Computer Freezing/Locking Up Frequently

[steeLh]

So this started happening yesterday, my computer's been freezing/locking up out of nowhere. I'll hear the windows "device disconnected" sound and shortly after my browser windows will stop responding, same goes for my start menu and just about everything (though strangely I can move my cursor, as well as my firefox windows around). I can't ctrl+alt+del either, nothing happens.

At this point I can literally do nothing except force restart my computer. It's been happening about every hour now, again it started yesterday. I haven't installed any new programs or anything.

Looking for any help at this point, it's getting very irritating.

 

[mlc]

could be many things...

1) Heat: check temps of cpu and graphics card
2) Virus/malware: try booting into safe mode to see if problem persists and run some antispyware and antivirus scans from safe mode to rule that out
3) memory issue: try testing each stick of ram with memtest
4) graphics driver: try reinstalling those
5) also try disconnecting any usb devices to see if they are causing the issue..
6) try running some diagnostics against your main OS hard drive

if none of those work.. then it could be a faulty psu or motherboard/bios issue

 

[steeLh]

1. I've checked the temp of my cpu and gpu, both were normal
2. was clean when i did a virus scan
3. I actually replaced my RAM recently as I was getting bsod's(and still do daily up until this freezing start happening yesterday), so I'm pretty positive it's not the RAM
4. i'll give that a go
5. will try this as well
6. what sort of diagnostics, with tools through windows?

Also could it possibly be a dying hdd problem?

 

[mlc]

If your getting BSOD's daily... relating to ram up until this problem occurred.. then there's a good chance the issue relates to the RAM or ram settings in bios... Double check the sticker on the ram to see what the recommended voltages are for those sticks... and go into bios and hardcode/set that value rather than lettting them run at auto setting....

i would then run the memtest to ensure the ram is ok...

regarding the harddrive.. you can go to the manufacturers website and download whatever diagnostic utilities they offer for their drives.. typically they run in either windows.. or via a boot disk..

if you're getting BSOD's.. then there should be a minidump issued in windows.. which will give some insight as to the problem... as well

 

[steeLh]

Well that's the thing, I replaced the RAM and the bsod's continued so I pretty much ruled that out as being the problem.

As for the current problem I've noticed a pattern. From the moment I log into windows, I have exactly an hour before it lockups and so I have to hard restart my computer and it'll repeat itself in another hour.

 

[mlc]

you don't mention any specs/components/brands of your system...

there were issues with the crucial M4 SSD drives that caused lockups/bsods every hour or so, once the drive hit a certain number of hours usage... they had a firmware update to address...

 

[Vinwiesel]

If you think it is a hdd issue, check this: (i am assuming win7)
Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Power Options\Edit Plan Settings
click on "Change Advanced Power Settings", Hard Disk, Turn off hard disk after.
What is the setting here? If it is 1 hour, try setting it to something else, or 0 to set it to never.
You may want to also disable usb selective suspend.