Solved Computer Freezes

OK I'm brand new here, and registered mostly because of this new problem I am unable to fix. I'm able to solve 99% of all problems I come across with my computer, but I fear this is a hardware issue, and I mainly deal with software. So here goes:
I've had my computer for about 7 months or so, handed down to me from my grandmother when she got a new one. About three days ago I started having an issue where my computer will freeze and become unresponsive at random times. Sometimes the mouse still works, sometimes not. The odd thing is my sidebar continues to function during these times until I try to use it in any way. I know this because I have a CPU meter on it that continues to change (every second or so) during these freezes. But they happen at unpredictably times, although about half of them occurred when browsing the internet (with both IE 8 and Firefox). Occasionally I would open a new tab (to trusted site) and IE or Firefox would stop responding. Usually just closing the program and reopening it solves the issue, but lately trying to close it resulted in these bizarre freeze ups. Other times it has happened while gaming, copying/deleting files, once while logging into my computer, and once when I clicked on a tray icon right after a boot up. After googling it, I figured it was just overheating, and took measures to make sure it has adequate air access to the vent fan, even setting up a big fan to blow on the underside (where the fan is) while using it. This seemed to reduce the occurrences, but they still happen on occasion. I don't think it's caused by a RAM issue (apparently these usually cause crashes or blue screens, not freezes) and no CPU usage patterns are there. So basically I'm stuck. It could just be overheating, but I've kept it pretty cool and it's never had a problem in the last seven month that I've been using it in the same way. Also, it's always triggered by something I do, there's just no consistent pattern there. Otherwise, maybe a HD issue that I don't know about, or maybe power supply, or possibly video card (but again; why now?) I just don't know. I'm confident it's not a virus either. One last thing: every time it freezes, I hear a click (not through speakers, but a physical click near the back where my power plug, exhaust fan and HD are) that is the same sound I hear when I power of my machine. But again, the screen still remains active, and ctrl+alt+delete, ctrl+sft+esc, alt+tab, and windows key all do absolutely nothing. I just have to hold the power button until it shuts off. I'm at a total loss here, and any help would be great. Thank you!!!

Welcome
Here is a good start
Windows 7 Freezes Up - Windows 7 Forums
http://www.sevenforums.com/general-...-lags-every-couple-seconds-7.html#post1131640
For both Seven and Vista

Hmm... OK well since overheating was most likely the culprit I installed Core Temp to keep track of the temp and see if it's too hot the next time it happens. To speed this process up I'll try to perform the same kind of tasks that seems most likely to cause issues and report back soon. But if it is overheating, wouldn't it freeze at completely random times? I mean, without any type of user input to trigger it? Because it has always happened at the time of a mouse click. This behavior is the main reason I'm skeptical about heat issues, but if these "clicks" could indeed be an appropriate trigger I'd like to know.

Im like you, dont know the cause. So I gave you a list so you can try what is appropriate. I cannot see or touch your computer; so you know best about your situation.

OK it happened again. I opened IE to check my history, and when I tried to close it, IE stopped responding, then I heard that click again. My computer froze up, but surprisingly the minimize button worked, but after it was in the...blue bar at the bottom it was inaccessible like the rest of my system (except for the sidebar which continued to function). I'm wondering if maybe a problem with unresponsive programs is causing this... Also I installed Core Temp to measure CPU temp and it well below max temp when this occurred (~45-50 degrees F, Max is 90 I think), so I thing overheating is out. I think it may be a power supply issue (I've gotten a couple warning before at system boot up saying that my computer can't determine the AC adapter attached or something, but I'm using the cord and everything provided with the computer by Dell, and these warnings are sparse and intermittent; I've only gotten like 4 or so). Oh, and one more thing I forgot to mention: About half the time after a freeze up, when I restart my computer it runs chkdsk without finding any problems.

So right now I'm wondering if anyone has any way of checking my power supply for issues. I'm pretty sure it's not any weird BIOS settings unless they've changed themselves and A restore point to before I had any issues didn't help. Thanks for your ongoing support I really appreciate it.

Bad news. Click often=hard drive. Save your stuff and then we can talk.

Backup your stuff and then take a real HD test

Test Hard Drive www.carrona.org/hddiag.html or this test www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=287


To put it bluntly, in my opinion, ckdsk in this situation is a joke.

Well it's not that it's "clicking often," just when I encounter a freeze. I suspect that whatever hardware the "click" is coming from is shutting down (same as when I power off) when it isn't supposed to. I've been over some Dell disassembly guides and from what I've found the sound is not coming from the hard drive, because it's too far away from the sound. The only things near the sound are my power supply (at least I assume the PSU is located where I plug in the power cable) my cooling fan and I think the processor. So I'm pretty sure it's a PSU issue, very unlikely to be the hard drive, unless the sound is caused by something dependent on the HD quiting when the HD does.

However, I just noticed that I've had the Dell Power Saver option on for...a few days. I think this is what is causing my problems, as one of the side effects is "reduced pefformance" in order to conserve battery life. I was messing with it a few days ago and forgot to put it back. This would certainly explain the lags with IE and maybe my freezing. Thanks for all of your input though. Guess I just needed someone to bounce ideas off of. I'll do some tests now and see if the problem is fixed, and report back here when I figure anything out. If this doesn't fix it, I'll start looking into buying a new hard drive (I need a bigger one anyway) and running those tests you mentioned. Thanks again though!

Hopefully the problem will be solved with power saver and yes that would cause lags.
Before going out to spend money on a hard drive, take one of the tests that I gave above.
Good luck

Oh well do I need to back my stuff up first? Because I don't really have a good way of doing that. Need a new hard drive to do it, the extra one I have right now is too full of stuff I can't fit on my computer Preliminary results looking good though, I was able to open a ton of tabs in IE that caused it to lag a lot (like it usually does) without a computer freeze up like before. I'm going to go ahead and continue to strain it through tomorrow though just to be sure. But to clarify, do I need to backup my stuff before running those tests or not? That was the impression I got from your post. Last time I had a computer crash while trying to make a partition I had to restore my HD, and I REALLY don't want to have to go through that again...

Technically, you do not have to back up before the test. BUT
I have found, from experience, that its best to back up before trying anything with the computer. As a matter of fact, I back up once a week, to be on the safe side. You never know when I will have to say, I hope that my clock ticking and not the HD. I think that you get my drift.

Ok I think I can confidently say that fixed it. Thanks again!

Your welcome, but you found the answer of power saver. Good luck

UGH. I'm sorry. It happened again. But I did notice something new. I have the application Fences which lets you put desktop icons inside little boxes, and these boxes can be moved around. When it froze, I could drag these boxes around (the mouse icon changes to a little 4 arrow icon when you move it over the tops of these boxes to show you that they can be dragged) So while my screen didn't actually show these boxes being moved, the pointer would change to the 4 arrow icon over the place I had just dragged the box to, instead of where it was before. SO basically, this tells me that my computer is still running. It's just my...user interface? that freezes. But it's not just explorer.exe that's freezing because ctrl+alt+del doesn't show up either (but I can tell it does pull up that screen becauseI can no longer move my boxes. Could this be a video card problem? corrupt driver? It's not my monitor because my mouse still moves, and my keyboard can still use the Fn keys to adjust the brightness just fine.
I don't know, the best way I can describe it is that my screen stops refreshing or something. Do you still think this could be caused by a HD problem since my computer is still obviously running? It'sjust not showing me anything besides the mouse pointer, which still interacts with things on screen. Sorry if this is getting old already. Basically, if you still don't know what my problem could be, can you explain to me how to reinstall drivers? I can't find a decent guide on the internet, and don't want to crash my computer by just running in blind. I want to see if it's a video card driver.

Hello I also had the fences and a few other things with it and I was getting so many errors and crash's it was not funny, after I got rid of all of it and got my computer back up and running I no longer downloaded things like that, the problems went away...

Thanks for the idea. After I run that sfc command, if it doesn't fix it, I'm going to start looking into the programs I have running in the background and see if any of them might be the cause. However, I'm not willing to uninstall Fences I use that program SO MUCH, and just have SO MANY things on my desktop that I'd rather deal with spontaneous freezes than ditch it. But thanks for the info!

I know this is old and I got this solved on a different thread, but figure I'd post the same solution here in case anyone finds it through google or something for help with their own computer:

After uninstalling WinPatrol, a sort of firewall program, (I don't know the exact term for what kind of program it is) running the SFC /scannow from cmd prompt, and reinstalling McAfee Total Protection, I haven't had this happen in over a week and I think it's fixed. i don't know which one of these actions was responsible for the fix, or if it was a combination of the three, but my computer is no longer freezing up, and I am once again very happy!! thank you all for all of your ideas and help, and for just reading through the huge posts I made on here to explain what was going on