Vista freezing without any load

T

tyburger

New Member
OK...so here's the situation...i'll just spit it all out and hopefully you can make of it what you will:

  • System freezes up...without warning...without stutter. It's as if im looking at a screenshot of my screen on paper (no faded out windows from unresponsiveness and no moving mouse)...and it happens instantly and swiftly. Completely random too, no difference if I have a load on it or not. Also happens when the screensaver is up.
  • When I boot the computer...the mobo splash screen won't go away unless I have my HP C4180 disconnected...(what the heck?). the printer does have a card reader...but there's no card in it. With the splash disabled...it seems to be halting at the USB Mass Storage detection. is there any way to fix this?
  • Both issues appeared 3 weeks after I build the machine...so maybe drivers or something?
I've run the latest version of memtest for over an hour...and it hadn't brought up any errors.

System:

  • Cooler Master 550W PSU
  • Seagate 7200.11 500GB
  • Vista Ultimate x64
  • EVGA GeForce 8800 GT 512MB
  • Asus P5K Deluxe/WiFi LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel MB
  • Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
  • G.SKILL 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 1066 Dual Channel **is running at 1066 too
Any help would be really appreciated. I just don't know really where to start...if anyone has ideas, please let me know! Thanks!
 

My Computer

System One

Hello tyburger, Welcome to the forums, :party:

Just some general pointers firstly as you said I would go to the manufactures site's and get the latest drivers for your components. You can use the Device manager and update drivers but unfortunately this is not always as up to date, Also check the date of your bios. Often, freezes may be caused by power options so you may want to have a look at these both in the bios and in windows Power Management.
Another thing I would check is Temperatures, Especially the Video system you may want to download CPU-Z and GPU-Z for this purpose

Hope this helps


with the Printer thing you may want to check your start-up programs to see if anything is pointing to the card reader.
 
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My Computers

System One System Two

  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro x64 Latest Release Preview
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Acer G276HL 27", (DVi) + Samsung 39" HDTV (HDMI)
    Screen Resolution
    2 x 1920x1080 @50Hz
  • Manufacturer/Model
    Real World Computers (Custom by Me)
    CPU
    AMD FX8350 Vishera 8 Core @4GHz
    Motherboard
    Asus M5A78L-M USB3
    Memory
    32GB [4x8GB] DDR3 1600 MHz
    Sound Card
    ASUS Xoner DG + SPDIF to 5.1 System + HDMI
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Samsung 32" TV
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1080
    Hard Drives
    Internal Crucial CT256MX100SSD1 256GB SSD, Seagate ST2000DM001-1CH1 2TB, External (USB3) Seagate Backup+ Hub BK SCSI Disk 8TB 2.5/3.5 Hot Swap Cradle, USB3 + eSata (client HDDs) NAS 4TB
    PSU
    Aerocool Templarius Imperator 750W 80+ Silver
    Case
    AeroCool X-Warrior Red Devil Tower
    Cooling
    Hyper103 CPU, Rear 120mm, Front 2x120mm, Side 2x120mm
    Internet Speed
    68 MB Down 18.5 MB Up
    Other Info
    Six Sensor Auto / Manual Digital cooling (Fan) control with Touch control Panel
Also, you may want to make sure the SATA connection and cable is good. Loosen connection and bad SATA cable is a known source of freezing problem due to error access HDD.
 

My Computer

System One

  • CPU
    E6850
    Motherboard
    EVGA 122-CK-NF67-A1 680i
    Memory
    4 x OCZ Platinum 1GB
    Graphics card(s)
    ATI Radeon HD 5850 1GB
    Sound Card
    SB X-Fi X Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Samsung 23" 5MS
    Screen Resolution
    2048 x 1152
    Hard Drives
    2 x Barracuda 7200.10 320GB RAID 0 / 1 x 500GB Maxtor
    PSU
    Seasonic 600W M12
    Case
    CM Centurion 5
    Cooling
    air
    Internet Speed
    100Mbps
tyburger said:
  • When I boot the computer...the mobo splash screen won't go away unless I have my HP C4180 disconnected...(what the heck?). the printer does have a card reader...but there's no card in it. With the splash disabled...it seems to be halting at the USB Mass Storage detection. is there any way to fix this?
Click to expand...

Even though there is no card in it, there is still the card holder. So it's a bit like a CD drive without a CD in it. It may be difficult so solve, so you may have to learn to always disconnect the printer before switching on the computer or rebooting and only reconnect it after Windows has finished booting.

Looking for possible solutions which might avoid having to disconnect it for every boot, first I would try is allocating it a different drive letter. In Disk Management, right click the drive for the card reader and click "Change drive letter..." and change it to a letter late in the alphabet such as "P" (P for printer, easy to remember). It's possible you will only be able to do that if there is a card in the reader.

If you manually change a drive letter like that, it sticks, so Windows will always allocate that letter to it. Otherwise it may be allocated a different letter on different occasions. For example when you attach it after Windows has booted it is given a different letter from what it's given if it's connected at boot time. Sometimes Windows gets it wrong and gives it a letter which clashes with another device's letter. Manually setting it to P: should prevent that.

Another thing which might possibly work, in addition to giving it a fixed letter, is to always keep a card in the reader. The delay may be caused by Windows waiting for feedback when it asks the device's driver for info -- like you say "it seems to be halting at the USB Mass Storage detection".
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    home assembled
    CPU
    Intel Q9450 quad core
    Motherboard
    Asus P5Q Pro, Intel P45 chipset
    Memory
    4GB : 2 x 2GB G.Skill DDR2 800MHz
    Graphics card(s)
    Gigabyte 9600GT
    Sound Card
    Realtek onboard the mobo
    Monitor(s) Displays
    BenQ 24"
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1200
    Hard Drives
    2 of Samsung HD501LJ SATA2 500GB and a few IDE hard disks on USB for backups
    PSU
    Corsair TX-650 and APC UPS
    Case
    Antec P180
    Cooling
    OCZ Vendetta2
thanks everyone for the response!
obviously, it'll take me some time to try all your suggestions. i'll get back to yous with the results.

thanks again:D
 

My Computer

System One

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