Windows 7 freezes

[Norgermish]

Hi all,
I have a fairly new Dell Inspiron 1545. Pentium Dual-Core T4300 @ 2.1GHz 3GB memory 64bit OS running Windows 7 Ultimate. Recently upgraded from Home to Ultimate. I now notice the computer freezes when IE or Firefox are open and the laptop is sitting idle. I'll come back to it and no response. The cursor moves but nothing will respond. Ctrl,Alt,Delete takes me to screen device manager, switch user, etc. If I click on any of the options it goes to black screen and just sits idle, with the cursor still able to move.As far as I've noticed it only occurs when IE or Firefox are opened and it sits idle. Otherwise runs wonderfully.
Thanks for any help

 

[linney]

Can you reproduce the fault at will, or is it sporadic?

Have you looked through the Event Viewer and see if there are any repeating errors?

See if you can get any ideas from these old XP Posts.

Windows random hang
thread779-1423743

xp freeze troubleshooting
thread779-935320

PC Freezing - Hard to explain (see details)
thread779-1398265

 

[Norgermish]

linney.
It does seem to freeze when it sits idle, so yes it is repeatable. I was away from computer for 1/2 hour and came back and it was frozen. Though cursor still moves

Looking at the Event Viewer it has some critical errors that occurred during the times I remember the problem happening. I searched around and those seem to be recorded as errors when the computer is rebooted manually by the on/off button.
Event: Level: Critical
Source: Kernel-Power
Event ID: 41
The last time it froze, I hit C/A/D the task manager etc. screen came up,(it responds very slowly), I clicked on shut down(again very slow response)in lower right corner, the computer black screened and then had the message it was waiting to close programs, Adobe 9 Pro which I had open and also Firefox, I clicked cancel and everything now works.
It's just an irritating process.

 

[linney]

Is it tied in with any screensaver that you might be running which is trying to start or run?

How to troubleshoot a problem by performing a clean boot in Windows Vista or in Windows 7

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/929135

I am also thinking hardware problems might be occurring, or even overheating if ventilation is poor.

 

[Norgermish]

No screensaver enabled, I did disable some of the items in start up but it seemed to make the problem worse. I don't do any gaming or high processor usage programs. I don't know what might cause overheating.

It seems you may be on to something though with the hardware issues. Not too sure about where to go with that though.

 

[linney]

Can you reproduce the problem from Safe Mode?

The first troubleshooting step into hardware would be to test after removing all the easily detached hardware such as inserted cards, printers, USB devices, etc.

You could also create another user and test that in Normal Mode.

 

[BadBigBen]

Check your power settings, e.g. is it set to Hibernate or Sleep after an initial time of inactivity. If it is, then change the setting that it does not Hibernate or Sleep...

see if there is a BIOS update for the Laptop, it may have ACPI issues that cause it to freeze the OS...


Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[dilettante]

Mismatched (speed, capacity) memory modules can also give some memory controllers intermittent fits. 3GB sounds suspicious.

If this is a 1GB and a 2GB, can you try running for a while with just the 2GB module installed?

Just a thought.

 

[Norgermish]

I did disable sleep power settings and it seems to resolve the issue. Wonder why?

 

[glenmac]

Sounds lot like my problem. Mine goes away if I use a stock theme and disable Sleep.

Glen

http://lantzvillecomputers.com