How to diagnose repeated freezing of Windows 7 (comes back alive for a few seconds)

Question

I installed Windows 7 in a 3-year-old machine. It installed successfully, took all drivers and running great, but every 5-6 minutes it freezes for a few seconds... 30 seconds to 1 minute, and then it comes back alive.

I checked Event Viewer, but nothing matched the frozen timeline.

I would appreciate any help on how to detect what is causing it, service or hardware.

After it comes alive, everything runs normal. I did run Task Manager and checked CPU usage, at the time it freezes just before and after that no task took more CPU or memory. It was like an idle machine.

There aren't any external USB drives or devices. It is an on-board Intel desktop board with SATA HDD, and the SATA HDD is running in absolute good mode.

I have the exact same thing. But not as often...maybe only a couple times per day. But it is quite frustrating. Not only that, but Windows 7 bluescreens every 2-3 days. I think I'm going back to Vista, which was actually quite stable for me. — davr, Sep 18 '09 at 16:31
Also what does it mean for a HDD to run in 'absolute good mode' ? — davr, Sep 18 '09 at 16:31
@davr: I used to have the bluescreen problem as well, but it turned out to be a RAM issue on my end where raising the voltage to the RAM fixed the problem. I've been running the RC of Win7 since it came out and have never had a single crash yet (on a new Core i7 build) — Will Eddins, Sep 18 '09 at 16:56
[Try my answer here](http://superuser.com/questions/205298/windows-7-freezes/205307#205307), it helps troubleshoot freezes related to drivers. — Tamara Wijsman, Aug 18 '11 at 02:05

score 7 · Answer 1 · edited Aug 21 '19 at 17:38

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Download and run MooO System Monitor.

It will immediately issue a 'bottleneck' warning as spikes occur and 'name and shame' the culprit.

edited Aug 21 '19 at 17:38

Peter Mortensen

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answered Sep 18 '09 at 16:33

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+1 for finding a piece of software that sounds like a cow :-) I just gave it a whirl, very impressive. – Kez Feb 11 '10 at 20:32
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This is actually a piece of software that will introduce a 'bottleneck' in your system and won't help you in any way to find the driver that has made a Deferred Procedure Call which causes the kernel to stall. :) – Tamara Wijsman Aug 18 '11 at 02:06

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 18 '09 at 16:16

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Download Process Explorer and run it.

Next, wait until the next spike and click on any of the three graphs at the top. You should be able to see peaks. When you hover your mouse over any of them, it should be able to say what process is hogging your CPU.

If there is nothing, you may want to reinstall Windows 7 / Uninstall any drivers you may have as they could be corrupt/bad.

answered Sep 18 '09 at 16:16

William Hilsum

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He specifically said he checked task manager, it's not as detailed as procexp, but if something was hogging CPU it would show up in task manager wouldn't it? – davr Sep 18 '09 at 16:32
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Process Explorer is a lot better at things like this. – William Hilsum Sep 18 '09 at 16:50
@WilliamHilsum: How is it better? I have lock-ups like this but there is no CPU load visible in Task Manager. – endolith Aug 15 '11 at 02:29
@endolith: That's because a driver is doing this rather than a program. – Tamara Wijsman Aug 18 '11 at 02:07
@TomWijsman: How do you find out which driver? – endolith Aug 18 '11 at 02:29
@endolith: [Run performance analysis](http://superuser.com/questions/205298/windows-7-freezes/205307#205307), and then look after odd behavior... – Tamara Wijsman Aug 18 '11 at 02:30

score 2 · Answer 3 · edited Aug 21 '19 at 17:41

All I had to do was uninstall NOD32 Smart Security v.3.

As far as I have understood on some systems, the Windows Defender software isn't all that compatible with "active protection" solutions (and Windows 7?). I never came to test disabling it and testing, but as the computer is running fine now with VIPRE I'm kind of satisfied.

These kind of problems often come from bad drivers. I installed a new chipset and ATI drivers and voilà! No more problems. Let’s hope it stays that way!

score 1 · Answer 4 · edited Aug 21 '19 at 17:43

I had the same issue with my Windows 7 laptop. Freezing was random and between 10 to 30 seconds.

There wasn't any entry in the event log. I even tried System Monitor and similar tools to find where it was hanging, but no luck. Then I read on few blogs about driver updates and it worked for me.

In my case the RAID driver was missing.

I went to the Intel site and check all the drivers for my motherboard. There I found the RAID driver was not installed. I downloaded and installed it.

Now the system is not freezing at all.

score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Jan 31 '12 at 03:44

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I had a similar problem. Though it didn't last 30 seconds. Just long enough to freeze the audio/video in a flash session - fairly annoying.

I saw a continuing log entry for Volume Shadow Copy Service. Which I wasn't using anyway - I use a 3rd-party off-site backup that continually backs up my hard-drive. (Which wasn't impacted by turning off that service.

Disabling that service via Administrative functions under the Control Panel has eliminated that repeated freezing.

answered Jan 31 '12 at 03:44

ZendoDeb

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This prevents System Restore and Windows Backup (both of which rely on VSS) from working. This may be acceptable to you, but may not be to the question author. – bwDraco Jan 31 '12 at 03:54

score 1 · Answer 6 · edited Aug 21 '19 at 17:39

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I know of this happening under pre-Windows 7 OS because of wireless LAN auto-configuration.
Do you have a wireless network card?

If yes, it's possible that Windows is periodically scanning for new wireless networks.
Try to disable the wireless connection and see if this fixes the problem.
If it does, look for new drivers.

edited Aug 21 '19 at 17:39

Peter Mortensen

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answered Sep 18 '09 at 16:47

harrymc

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+1 This is often the cause of drivers, and network drivers are more likely to wait for time-outs. – Tamara Wijsman Aug 18 '11 at 02:08

score 0 · Answer 7 · edited Aug 21 '19 at 18:18

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I had a similar problem.

My solution was when I disabled and stopped the "Windows Search" services. It almost completely removed the freezing. Though there was still micro-freezes of 1 second, no more.

edited Aug 21 '19 at 18:18

Peter Mortensen

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answered Apr 26 '15 at 06:09

user1448914

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How to diagnose repeated freezing of Windows 7 (comes back alive for a few seconds)

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