hardware problem.

 

[AnonymouseUser]

You could run Windows Memory Diagnostics. Press F8 after POST.

 

[Bubbaleone]

Go to Start > Control Panel > System > "Advanced system settings", which opens the "System Properties" dialog. Click the "Advanced" tab and under "Startup and Recovery" click the "Settings" button. Under 'System failure" check the "Write an event to the system log" box, and uncheck the "Automatically restart" box. Under "Write debugging information" select "Small memory dump (128 KB)". Upload the memory dump to MediaFire the next time it crashes. Post the link here so I can download it, and I'll analyze it with WinDbg.

 

[ualdriver]

Boot a Linux Live CD/USB. If it continues to lock up it's a hardware problem.

That seems very logical. OK, how do I do this? I understand how to get BIOS to boot off a CD, but how do I create this Linux Live CD? Or do I buy it? Can you suggest a link for a step by step for someone who is not familiar?

I know nothing about Linux. I assume if I boot into Linux off a CD that I will go into some sort of Linux environment but I won't have to make any modifications to my existing Windows 7 installation on its boot drive?

Thanks.

 

[ualdriver]

You could run Windows Memory Diagnostics. Press F8 after POST.

OK thanks. Didn't know this existed. Will google/research and give it a try.

 

[ualdriver]

Go to Start > Control Panel > System > "Advanced system settings", which opens the "System Properties" dialog. Click the "Advanced" tab and under "Startup and Recovery" click the "Settings" button. Under 'System failure" check the "Write an event to the system log" box, and uncheck the "Automatically restart" box. Under "Write debugging information" select "Small memory dump (128 KB)". Upload the memory dump to MediaFire the next time it crashes. Post the link here so I can download it, and I'll analyze it with WinDbg.

Thank you for the offer to analyze the data. I think the steps seem pretty clear except for the "upload the memory dump to MediaFire." What exactly is MediaFire and how do I upload it? Sorry, never had a "difficult" problem with a computer before that involved this level of analysis.

 

[pandemonium]

Mediafire is just a file hosting site. You can use anything else to host that dump file and link it from here.

 

[AnonymouseUser]

That seems very logical. OK, how do I do this? I understand how to get BIOS to boot off a CD, but how do I create this Linux Live CD? Or do I buy it? Can you suggest a link for a step by step for someone who is not familiar?

I know nothing about Linux. I assume if I boot into Linux off a CD that I will go into some sort of Linux environment but I won't have to make any modifications to my existing Windows 7 installation on its boot drive?

Thanks.

If you have a 1GB or larger flash drive that you don't mind losing the data on it, do the Live USB. You can use UNetbootin for simplicity. You can choose an ISO you've already downloaded, or let it download one for you. Try Ubuntu or Linux Mint.

If you want to go the CD route, download an ISO image (Ubuntu or Linux Mint) and burn it with ISO burning software such as ImgBurn.

Once you boot into Linux, open some programs, connect to and browse the internet, play some of the basic games, etc. Basically try and make the PC work a little and see if it crashes.

 

[ualdriver]

Through AnonymouseUser thanks...... I will do all of this and repost in a week or so as I am leaving town today. Thanks!

 

[ualdriver]

I hope you guys are still around.....just got home and started troubleshooting again.....

You could run Windows Memory Diagnostics. Press F8 after POST.

I tried to do this twice. The first time it made it 99% through the test (no errors found) but just froze. The second time I played with the options (forgot what I selected, but it was a longer test) and it froze at 21%.

If you have a 1GB or larger flash drive that you don't mind losing the data on it, do the Live USB. You can use UNetbootin for simplicity. You can choose an ISO you've already downloaded, or let it download one for you. Try Ubuntu or Linux Mint.

Once you boot into Linux, open some programs, connect to and browse the internet, play some of the basic games, etc. Basically try and make the PC work a little and see if it crashes.

I made a Linux Mint disc from the .iso image and booted my computer into Linux. I couldn't find any games, but I found Firefox and opened about 25 tabs, each with lots of pictures and you tube videos running simultaneously.......the computer DID NOT freeze. It ran fine.

OK so armed with this information, can I assume I have a Windows problem and not a hardware problem? Would a Windows 7 problem cause everything to freeze except the mouse pointer?

And here's another thing...don't know if this helps. When the computer freezes, it turns into a spinning circle everywhere on the screen EXCEPT the lower left corner of the screen. Then it turns into a pointer again. But I can't click on anything. Nothing happens.

What do I do from here?

Thanks.

 

[ualdriver]

Go to Start > Control Panel > System > "Advanced system settings", which opens the "System Properties" dialog. Click the "Advanced" tab and under "Startup and Recovery" click the "Settings" button. Under 'System failure" check the "Write an event to the system log" box, and uncheck the "Automatically restart" box. Under "Write debugging information" select "Small memory dump (128 KB)". Upload the memory dump to MediaFire the next time it crashes. Post the link here so I can download it, and I'll analyze it with WinDbg.

I followed these steps, twice. The computer froze up, twice, but didn't completely crash. I am going to leave it frozen over night to see if I can "force" it to crash I guess. I assume the computer has to actually crash to record anything?

Regardless, you ask me to upload the memory dump, which I assume is some sort of file. Where do I find this file?

Thanks.

 

[AnonymouseUser]

I tried to do this twice. The first time it made it 99% through the test (no errors found) but just froze. The second time I played with the options (forgot what I selected, but it was a longer test) and it froze at 21%.

This is a problem, and may mean you have bad RAM. Boot Linux Mint again, but this time when you see "Automatic boot in 10sec" message press any key on the keyboard. Use the down arrows, choose "Memory test", and hit Enter. This is a more thorough test than the Windows Memory Diagnostics, but it is recommended to let it run for several hours/overnight. You'll want it to run multiple passes without a single error. If you have any more lockups take half the RAM out, run more tests, swap the RAM, run more tests, etc, until you've narrowed it down to the problem stick/s.

 

[ualdriver]

This is a problem, and may mean you have bad RAM. Boot Linux Mint again, but this time when you see "Automatic boot in 10sec" message press any key on the keyboard. Use the down arrows, choose "Memory test", and hit Enter. This is a more thorough test than the Windows Memory Diagnostics, but it is recommended to let it run for several hours/overnight. You'll want it to run multiple passes without a single error. If you have any more lockups take half the RAM out, run more tests, swap the RAM, run more tests, etc, until you've narrowed it down to the problem stick/s.

Anonymous-

Thanks again for your time.

My computer has 6gb of RAM, three 2GB sticks.

Rather than wait a full day for a memory test, I decided to just reboot the computer 3 times, each time with only one stick of RAM and see what happens.

I rebooted the computer each time with one stick (single channel), and each time the computer froze as described above after about 10 minutes of operation.

While the computer was running, I pulled up my graphic card's utility and checked it's temperature, which had normal operating temperature.

If it appears not to be the RAM (I think?), and the system runs in Linux, is this a Windows 7 problem? Or should I still be looking at a hardware problem?

Thanks again for your help.

 

[Bubbaleone]

I followed these steps, twice. The computer froze up, twice, but didn't completely crash. I am going to leave it frozen over night to see if I can "force" it to crash I guess. I assume the computer has to actually crash to record anything?

Regardless, you ask me to upload the memory dump, which I assume is some sort of file. Where do I find this file?

Thanks.

The default path is C:\Windows\MEMORY.DMP or %SystemRoot%\MEMORY.DMP. or C:\Windows\Minidump or %SystemRoot%\Minidump.

Setup your free file sharing account at MediaFire.

Because you have more than two GB of RAM, I suggest you setup a minidump or kernel dump. A full memory dump is as many gigabytes in size as the amount of RAM you have installed + 1MB. The following two links will show you everything about setting up your PC to create a memory dump, the different types of memory dumps and their requirements:

How to Configure Windows to Create a Dump File when you get a BSOD

How to Change the Default Memory Dump File Location in Windows


.

 

[AnonymouseUser]

Anonymous-

Thanks again for your time.

My computer has 6gb of RAM, three 2GB sticks.

Rather than wait a full day for a memory test, I decided to just reboot the computer 3 times, each time with only one stick of RAM and see what happens.

I rebooted the computer each time with one stick (single channel), and each time the computer froze as described above after about 10 minutes of operation.

While the computer was running, I pulled up my graphic card's utility and checked it's temperature, which had normal operating temperature.

If it appears not to be the RAM (I think?), and the system runs in Linux, is this a Windows 7 problem? Or should I still be looking at a hardware problem?

Thanks again for your help.

While it is possible, it's not likely that all three sticks are bad, so yeah, it's most likely a Windows problem. Just to be safe, though, run Memtest from the Linux Mint CD anyway, all RAM installed. If there are no lockups then you have your answer. The reason for doing this is that memory problems could still be a motherboard issue, and it's possible that the Live CD isn't stressing it enough.

With that out of the way, I would start looking at the HD 5870 to be the culprit. One thing the Mint Live CD won't do without some additional tweaking is to install the full 3D accelerated drivers for the graphics card. This means the card isn't fully stressed under Linux, while everything else is. I don't know which i7 you have, but if it has the on-die GPU, pull the HD 5870 and use the i7 GPU to see if it continues to lock up.

 

[ualdriver]

The default path is C:\Windows\MEMORY.DMP or %SystemRoot%\MEMORY.DMP. or C:\Windows\Minidump or %SystemRoot%\Minidump.

Setup your free file sharing account at MediaFire.

Because you have more than two GB of RAM, I suggest you setup a minidump or kernel dump. A full memory dump is as many gigabytes in size as the amount of RAM you have installed + 1MB. The following two links will show you everything about setting up your PC to create a memory dump, the different types of memory dumps and their requirements:

How to Configure Windows to Create a Dump File when you get a BSOD

How to Change the Default Memory Dump File Location in Windows


.

Thank you very much for your time. I spent the entire day swapping SATA cables, ports on the MB, etc., and none of that seemed to work. Then I booted to desktop, put the Windows 7 disc in my CD ROM drive, hit the setup.exe and suddenly the system started working. I have no idea what happened.

 

[ualdriver]

While it is possible, it's not likely that all three sticks are bad, so yeah, it's most likely a Windows problem. Just to be safe, though, run Memtest from the Linux Mint CD anyway, all RAM installed. If there are no lockups then you have your answer. The reason for doing this is that memory problems could still be a motherboard issue, and it's possible that the Live CD isn't stressing it enough.

With that out of the way, I would start looking at the HD 5870 to be the culprit. One thing the Mint Live CD won't do without some additional tweaking is to install the full 3D accelerated drivers for the graphics card. This means the card isn't fully stressed under Linux, while everything else is. I don't know which i7 you have, but if it has the on-die GPU, pull the HD 5870 and use the i7 GPU to see if it continues to lock up.

Thank you very much for your time Anonymous. If you see the above post, for some reason it just started working. If it does it again, I think I am just going to do a clean install of Windows 7 and be done with the hours of troubleshooting.......unless the clean reinstall doesn't work.

Thanks!