Computer stops responding for few minutes

[chasmcg]

I have a fairly new computer. AMD 9950 Quad Core. 2 monitors, 1 video card (128 bit) PCI-E x16@x16. Windows 7 RC 1 - 64 bit but have the same issue when using Vista Ultimate 64 bit and 32 bit. My issue is... while working in a program it will stop responding (at top of window I get message that the program has stopped responding). Computer activity light is solid red and I have no idea what it is doing. I go to another program and it responds when I first enter it, then it stops responding in the same manner as the above program. Then all programs stop responding. I can't ctrl-alt-delete. Can't restart. It's like the computer is frozen but it's not. In a few minutes, all is fine.

I bought this barebones computer in November of 2008. Sent it back once, a new CPU was put in even though the company said all checked out fine. I called again today and the guy said it might be memory (8 GB). I've tried each stick separately with the same results. Power supply is 600 watts. Does anyone know what might be happening? Thanks a lot for any help for my problem.

 

[flyin15sec]

I had a very similar problem. My system would just freeze, and get not responding on my browser and other apps.

I used 2 HDs, dual booting Vista 64 and WinXP Pro. It turns out my XP drive had bad sectors. Ran a chkdsk, fixed any surface defects. Reloaded the drive with Win7 RC and has not had any problems since.

This may or may not be your problem, but it doesn't hurt to run a surface scan on your HD. Make sure you backup any data you want.

 

[chasmcg]

flyin, thanks for the reply. I did a chkdsk /F on my HD and all seemed OK. I've been using 2 monitors with 2 different cards. Switched to just one of them and so far, so good for the last few hours. I'm hoping that was the problem. If not, I'll do some more troubleshooting. Thanks again.

 

[marcus25]

chasmcg,

I have the very same problem, but I had been using two video cards with 3 monitors for quite some time
before this problem occurred.
So maybe it's not a video problem. I run both Vista 64 and Win7 64 with 8 G of ram.
Let us know if you found a solution.
Thanks
Marcus

 

[chasmcg]

Marcus 25, it's nearly a year since my original post and nothing has been resolved about the issue. Still doing it but not as often. Personally I think it is a Windows Media Player buffer issue but wouldn't swear to it. And as you say it may not be a video problem at all.

Oh, I'm running Win 7 Ultimate 64 bit.

 

[marcus25]

Still doing it but not as often. Personally I think it is a Windows Media Player buffer issue but wouldn't swear to it. And as you say it may not be a video problem at all.

Oh, I'm running Win 7 Ultimate 64 bit.

Hi thanks for the reply,
For me this problem only started a few months ago, and since I have to have at least two or three different apps. open at the same time, it's very annoying when I try to switch between programmes and have to wait nearly a couple of minutes at times.
The strange thing is, I have control of the mouse-movement but no action.

At present I'm running Sysinternals' Process monitor and the only constant clue I can find is the following message:
"lsass.exe 768 RegQueryValue HKLM\SECURITY\Policy\SecDesc\(Default) BUFFER OVERFLOW Length: 12"

I have been trying to find an answer to this message but so far no luck, true, others have come across it too but no real solution.
If you would run this software and look at the messages AND found the same thing happening, then we would almost have the problem solved.

See how you go!
Cheers