Computer frequently freezes for 1-3 seconds

[vesper39]

My computer has been acting up lately. Every few minutes everything would completely freeze including sound/mouse/keyboard interactions. I've also been getting random BSOD's. These happen when doing trivial things like browsing the web.

At first I thought it as my memory, but I ran memtest+ for 1 hour with no errors. Whats the next likely issue? I was thinking of reformatting win7, but didn't want to go through the hassle if the issue is hardware related. I don't think its my GPU since I get halts while doing non graphic intensive stuff. Any way to diagnose harddrive/cpu/motherboard? I also have my OS on a SSD so I'm not sure if its my SSD or regular HDD acting up.

 

[Eureka]

Could be your hard drive going... are your programs all installed on the SSD or are some put on the HDD? Are some of your folders on the HDD (such as Documents, or other frequently accessed folders)?

I found that my computer would frequently freeze in certain applications if the HDD is in "green" mode... you can hear the HDD spool up before it unfreezes.

 

[vesper39]

I basically just have my OS on the SSD. I even set my desktop to the HDD so almost all applications are run off the HDD. I guess I can try and unplug my HDD and just run off the SSD and see if that fixes anything.

 

[denis280]

What are your bsod???

 

[bshole]

Blue screen of death.

Remove/disable your anti-virus software.

 

[Bubbaleone]

My computer has been acting up lately. Every few minutes everything would completely freeze including sound/mouse/keyboard interactions. I've also been getting random BSOD's. These happen when doing trivial things like browsing the web.

At first I thought it as my memory, but I ran memtest+ for 1 hour with no errors. Whats the next likely issue? I was thinking of reformatting win7, but didn't want to go through the hassle if the issue is hardware related. I don't think its my GPU since I get halts while doing non graphic intensive stuff. Any way to diagnose harddrive/cpu/motherboard? I also have my OS on a SSD so I'm not sure if its my SSD or regular HDD acting up.

In Startup and Recovery settings in the System Properties advanced tab dialog; configure the System Failure section by checking "Write an event to the systemlog", uncheck "Automatically restart", and select "Small memory dump(256K)" under "Write debugging information". Now the computer will halt when it blue screens instead of automatically restarting, and the error will be written to Event Viewer so you'll actually have some useful error information to post back here with.


.

 

[Evander]

In my experience, freezes and random BSODs are often caused by 3rd party CD\DVD related programs that run in the background such are virtual disc drives or on-the-fly encryption~decryption removal. Examples: Daemon Tools, Alcohol 52%, AnyDVD, DVD Passkey, and possibly DRM installed by games such as Securom. First try to isolate the problem by uninstalling all such software and see if the problems go away. If you need such disc software, your most recent installation may be outdated and you should search for the newest version (or software that does the same thing from a different vendor).

 

[Matt1970]

Malware scans are always a good idea but check in your even viewer for errors.