Random computer freezes

[John Connor]

Windows 7 64
CPU: Q6600 no over clock running at 2.4 GHz
MOBO: Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 (rev. 3.3)
Video card: B stock EVGA GTX 560 TI
RAM: G.Skill 6 GB DDR2
Primary HDD: 3 year old Adata SATA II 128 GB SSD
Second HDD: Platter Hitachi 500 GB. SATA II

Things I have done:

Tested the RAM with the latest Memtest 86 all night with a total of 9 passes, no errors.

Tried to test the second hard drive platter with HD Sentinel and it will freeze. HD Sentinel is on the same drive.

Tested the platter with HDtune which is on the SSD and it checks out okay, no bad blocks.

Ran SFC /scannow, no issues.

Updated the GPU driver. No change.

Updated BIOS. No change.

Problem:

At any given time the system will freeze for about a minute and then go back to normal. Sometimes I would get a BSOD. I ran Whocrashed and there was no report. Events are on because I tested a crash with Whocrashed.

Doesn't matter if I'm gaming or surfing the net it will freeze. I have discovered it will only freeze once per boot and no further freezes happen.

Another issue is when I'm copying files to the platter it will stall on copy progress. I have to reboot and I can copy/paste to the platter.

SMART data for the platter is showing okay and HDtune reports no bad blocks. I am suspecting a HDD controller in the HDD. I don't think it would be the MOBO since the SSD works fine.

Ever since I upgraded the GPU driver it won't freeze and BSOD. Now it just freezes.

Not sure what to make of this.

Edit- I forgot to mention I would get a Windows Explorer issue. It could be due to SPTD that is needed for my Alcohol 120% virtual drive. I will try upgrading SPTD. Also, the NIC won't connect right away to the router on boot up. I know because the temperature widget won't display the current temp. from the server right away until about 5 min latter. There is no NIC driver on Gigabyte's website. It's Win 7 loaded. I have tried deleting the NIC and having it installed automatically on Windows boot.

 

[Jembo]

It sounds like the hard drive or malware to me.

I'd try some more basics.
Safe mode then stress the system.
USB linux for a bit.

 

[John Connor]

I just removed a bunch of programs I'm no longer using. When I started Flight Simulator I noticed VMware was giving an error in the event viewer. I have no idea why VMware would run so I ran Autoruns and disabled the startup and stopped all VMware services. I haven't seen a freeze yet, we shall see latter on.

Another issue: I launched Everything.exe (a small searching program) and it was tring to build the database, it does this on every few starts and it couldn't update and I couldn't shut the app down. I had to kill the process. IDK what the FK is going on here but it's pissing me off! I do have another HDD with just enough room for all the crap I have on the platter. I might copy/paste the data to the new drive and see what happens. If that works I will be buying a new drive. Saw a WD Black 500 GB for 67 bucks on Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/Black-500-Desk.../dp/B008968L6M

I only need 500 GB. I only have about 180 MB on the current platter as it is.

Question: Are SATA cables all universal? The platter on Amazon is SATA III and I only have SATA II cables. Or should I say SATA II ports. I know SATA is backwards compatible, but not sure if the cables are like USB 3.0.

 

[John Connor]

So far no more freezes. The only other annoyance was that I couldn't get Everything.exe to update its index, well I ran Herdprotect and all it found was some PUPS I also ran Adwcleaner and it removed a file in the temp directory called uninstall.exe and now I'm able to use Everything.exe. The PUPs must have stopped me from using the program. I also ran TDsskiller and it found nothing. I'm currently running Malwarebytes.