Sudden Unexplainable Freezes

flapjackstack

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Jun 9, 2013
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10,510
My system is dual boot, with Windows 7 64 bit installed on an SSD, and Windows XP 32 bit installed on a normal SATA drive. Up until recently, both OS were working just fine.

Having made no hardware or major software changes to the system, now suddenly BOTH OS's will lock up after being on for roughly 10 minutes, give or take. It doesn't matter what I'm doing in either OS, browsing the internet, typing in notepad, etc. the freeze will occur consistently after about 10 minutes.

There is no error message and no BSOD, and it isn't a complete freeze since I can usually still for example press the start button (but not actually launch any program). And if I have task manager's performance tab open it still updates cpu/ram usage. But no programs will run, and control+alt+delete does nothing, I have to manually power down the system.

Speedfan tells me nothing is overheating, and task manager tells me the CPU and RAM aren't being stressed at all. The Windows 7 is a fresh install, no Viruses or Malware or old drivers or anything like that.

The fact that this freezing is occurring on two different OS installs consistently and in the same way leads me to believe this must be a hardware issue, but if so, what kind? I don't know how to even begin diagnosing the problem.

Any help would be much appreciated.

PC Specs in case it matters for some reason:

Win7 64 bit / Win XP 32 bit dual boot
Q6600 quad core 2.4 ghz CPU
6 GB RAM
SSD / SATA dual HD's
Nvidia Geforce 560 ti+
 

flapjackstack

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Jun 9, 2013
5
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10,510
@Nikolay thanks for the reply however 1) the install of Win7 is clean and fresh with latest drivers already and 2) I can't run any program for 30-40 minutes because the system freezes after about 10 minutes. All I can determine about the video card is that it is not overheating and that 3D games seem to work just fine (for about 10 minutes). In other words, if I turn the computer on and type in notepad for 10 minutes, I get a freeze. If I turn the computer on and play a 3D game for 10 minutes, I get a freeze.

Some additional info: I ran Event Viewer and here are the details but I don't know what any of them mean:

Critical
-Kernel-Power (this maybe from shutting the computer off manually?)
Error
-Disk
-volsnap
-Eventlog
-Service Control Manager
-Service Control Manager
-Service Control Manager
Warner:
-Msi Installer
-Search
 

Nikolay Savov

Distinguished
Reboot
Hit DEL or what ever is for you Mobo - F2 or ESC
Go in the BIOS
Count 10 minutes
If you PC is still functional - you can change menu and use keyboard then is NOT you HW
Try CLEAN OS INSTALL AFTER ALL !

My doubt is you have GPU over heat and you gonna freez in BIOS also
Try to clean the PC
 

flapjackstack

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Jun 9, 2013
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10,510
Leaving the BIOS running for 20+ minutes and it still works fine. Only when I go into Windows 7 or Windows XP after about 10 minutes do I get the freezing. Also I was running a temperature monitor and my GPU stays at about 40 C which should be far below overheating.

As for the OS, my Windows 7 is a fresh install, I am not able to reinstall Windows XP (I no longer have the discs) but it seems that the chance that two completely different OS, on two completely different physical Hard Drives, would both become corrupt in the same way, with the same freezing issue, at the same time, is almost impossible. (this is why I think it must be hardware?)

But I am willing to try any other suggestions, thanks for any help!
 

flapjackstack

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Jun 9, 2013
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10,510
Update:

1) I cleaned out the computer of dust, there wasn't much at all. Based on the lack of dust and my temperature monitors it definitely doesn't seem like overheating is an issue.

2) Trying to boot into Safe Mode for Windows 7 results in reaching the login screen (prior to loading the desktop) and at the login screen in 2-3 seconds the computer just reboots with no warning. This happens anytime I try to boot into Win7 safe mode, but Win7 normal mode boots alright.

3) Tried to do a fresh install of Windows 7, however at the "extracting files" part of the initial install, I got an error saying that the source install could not be accessed. Since the DVD itself isn't bad (tested on another machine) and the DVD-ROM drive doesn't seem to be bad, this makes me think it is an issue with my SSD drive.

Is it possible/likely that my SSD drive has gone bad and is causing all these problems? If so, why would it boot into Windows 7 and work fine for about 10 minutes? And why would my Windows XP install, which is on a DIFFERENT physical HD, also be affected in the same way? Nothing here seems to make sense.

Anyone got any tips?
 

Nikolay Savov

Distinguished


Hirens boot cd => MHDD

TEST YOU BOTH DRIVES
 

flapjackstack

Honorable
Jun 9, 2013
5
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10,510
Thanks for the various replies everyone. For those interested it seems the SSD was (somehow) causing all the problems, as completely removing the SSD from the system stopped all the problems and now everything seems to be working fine again.



I still don't understand why if it was a bad SSD that windows would boot up normally, run a demanding game at high settings just fine, or run notepad just fine for 10 minutes (no difference between the two) then freeze. And I still don't understand why booting up from a completely different physical drive would also freeze just because the SSD was connected. Maybe both WinXP and Win7 attempt to do some check of every HDD connected to the PC every 10 minutes and that made it crash, but that's just a wild and random guess.



Here's hoping Intel has a good warranty return policy, SSD is only 5 months old.