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How do i determine why my computer freezes?
Practically once everyday my computer becomesun-responsive and i have to turn it off and then restart it via the power button.
i have an XPS-8000 with windows 7. dell diagnostics passed, memtest passed, no Hard disk errors found. I have formatted disk and re-installeed windows. I have also cleaned out all the dust.
It usually happens with the first thirty minutes of turning it on. it does not matter what i am doing. A lot of times i turn it on and walk away, when i come back it's frozen. almost always it just happens once sometimes twice. Some days, it doesn't happen.
How can i figure out what is causing the problem?
speedstep
9 Legend
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April 4th, 2014 12:00
Boot a Live Ubuntu 12.0.4 LTS DVD and run it for a few hours.
ubuntu-12.04.4-dvd-i386.iso
RoHe
10 Elder
10 Elder
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44.3K Posts
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April 4th, 2014 14:00
Boot in Safe Mode (reboot and press F8, select Safe Mode with Networking from the menu) and see if it still freezes. If it doesn't freeze, something loading during normal startup may be the problem.
Do you have something scheduled that's running in the background, ~30 min after booting up? eg, antiviral scan, Windows Indexing Service, screen saver, or maybe something is phoning home for updates?
Do you have the latest version of BIOS and the latest drivers for this system?
rhendrix9
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April 6th, 2014 12:00
I have installed the latest BIOS
I have not scheduled anything
I re-install W 7 to make sure I new what was running
I can't find any hardware problems
I figured it might be software related but i don't know how to narrow it down.
RoHe
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April 6th, 2014 19:00
Did you try booting in Safe Mode as I suggested? If it doesn't freeze in Safe Mode, that narrows it down a lot.
Are you using some cloud backup software like Carbonite, etc?
Check the settings for your antiviral software to see if it has scans scheduled and turn that off.
Open services.msc (start>run>services.msc) and look for Windows Indexing Service on the list. Double-click it and change its startup mode to Disabled. Do NOT change the settings for any other services! Then exit services.msc and reboot.
Do you have the latest drivers for all your hardware, eg video drivers, chipset etc?
rhendrix9
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April 7th, 2014 11:00
I did boot to safe mode, technically it does not freeze, it just suddenly reboots! once while i was testing, the pc just froze while windows was in loading windows message stage!
RoHe
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44.3K Posts
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April 7th, 2014 18:00
Open Event Viewer and look for error messages around the time of a freeze. See if that provides any info.
You may need to repair your Windows installation. Back up your personal files on external media first to be safe. Then reboot and press F8 before Windows starts to load. Look for the option to repair Windows. It may be under Advanced options in the F8 menu.
You may need your Dell Windows 7 Reinstallation disk so have it handy.