Windows Vista keeps freezing

jadebrain

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Nov 1, 2011
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Hello, everyone! My primary computer, loaded with Windows Vista, is suffering a peculiar problem as of yesterday. After an amount of time ranging from a few minutes to a few hours of being on, my computer will just freeze. All lights on the mouse and keyboard turn off, the sound turns off, the picture on the monitor freezes, etc. The only hardware change I've made recently is a PSU replacement about a month ago, but I don't think the issue is hardware related, since I've been in Safe Mode, and I'm dual-booting Linux off a separate HDD, and the problem only persists when regularly using Windows Vista. The only things I've downloaded lately are various mods from the Fallout: New Vegas Nexus. I've done a full boot-time virus scan with Avast, I've scanned for spyware with SUPERAntispyware, I've scanned for registry issues with CCleaner, I've done plenty of things with Advanced SystemCare 6, I've tried using the OS installation disk to repair the OS... Absolutely nothing I've tried has been able to fix it.

Any help will be appreciated.
 
Solution
Hi,

What antivirus/antispyware/security products do you have on machine? Include any you have
EVER had on this machine including those you uninstalled (they leave remnants behind which
can cause strange issues).

----------------------------------------------------

Do these :

Start - type this in Search Box -> COMMAND find at top and RIGHT CLICK - RUN AS ADMIN

Enter this at the prompt - sfc /scannow

How to analyze the log file entries that the Microsoft Windows Resource Checker (SFC.exe) program
generates in Windows Vista cbs.log
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928228

Also run CheckDisk so we can rule out corruption as much as possible.

How to Run Check Disk at Startup in Vista...

jadebrain

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Nov 1, 2011
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Off the top of my head, I can remember that the processor is an AMD Phenom II 955, that it has 12GB of DDR3 RAM, and the video card is a Radeon HD 69xx series card with 2GB of memory. As for the other specs... since I'm using Linux right now, which I'm not used to, I'm not sure how to look up the specs.
 
you may want to look over any new drivers you installed to be sure they still support vista if you look over the new amd drivers they don't show support for vista the last vista driver from amd for your card is the 13.12 --

so no telling what other driver you may have updated that mat not be to well for vista or something like that
 
ok just wanted to throw that your way just in case I don't know why vista is getting singled out funny how it can list xp 7 8 but not vista [any driver not just amd] .. have you checked or tested you hard drive?? a bad block or sector on it in a critical area of the drive may have something corrupted it needs outside of safe mode? or has there been any updates that came in ahead of this issue like from Microsoft or any program that may auto update??

you said you changed out you psu why? and its possible the new one could have developed a issue and be going bad in some way??

a list of your system specs. may help some

 

jadebrain

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Nov 1, 2011
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As it turns out, the problem was with a cable going from the PSU to the Hard Drive. After having changed the cable, the problem has not reoccurred. Let's hope it stays that way...

Thanks anyway!
 

rageshragz

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Sep 4, 2014
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Hi,

What antivirus/antispyware/security products do you have on machine? Include any you have
EVER had on this machine including those you uninstalled (they leave remnants behind which
can cause strange issues).

----------------------------------------------------

Do these :

Start - type this in Search Box -> COMMAND find at top and RIGHT CLICK - RUN AS ADMIN

Enter this at the prompt - sfc /scannow

How to analyze the log file entries that the Microsoft Windows Resource Checker (SFC.exe) program
generates in Windows Vista cbs.log
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928228

Also run CheckDisk so we can rule out corruption as much as possible.

How to Run Check Disk at Startup in Vista
http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/67612-check-disk-chkdsk.html


 
Solution

plast0000

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Jul 14, 2013
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what SP level are you on? the latest is Vista SP2 you may get it from Windows Update but you need to have SP1 installed first
you may install ATI's Windows 7 driver on Vista but only with a work around
find the .Inf file that begins with C7 and open it
replace the NT6.1 value with NT6.0 in the lines found
then replace the existing NT6.0 values with NT6.1 (that way you replaced Windows 7 with Windows Vista "you need SP2 to be installed on your Vista machine")

then save and install the C7xxxxxx inf from the device manager
begin the Catalyst control center installation and choose CUSTOM, un-check all the stuff and proceed
I don't recommend using registry cleaning applications as they may hurt your registry