Windows 7 system freezing

Talonstar

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Jan 9, 2011
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Running a windows 7 pc with the following parts -

Asus p8p67 deluxe motherboard
Intel 2600k processor
Corsair AX850 power supply
Gskill 8gb DDR3 1600 Ram (two sticks)
1 tb Western Digital HD
Nvidia EVGA GTX 570

I have been having trouble for a couple weeks now. The computer will just freeze, once or twice there was a loud staticy/screechy noise from the speakers. It never recovers from the freeze, I have to power it off and reboot. There are no error reports, no blue screens, the only message I get is Windows wasn't shut down properly. It doesn't matter what I am doing, I have had it hang while only the desktop is loaded and while I am watching movies while playing games.

Had a similar problem when I first built the system but it was cleared up when I turned off all options for Windows going into standby/sleep mode. Checked the settings and they are still off.

I have tried -
6 different virus scans (all clean except for tracking cookies)
Malwarebytes
Ad aware
Spybot
Memtest 86 (both sticks and 1 stick at a time)
Windows Memory diagnostics (both sticks and 1 stick at a time)
Updated Bios to the most current version
Ran the computer with each memory stick in every different slot, one at a time
Windows repair
Restored Windows to an earlier point
Reseated the heatsink after reapplying thermal paste.
Updated the drivers.
Cleared CMOS.

I also monitor temperatures with Core Temp, GPU-z, CPUID and the Asus built in program. Temps for the GPU never go past 70 even under 89% load, the CPU is rarely over 60 even at 100% (ran Prime95 for 17 hours). So doubt it is a temp issue.

Anyone have any suggestions? Going a bit nuts here. Everything I have read seems to point to it being a RAM problem, could it be the motherboard slots don't work right? Hard drive dying (or just a piece of junk)? Something else?

Getting really tired of being in the middle of things and it hanging.
 

bavman

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May 19, 2010
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When your computer crashes because of memory you usually get a BSOD followed by a system error report on the next start up. It sounds like you tested the hell out of your memory so I think its fine.

Did you get some software to test to make sure it isnt your hdd? Like hd tune, will just open the smart data and if its failing, it'll let you know. Maybe you could also run a sweep of it to make sure you have no bad sectors.

Does the computer freeze and turn off or does it freeze and just hang there to where you have to completely turn it off to get it to be responsive again?
 

Talonstar

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It doesn't turn off, just freezes dead. Screens will show what was happening for at least 45 minutes (longest time before I got bored waiting for it to unhang). Core temp and the other monitors stop updating, can't ctrl-alt-del out, I have to pull the plug or hold down the power switch to get it restarted.

I have defrag setup for every 3 days and have checked that it ran successfully.

This is a new P8p67 board from Newegg, the other was recalled and I did a RMA.

No new programs installed other than the Minecraft.exe (problem was happening before I downloaded Minecraft) and Windows/driver updates/Steam updates.

Will check into HD tune.
 

bavman

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It doesnt really seem that any of your components are the problem. Usually when components poop out they crash the system with them. PSU will just shutdown your system without any warning. RAM, CPU instability will BSOD and crash. I'm pretty sure gpu instability does the same thing as ram and cpu.

I think your best bet is to do a fresh windows install, maybe on a spare disk if you dont want to lose what you have on your current one right now.
 

Talonstar

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Ran a full HD tune error test, it had 0 damaged blocks reported.

Was thinking about a full Windows install, just a pain to reset everything after so was hoping it was something easier. :(