Help Please! Daily Freezes...

I have been having daily computer freezes for the last couple months and it is driving me CRAZY. I can't figure out what is wrong. I can be doing anything, or it can be doing nothing at all, but at some point during the day with absolute certainty, the computer will freeze and I will have to hard reboot. Often times if it is doing something with audio when it freezes (such as music or video) the audio will continue as though nothing is wrong, but the display and cursor will be completely stuck.

Unfortunately after this occurs, Event Viewer records nothing (other than the fact that I had to shut it down improperly) and Windows gives me no error codes or BSOD windows. I have tried a great deal of things to figure out what is wrong. I have run diagnostics on all hardware, including the Hard Disk and everything checks out. I have made sure that all drivers are up to date. I have had my registry cleaned. I upgraded from Vista 64 to Windows 7 64. I have even swapped out my RAM to make sure my chips weren't defective. I have used SpeedFan to determine the temperature of my graphics card (about 65-70 degrees on idle, 80 on load, which is pretty much normal for a GeForce 9800GT I believe).

I'm really out of ideas and I could REALLY use some help. Any good idea or even random thought concerning my problem would be extremely helpful. :unsure:

 

Have you ran a dxdiag report?
when was the last time that you updated the GPU and sound drivers?

 

I have just run a dxdiag report. It reported no problems in any area (unless I should be looking for something else specifically?). GPU and sound drivers are both up to date. I try and keep with driver updates often, especially for the video card. I would try going back to a much older GPU driver but I kinda find it hard to believe that all of Nvidia's recent drivers for my card are just simply glitchy...

 

<----- Oh and despite my profile insisting on displaying that I'm using Windows XP, I am actually using Windows 7 64 bit. (In case it may be relevant)

 

Hi and Welcome cpangrace

Easy fix I hope, top right should be your name with a drop down menu arrow, select "my settings", Profile tab, under Required Information, Sub Title Operating System, check the correct option scroll down and save

I say Easy Fix I hope because we have just updated IPB and the Skin so hopefully you haven't found a bug in it

 

It is a part of my AV software, Norton 360, which includes a few PC tuneup kind if scans and processes. It is one of the more expensive Norton products, not one of those cheap/free spyware ridden cleaners you find and download off the net, so I doubt it would mess up my whole system. This problem unfortunately was occurring BEFORE I used the Registry fixer, so I don't think that it is the root of my problems, although if anybody knows some kind of way to verify this, I am willing to try.

 

Have you checked to see if you have any chipset Updates? or any Bios updates?

 

I originally got my computer from HP, as the HP Pavilion d5100t Elite. They typically have their own BIOS installed and recommend the only updates they want you to have on their support site. Unfortunately, it is also a rather limited BIOS, unable to change fan speeds and voltages or basically anything more complex than Disk Boot order.

I've considered attempting to flash the BIOS back to the version that was installed when the computer came (before HP Update automatically gave me the new one) but I have been having difficulty finding out where to get older OR newer BIOS for the motherboard.

Do you think that could cause freezes like this?

 

I have a similar sort of problem, but not so often, I've tracked mine down to having an Abit board and having to use Vista 64 Chipset drivers, and as Abit is no more I'm not likely to be finding any Win 7 Drivers for it, or Bios updates, but hey it's an excuse to build a new system

If you have an HP Machine your best to use there Updates as they normally take a stock board and have it modified to there needs, and then do the same with the Bios, so I would check on there site for any Bios updates or newer Win 7 64 Bit drivers

 

Are you using onboard sound or an add in card?
have you updated the sound drivers to any newer versions available?

Have you ran diagnostics on the RAM? control panel>admin tools> memory diagnostic

In all honesty it could be any of your components causing the system to crash, the most common are RAM issues or GPU/Sound drivers (DirectX)

 

You can still get at Abit drivers/BIOS though Match http://www.abit.com.tw/page/uk/index.php

 

I see on that 64Bit Driver support list the AN52 isn't listed
http://www.abit.com.tw/page/uk/download/download_driver_detail.php?pFILE_TYPE=Driver&pMAIN_TYPE=Motherboard&pTITLE_ON_SCREEN=AN52&pSOCKET_TYPE=Socket%20AM2
http://www.abit.com.tw/page/uk/download/download_bios_detail.php?pFILE_TYPE=Bios&pMAIN_TYPE=Motherboard&pTITLE_ON_SCREEN=AN52&pSOCKET_TYPE=Socket%20AM2

Hope HP don't do the same

 

Before trying to update the bios, I would try reseting the bios see if that helps. Just remove the battery for about 30 seconds

 

I believe the problem may be solved! A member of this forum, DSTM, had messaged me, suggesting he solved a similar issue by completely uninstalling all display drivers on the machine and then installing the Nvidia drivers again. I had tried installing/rolling back the video drivers, as I suspected they were the issue, but the problem persisted. Nvidia's own site suggests that you install driver updates by simply running the installer and letting it overwrite the necessary parts of the old one. But when it comes down to it, as DSTM had mentioned, if the drivers had somehow become corrupt, the new updated drivers may still be effected by those corrupt components.

I completely removed all Display Drivers, and then ran the installer for the latest Nvidia drivers for the GeForce 9 Series. I have been crash-free for several days now.

Thank you everyone for your help. I have found this resolution somewhat enlightening, and I hope other with problems similar to this in the future will consider this when troubleshooting.

 

That's great to know the problems fixed!
And well done and thanks to Dougie for finding the solution