Intermittent freeze-ups Win7-64bit

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My PC is a Win7-64 bit system that has been freezing up intermittently. It is a freeze up that I cannot key out of. I must reset the PC. I cannot re-create the problem because I don’t know when it’s going to occur.

Windows is kept up to date. I have AVAST, Super-Anti-Spyware and Anti-Malware Bytes installed. I scan regularly. The freezeup may occur at any time, but usually it is when I turn on the PC first thing in the morning and I’m doing email or reading the forums to which I regularly go. I did a clean Windows reinstall a couple of months ago and here were no issues. The reinstall went very well. I did not have this problem immediately after the clean reinstall.

To attempt to diagnose the cause of the problem, I have checked Device Manager to see if there are any hardware issues and there are none. I have checked event viewer. The only events in there were the PC objecting to the reboots. I have checked the Reliability Monitor and the only events in there were the PC reboots.

I have checked the Resource & Performance Monitor and the OS, Disk, Security Center, System Service, Hardware Device and Drivers all passed as OK.

Windows told me my PC boots up more slowly then it should because I have PSI scan on boot up.

I ran an sfc /verifyonly to check system integrity and the scan was just fine.

I have the latest Lachesis mouse driver. I disabled the Nvidia automatic update service because some have found it to be problematic.

When I have to reboot the computer, on reboot, the process stops for just a few seconds on my primary drive, but then continues on.

Its not a devastating problem and my PC runs fine, but is so very annoying. I do not know where else to look to try to determine what the issue is. Can someone offer some suggestions? Thanks. Diane P.

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Diane, Good morning.

I would disable PSI from the boot sequence for a while to ensure this is not the cause. I use PSI as well, but only as an occ (perhaps once per week) scan for updates. I would also use What’s In Startupto check on whether anything else is starting that may be causing the freeze. (scroll down a ways for the download link) :coffeetime::coffeetime: On my second mug already.

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Diane, Good morning.

I would disable PSI from the boot sequence for a while to ensure this is not the cause. I use PSI as well, but only as an occ (perhaps once per week) scan for updates. I would also use What’s In Startupto check on whether anything else is starting that may be causing the freeze. (scroll down a ways for the download link) :coffeetime::coffeetime: On my second mug already.

Hi Ted,

I will start trying to fix this problem by using PSI manually only. OP’s also mentioned PSI as a source of issues as well. It’s the only thing Windows objected to that I could find when running the diags.

D.

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Hi,

Do you have the UAC active and PSI set to update programs automatically? If you do, I would suggest either to disable the UAC or to uncheck the PSI option to update programs automatically. I can confirm that there is something wrong either with PSI or with the UAC (and I haven seen it happen in Vista and 7), that will lead to an occasional lock up in Windows, or even to boots that can last forever.

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Hi,

Do you have the UAC active and PSI set to update programs automatically? If you do, I would suggest either to disable the UAC or to uncheck the PSI option to update programs automatically. I can confirm that there is something wrong either with PSI or with the UAC (and I haven seen it happen in Vista and 7), that will lead to an occasional lock up in Windows, or even to boots that can last forever.

I have UAC active and PSI was set to update automatically. I have changed PSI’s settings and will use it manually as Ted M suggested. Thank you.

D.

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Other things to check:
Run Windows Memory Diagnostic. (plug the term into the start orb search box)
Run Chkdsk /r

Jerry

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I disabled the Nvidia automatic update service because some have found it to be problematic.

Can someone offer some suggestions?

Diane,
Hello… Nvidia for me has always been a “pain” I have had “freeze up” problems as well along the way… This is what i have done ..and so far it has greatly minimized my problems..I think that it has to do with windows 7 64 and my hardware (Several Hard Drives) … but anyway…

1. Reverted my Nvidia Driver software for my video card GT 240 back to the oldest version … for me 191.07 see this link for yours Nvidia If you don’t know how or not sure how to “revert” …post back. Also you can try the “settings changes” first ,to see if they help.

2.Bring up Nvidia control panel

3. Then “Manage 3d Settings”> Global Tab> and under “Power Management Mode ” set to “prefer Maximum Performance”

4.Then click on the “Program Settings Tab”>Power Management Mode > and set all that are shown in the “Select a program to customize” drop down to “Prefer maximum performance” See if this helps ? :cheers: Regards Fred

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Diane,

1. Reverted my Nvidia Driver software for my video card GT 240 back to the oldest version … for me 191.07 see this link for yours Nvidia If you don’t know how or not sure how to “revert” …post back. Also you can try the “settings changes” first ,to see if they help.

2.Bring up Nvidia control panel

3. Then “Manage 3d Settings”> Global Tab> and under “Power Management Mode ” set to “prefer Maximum Performance”

4.Then click on the “Program Settings Tab”>Power Management Mode > and set all that are shown in the “Select a program to customize” drop down to “Prefer maximum performance” See if this helps ? :cheers: Regards Fred

JPFred: Thank you.

I downloaded the newest WHQL drivers, I think 275.33 in an attempt to solve this problem, however I did a custom install and did not install the Nvidia 3D driver or controller in the process.

I am not that good with configuring video cards, so excuse my question if it’s dumb….would managing 3D settings be effective in my case with no 3D software installed?

TIA. D

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I downloaded the newest WHQL drivers, I think 275.33 I did a custom install and did not install the Nvidia 3D driver or controller in the process.

would managing 3D settings be effective in my case with no 3D software installed?

Diane,
Hello… I apologize for not being clear in my post..OK,
Let’s give it another try…

1.If you have already installed the latest version (275.33) for you card , and didn’t remove the previous version… Likely the “3D ” old version is still there ..Go to “Control Panel”> Programs> Uninstall > and see whats listed for Nvidia…

2.”Right Click” on an empty portion of your screen and select “Nvidia control panel” and see if you have the 3D setting listed

3. Keep in mind this is only one of the possible solutions , and it’s an “Easy” one to try… as to go back all you have to do is click “Restore” in the Nvidia control panel .

4.If the 3D settings are not there, then it is not possible to “Adjust” them without installing that portion of the package.

5. My original suggestion was to “Revert” to the “oldest” driver… but hey since you’ve already installed this …Might as well “give her a go”, and see what happens …Post back with any questions, as i and others will be happy to help you get over the “rough spots” :cheers: Regards Fred

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Diane,
Hello… I apologize for not being clear in my post..OK,
Let’s give it another try…

Hi JP Fred:

Your post was clear; maybe my answer wasn’t.

When I started having this issue, I decided to get the latest WHQL certified driver which a few days ago was 275.33. I used Revo to remove all traces of the prior driver from my PC.

In looking in CP, I have the Nvidia 275.33, Physx Driver and Nvidia Automatic update service only(that I’ve disabled). I have no 3D software installed.

I went into Nvidia control panel for the setting you suggested and it’s there, but I am going to hold off fooling with it for the moment while I wait to see the results of the “drumming down” I did to Secunia PSI this morning.

So far, I haven’t locked up, but I haven’t done much other than email yet. Thanks again. D.

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A friend was having problems with freeze ups. No matter what we tried, it wouldn’t take care of the problem. He took it in and after diagnostics, he was told it was because of the Bing Toolbar that was installed. Neither of us knew that was there, nor how it got installed. Once they removed it, the freeze up problems for him went away. Don’t know if it will help your problem, but might be worth a try. But let me say, I do NOT know where to look for that toolbar. Have tried to find it on my computer to see if that is the cause of my multitude of issues.

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Revo Uninstaller should find it.

Zig

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A friend was having problems with freeze ups. No matter what we tried, it wouldn’t take care of the problem. He took it in and after diagnostics, he was told it was because of the Bing Toolbar that was installed. Neither of us knew that was there, nor how it got installed. Once they removed it, the freeze up problems for him went away. Don’t know if it will help your problem, but might be worth a try. But let me say, I do NOT know where to look for that toolbar. Have tried to find it on my computer to see if that is the cause of my multitude of issues.

I doubt it’s the Bing Toolbar, but you should be able to see it in Control Panel, Programs and Features, or as stated above, Revo Uninstallershould find it and uninstall it.

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I did a clean Windows reinstall a couple of months ago and here were no issues. The reinstall went very well. I did not have this problem immediately after the clean reinstall.

This statement may suggest a 3rd party application as a potential cause to the instability.

There may be a few things you could try as a means to troubleshoot this;
1 Start from a clean install and only install 1 major program at a time, give the program and operating system time for a good run through, then install another & repeat.
2 Start uninstalling programs one at a time untill the culprit is discovered. (uninstall one program, reboot and attempt to run machine as usual. allow sufficient time to observe any freeze-ups).

Next step would be to troubleshoot hardware, like memory and power supply.

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I hope Diane’s PC has not failed all together! It’s been many hours since her first post. Hoping one of these many suggestions solves her problemss.

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Before going with anything more radical, I would really look at PSI and the PSI / UAC combination. My desktop used to lock up and be totally unresponsive because of it, until I noticed various consent.exe processes running when such situations occurred. Having removed PSI’s ability to auto update apps, it never occurred again. Recently my wife’s Vista laptop was taking a lot of time to boot. Again, after much effort, with reboots and such, got Task Manager to run and alas, there were the consent.exe processes. There I opted to disable the UAC (as my wife won’t really update the laptop by herself). Problem solved.

In conclusion, PSI can cause this and if it is causing it, the solution is very easily implemented. Of course, in this case, Ted’s proposed solution (manually running PSI but then waiting for it to finish and shut it down), would also work.

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Before going with anything more radical, I would really look at PSI and the PSI / UAC combination. My desktop used to lock up and be totally unresponsive because of it, until I noticed various consent.exe processes running when such situations occurred. Having removed PSI’s ability to auto update apps, it never occurred again.

Thanks, Ruirib.

I can’t CTRL-ALT-Delete out of one of these lockups to see what’s running. Can you tell me how to see if “consent.exe’s” processes are running when I lock up? Thanks.

D.

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Thanks, Ruirib.

I can’t CTRL-ALT-Delete out of one of these lockups to see what’s running. Can you tell me how to see if “consent.exe’s” processes are running when I lock up? Thanks.
D.

This is not an easy thing to do. I just tried CTRL+ALT+DEL often and eventually I got to Task Manager in a couple times. By running PSI manually and removing the auto-update option you should be free of trouble.

Whatever happens, do let us know :).

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Hi Diane,

The symptoms you describe are very similar to a problem I had a couple of years ago…

Random freezing of Windows
Slowdown on startup whilst detecting hard drives

The slowdown on startup indicated to me (eventually) it was probably a hardware issue.

To cut a long story short, I replaced the PSU and the problems disappeared.

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Hi Diane,

The symptoms you describe are very similar to a problem I had a couple of years ago…

Random freezing of Windows
Slowdown on startup whilst detecting hard drives

Browni:

I only get the slowdown on bootup after I do a reset because the PC has locked up.

I am saving attempts to analyze hardware and memory issues for last because I am horrible with hardware and hate opening my tower to take out memory sticks to run memtest properly.

I have a 1000W Thermaltake Tough Power PSU modular in this PC and if it failed…doing a rewire would be a nightmare that I don’t want to think about.

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Hi Diane,

A few things that may help you track down your problem(s):

Try calling up TaskMan immediately on boot and keep it minimised, it’ll appear much faster when you really need it – cycle Alt+Tab.

The latest version of SAS can be a hog in the first minute or two of boot, it can be disabled safely for testing but it’s better to have it pre-loading, in case there’s a malware problem at some time. A loaded program is much harder for malware to force close – blocking it from starting is much easier.

LatencyMon and Process Explorer can be great tools for identifying driver/process problems – but they also add their own overheads.

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Satrow: Thanks for your input.

I know SAS is tough on bootup. Before I do much of anything in the AM, I make sure SAS has updated itself in the tray. It usually does so right after AVAST. I appreciate your identifying more tools to add to the arsenal for my potential use.

D.

P.S. Day 2 with no freeze-ups. Fingers X’d but it might be we got it licked with re-doing the PSI settings. I’ll give it a few more days.

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P.S. Day 2 with no freeze-ups. Fingers X’d but it might be we got it licked with re-doing the PSI settings. I’ll give it a few more days.

That’s good news. Let’s hope that was it, since it will mean everything else is ok.

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Guys…Day 5

So far so good! Thank you.

Diane

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Seems it was PSI :).
It’s quite a nasty effect. I am not sure whether PSI or Windows itself is to blame. It’s pretty dumb to have the UAC asking for consent, the UI not showing it and the computer basically being unusable.

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I have AVAST, Super-Anti-Spyware and Anti-Malware Bytes installed.

Sounds like you’ve solved your lock-up problem. Just in case, it occurred to me to ask if you have more than one of your anti-malware apps set to do real-time scanning. While it’s good to have more than one anti-malware scanner on hand, it’s best to have only one running in real time, with the others used for on-demand scanning.

If you have multiple real-time scanners running, that can cause various kinds of problems from slow-downs to freezes.

Parenthetically, if you’re looking for “defense in depth,” I’d recommend running the free PC Tools Threatfire app in conjunction with your standard anti-malware real-time scanner. As far as I know, it has no conflicts with standard anti-malware scanners (nor have I ever experienced any issues in over two years of running it with various anti-malware real-time scanners), and it gives you an extra edge against day zero attacks.

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Sounds like you’ve solved your lock-up problem. Just in case, it occurred to me to ask if you have more than one of your anti-malware apps set to do real-time scanning. While it’s good to have more than one anti-malware scanner on hand, it’s best to have only one running in real time, with the others used for on-demand scanning.

Thank you for your input.

Avast, my anti-virus runs automatically; Super-AntiSpyware updates automatically on bootup, but does not scan. It is a real resource grabber if it scans when Windows starts. I do have it set to run in protection mode in real time when Windows starts however. I manually run the scans in SAS.

Anti-Malware Bytes is used as a scanner only. Updates and scans are done manually. Appreciate the info re: PC Tools Threatfire.

Diane

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Avast, my anti-virus runs automatically; Super-AntiSpyware updates automatically on bootup, but does not scan. It is a real resource grabber if it scans when Windows starts. I do have it set to run in protection mode in real time when Windows starts however. I manually run the scans in SAS.

You might want to check with the vendors of Avast and Super-AntiSpyware to see if they recommend simultaneously running both of those in real-time scan mode (I have no experience with that particular combination).

I’m assuming that (in theory, at least) they’re looking for different things, but that’s not so much the issue as is how they’re scanning–if the two programs’ scan methods are similar, the possibility for mutual interference exists, with possible negative consequences to your systems’ stability or performance.

Of course, you could just wait and see if any stability or performance issues crop up, and address the matter then. If nothing’s wrong, why waste time worrying about it, right?

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If you can’t find it in Programs and Features, you should find it listed in your browser’s add ons. (In IE, click on the gear and then manage add ons) You should be able to disable it there. You should also be able to right click on a blank area in the very top bar and get a list of toolbars. Uncheck the Bing bar.

Jerry

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