Infrequent Windows 7 Lockups

Asking on behalf of a friend of mine; neither of us are particularly computer literate but seeing as I'm more so, I get the honors of making the post.

The computer in question is running Windows 7 Professional, and is around 2 months old. The specifics of the rig elude me, but I believe it's an Intel i7-3770, Nvidia GTX680, 8 GB RAM, power supply is at least 1,000 (if I can get the full system specs later, I'll post them). Very infrequently, and only after being on for some time (I.E. it does not crash shortly after start-up, usually working fine for several hours), it will freeze up (maybe once every 7-10 days, rarely less), with no error message or blue screen to show for it. It just shows whatever was on the screen at the time of the freeze. The computer doesn't make any strange noises. A forced restart is required to get it running again, and the reliability report simply says that the computer was shut down improperly. Other than this, the computer seems to function flawlessly.

I did some research elsewhere on my own and the only possible fix I could find that wasn't directly related to hardware (since I don't want to put her through that unless I'm absolutely sure that's what's needed) was a hotfix here on the Windows page:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2265716/en-us

I haven't had her download it yet, so if anyone has any comments about this hotfix, I'd be happy to hear those too.

Drivers and Windows are up to date, within my knowledge. I'm reluctant to resort to using 'Safe Mode' as a test for it because of how infrequently it occurs. In short, any suggestions as to what might be causing this?

 

Just a few clarifications on the matter (couldn't figure out how to edit the original post, I'm new here), it was an Unexpected Shutdown, not an 'improper' one.

The Event Log also says its a 6008 (EventLog System) error.

 

Hi and welcome to the forums.

First and foremost... I know that you are trying to help a friend but it drastically handicaps us when we have to go through someone else to get to a system. It is usually much easier for all involved if we can communicate with the person that is actually having the issue..

With the above said we actually WANT to see a blue screen if possible. Such a screen can give MANY insights. Please go to Start/Control Panel/System. You will need to be in icon view in the Control Panel to follow that path; upper right, change Category view to icon.

Under System go to Advanced Settings then settings for Startup and recovery. UNCHECK the option to automatically restart. This will, hopefully, get us a blue screen on the next fatal error. We will need the first set of numbers of the stop or error code and any file name that may be listed below the stop code.

 

Thanks for the response. I know it's a pain to have to go through me to get to the problem but I'm half a continent away at the moment and can't look at the computer myself, but I appreciate the effort.

I'll have those settings changed and post the next time it crashes.

 

No problem. Get back to us as soon as you are able.

 

Hi. Further to the above advice given, ask your friend does the Computer freeze using the same program or game, or just doing anything.