Windows freezes on screen saver

shebajd1 · Sep 14, 2009

Can anyone explain why Windows periodically freezes when the screen saver is running? :huh:

At first I thought it was due to the Windows Live Photo Gallery. After running for several hours (overnight, for e.g.), it would freeze on one picture. Usually moving the mouse would eventually close the screen saver and I'd return to the desktop.

I then changed to a regular screen saver, Mystify. Usually this isn't a problem, but today when I moved the mouse, the screen saver froze. I couldn't soft boot, actually had to shut down manually. This is the second time this has happened.

I've checked whether I'm using the latest video driver using device manager, and it says everything is up to date. I'm using NVIDIA GeForce 6150SE nForce 430, driver version 7.15.11.7530. Could there be a device conflict? How would I be able to tell? Thanks.

lemur · Sep 14, 2009

Let's make sure it's the screen saver. Type "power options" in the Vista menu. Perferred plan: high performance. Change Plan Settings -> Put the computer to sleep: never.

See if it still freezes. This is just to pinpoint the problem.

shebajd1 · Sep 14, 2009

I'll give it a try and let you know what happens. Thanks.

zigzag3143 · Sep 14, 2009

shebajd1 said:
Can anyone explain why Windows periodically freezes when the screen saver is running? :huh:

At first I thought it was due to the Windows Live Photo Gallery. After running for several hours (overnight, for e.g.), it would freeze on one picture. Usually moving the mouse would eventually close the screen saver and I'd return to the desktop.

I then changed to a regular screen saver, Mystify. Usually this isn't a problem, but today when I moved the mouse, the screen saver froze. I couldn't soft boot, actually had to shut down manually. This is the second time this has happened.

I've checked whether I'm using the latest video driver using device manager, and it says everything is up to date. I'm using NVIDIA GeForce 6150SE nForce 430, driver version 7.15.11.7530. Could there be a device conflict? How would I be able to tell? Thanks.

Are you auto hiding the taskbar? \What power configuration are you using?
\
Could you fill in our system specs (lower left corner) so we know what hardware you have

ken

Frostmourne · Sep 14, 2009

Make sure Vista is fully updated too.

shebajd1 · Sep 15, 2009

To answer the questions posed:

I updated my system specs.
I'm running Vista SP2, which I keep updated with relevant Windows updates. I don't install everything they push cause I've seen problems with some updates.
I'm not auto-hiding the task bar.
At lemur's suggestion, I changed my power options to High performance (had been set as Power Saver). Turn off display = 30 minutes. Put computer to sleep = Never.

I usually keep the PC on all the time. After I moved the mouse to wake up the PC, nothing happened. I tried soft booting, nothing happened. I had to shut down and restart.

The only other things I can see that could potentially be issues are memory conflicts. Not sure if this is normal or what, but I see a few that include the display device. Sysinfo shows the following under conflicts/sharing:

I/O Port 0x00000000-0x000003AF PCI bus
I/O Port 0x00000000-0x000003AF Direct memory access controller

IRQ 21 Standard Enhanced PCI to USB Host Controller
IRQ 21 NVIDIA GeForce 6150SE nForce 430

I/O Port 0x00009000-0x0000FFFF PCI bus
I/O Port 0x00009000-0x0000FFFF PCI standard PCI-to-PCI bridge

Memory Address 0xFEFF0000-0xFEFF03FF High precision event timer
Memory Address 0xFEFF0000-0xFEFF03FF System board

I/O Port 0x00001C00-0x00001C80 PCI bus
I/O Port 0x00001C00-0x00001C80 NVIDIA nForce PCI System Management

Memory Address 0xA0000-0xBFFFF PCI bus
Memory Address 0xA0000-0xBFFFF NVIDIA GeForce 6150SE nForce 430

I/O Port 0x000003B0-0x000003DF PCI bus
I/O Port 0x000003B0-0x000003DF NVIDIA GeForce 6150SE nForce 430

Frostmourne · Sep 15, 2009

Is DMA (direct memory access) enabled for your dvd drive? Also check out the BIOS to see what power options there are. You could also take out one memory stick and leave one in. Flashing the BIOS may also help.

This link is old but it may help:

http://www.webtechgeek.com/How-to-Resolve-IRQ-Conflict.htm

shebajd1 · Sep 15, 2009

I checked the link you provided. The instructions say that in Device Manager I should see "An exclamation point ( ! ) in a yellow circle will appear next to the names of ports or device that are conflicting," but none of the devices show a conflict, even though sysinfo shows there is an IRQ conflict.

I'll keep searching re: the DMA enabled and flashing the BIOS.

Frostmourne · Sep 15, 2009

shebajd1 said:
I checked the link you provided. The instructions say that in Device Manager I should see "An exclamation point ( ! ) in a yellow circle will appear next to the names of ports or device that are conflicting," but none of the devices show a conflict, even though sysinfo shows there is an IRQ conflict.

I'll keep searching re: the DMA enabled and flashing the BIOS.

Seeing as its an nforce chipset, flashing the BIOS should help. If you need your motherboard type to find the BIOS, open up msinfo32 or download Belarc Advisor.

shebajd1 · Sep 16, 2009

Without making any changes other than to the power options, last night I received a BSOD. I wasn't sitting at the computer when it happened, just looked up and there it was, so I never saw the full message. I believe it was something about KERNEL_INLINE_PAGE_ERROR, or something like that.

The system then rebooted, so I figured it would reboot into the repair mode and I'd be able to run the startup repair, open in safe mode, etc. Instead, I received a disk read error AGAIN, the same problem I had about a month ago. Since I knew I had Spinrite and that worked before, I rebooted and went into the BIOS so I could make sure one of the HD settings was correct. But when I looked at the settings, all the numbers were zero, big fat goose eggs. It seems the system isn't detecting the hard drive.

I still tried using Spinrite, which lets me see a list of hard drive devices, and the same thing. I have the tool on a flash drive that it recognizes as a hard drive, but it doesn't detect the "real" hard drive.

I even tried running startup repair from the recovery disk, but I receive an error trying to run it. I can't run startup repair from the HD because of the disk read error.

So I'm back to looking at a blank screen. Can anyone suggest something to at least allow the system to see the hard drive? Thank you.

H2SO4 · Sep 16, 2009

A kernel inpage error occurs when the OS experiences problems during the delicate process of attempting to page in parts of itself (the OS) from the HDD. In other words, those portions of the OS which don't always need to sit resident in RAM are sometimes paged out (to disk) as necessitated by runtime memory pressure. If those memory pages subsequently become inaccessible, for whatever reason, the condition is lethal and it results in a stop 0x7A.

Given your subsequent findings, the HDD or its controller are almost certainly broken. Sorry

(BTW, they don't call it "spinrite" for nothing - it's nothing more than spin. Steve Gibson is a controversial figure in IT with opinions asymmetrically divided over whether he's a w###er or not - Steve says "no" and almost everybody else says "yes".)

shebajd1 · Sep 16, 2009

Wow. I guess I kind of suspected that, but it certainly doesn't make me happy. :cry:

So I guess my only option is to have it serviced? Is anything repairable? For instance, can a tech get data from the old HD if I need to replace it? I already know that my warranty is up...eMachines confirmed it. Meaning I'd have to pay big bucks for just for them to tell me I need to replace the hard drive.

Spinrite did seem to fix my issue before, so I can't say one way or another how much "spin" it is. But I guess all it did was move good data to another location, but if the HD was ready to crash, it didn't prevent that from happening.

H2SO4 · Sep 16, 2009

shebajd1 said:
So I guess my only option is to have it serviced? Is anything repairable? For instance, can a tech get data from the old HD if I need to replace it? I already know that my warranty is up...eMachines confirmed it. Meaning I'd have to pay big bucks for just for them to tell me I need to replace the hard drive.

You're at the "jiggle it, just a little bit" stage of troubleshooting. There's always the possibility that the disk read errors are caused by nothing more than a cable connector which is improperly seated, or a spec of dust between contacts.

You may want to unconnect the cable from the HDD and the motherboard, blow some compressed air over the contacts, and then reconnect everything. Next thing would be to try a different SATA/IDE port, if the motherboard has one spare. Swapping the cable out would also rule out that possibility.

Best of all, if you have access to another machine, stick the drive in there, preferably using completely different cables. If it still behaves the exact same way, I'm afraid you'd have to spend significant money to get a data recovery place to look at it.

Good luck.

Windows freezes on screen saver

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