Random System Freezes-Vista

OK. I'm totally lost. I have a Dell Inspiron 1720. Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo
CPU T7700 @ 2.40GHz 2.40GHz Ram 2045 MB 32-bit operating system. I am
running Windows Vista Home Premium. I am computer illiterate. My system has
been freezing, just like every body elses, randomly. I used Vista Home
Premium on another computer with ALL of the same software programs and NEVER
had a problem. I used a Belkin Easy Transfer Cable to move everything over
to my new computer. I am running advast antivirus, windows firewall, windows
defender and registry fix. All of my software is compatible with Vista. I
have spoken to Dell technicians a gazillion times. We have run the hardware
checks many times and everything checks out. I am totally lost when it comes
to drivers, etc. I don't even know what questions to ask. All I know is
that this is driving me crazy.

In an earlier post, someone said that these freezes were not being reported
to Microsoft and that means they would probably not come up with a fix. HOW
DO YOU REPORT IT? I'll do it. Just tell me how. This is ridiculous. And,
now, I'm reading that Windows Update runs the wrong DRIVERS???? What the
heck? That's just insane.

[orden]

I've been running Vista-32bit on an Intel Quadcore /w 4G ram for about 7 months, and only recently have I been experiencing the symptoms describe in all the posts above: random freezing with no HDD activity, cursor still moves, and most commands will "spring to life" only after the HDD resumes. Instantly I thought "oh boy, my HD is dying slowly". (In once instance I was in a fullscreen application (WoW) using voice-chatting software when I experienced a system freeze, and yet I was still able to chat through the chatting software which was running in the background!)

So I thought it may be some crazy virus that infected my sys (or under those extremely rare situations, the boot sector), so I used this opportunity to format completely and install Windows 7-32bit. After a clean install, guess what... same problems.

Assuming my HD was the culprit, I completed a full chkdsk during a windows startup (1hr) and a full memory check using the scanner built into the windows 7 CD, and they both passed ok. I have noticed that when the system freezes, if you wait for it to unfreeze it will often freeze again shortly after. On other days I can go hours of gaming (HD intensive) with no interruption.

Finally, I've rebooted the PC to see the system freeze right at the initial motherboard flash screen! So that tells me that HD drivers are not the problem, but either something with the Bios or something physically wrong with the HD, or something else I'm not familiar with. It might be related to updated drivers that were delivered in a recent Vista patch that are already incorporated to Windows 7. I'd have to roll-back to XP and see if the symptoms occur there. If I don't find an answer soon, I will.

Well, it looks like I solved my own problem. Figuring it was a HDD issue, I picked up a new Seagate drive for $80, placed it in the exact same slot using the exact same SATA cable, and voila - no issues.

I installed a clean version of Windows 7 and it has been running smooth ever since. Luckily, my original HDD was still under warranty, so I sent that in and received a new replacement which I am now using as a backup drive.

Sometimes your HD gives you "warning signs" that it's life is coming to an end - use that opportunity to back up what you can before it's too late!

Well it's a few months later and just when I thought my problems were solved they re-occur again, but this time I have more details. What appears to be happening is that all communication with the SATA-based harddrive stops abruptly; I've even had the Windows Resource Monitor open and watched all files being read or written to the HD just fall off the list until nothing is communicating. However, any programs that are loaded in memory will continue to run ok. As soon as a program tries to reference the HD again, that's when it chokes and freezes. So while you can still move your mouse, you're at the mercy of the HD to "reactivate" in order to continue working. Generally, communication with the HD will resume spontaneously and all referenced files will being reading/writing again, almost as if nothing ever happened.

The question is: What is causing communication to the HD to stop abruptly, and then self correct?

THe first time this happened after having replaced the HD, I used a different SATA port on the motherboard, and that seemed to work for 2 months (and I've read similar results on other posts. However, on those posts, users have eventually run into the problem again.)

So, I'm starting to wonder if this is a MOBO issue or a BIOS issue. It's can't be the SATA cable because that wouldn't explain why it worked for 2 months after switching ports. I'm not running any intense applications, just winamp to listen to music.

Finally, when the HD resumes, the resource monitor will tell you the response time for communication will all openned files, and for one particular file the response time was something like 156000 ms (C:$Extend$UsnJrnl:$J:$DATA); why is this particular file causing such lag or is it just coincidental that when the HD activity stops this particular file was being read/written to.

Sounds more like a video hardware problem than the HDD or BIOS. Is it
on-board video, or an add-in card? Try updating the video drivers- from HP's
site if it's on-board, card manufacturer if it's an add-in.

Try setting your quality/performance settings in the video control panel
more to performance than quality and see what happens. Download and run
something like HWMonitor ( http://www.cpuid.com/hwmonitor.php ) and track
the GPU temps for a while. They can be quite high under load. Once you find
out the type and model of video, you can Google what the temperature range
should be. Might as well clean out the inside of the PC case while you're at
it, making sure the heatsinks and fans are clean of dust, hair, etc.

I'd suspect one of the recent Vista updates instead - I'm seeing a similar
problem
both on my 64-bit Vista machine, where I'm using the GPU card nearly full
time
to run the GPUGRID BOINC project, and on my 32-bit Vista machine, where
the GPU is too old for GPUGRID to use it so I'm barely using it for anything
that's heavy on it. One thing I've noted to that the problems tend to start
when
more that about 50% of the physical memory is in use, and most of the
programs
running use 32-bit mode instead of 64-bit mode (of course, the 32-bit Vista
machine can run only 32-bit mode programs).

My 32-bit machine probably uses an on-board video with a driver provided
by Microsoft or HP; the 64-bit machine uses an add-in card that I bought
from
HP along with the machine, and an Nvidia driver recommended by GPUGRID.

Telling BOINC that it isn't allowed to use more than 40% of the physical
memory helps, but does not eliminate the problem entirely.

- -"HD activity stops this
particular file was being read/written to."- -

Possible file corruption, or a bad/marginal area on the HD.

If the file is much larger than any of the others, it's also possible (but
unlikely) that the HD electronics are questionable.
SATA cables and connectors can have a failure mode that closely matches your
symptoms. This is usually related to vibration, temperature, and poor
contact due to crud on the connector pins and sockets. High relative
humidity seems to aggravate such problems. "Golden Grain" can be used to
clean such connectors and pins. If all else fails, GG over rocks with water
or Coke may improve your outlook.

When a drive has a marginal area, the drive may recalibrate, and then be
able to read an additional part or all of the file in question.
About all you can do is try and get a duplicate good copy of the file in
another disk area.
An occasional defrag can help prevent some of the issues that might have
caused your problem.

Once you have known good backups, a Mfrs disk utility may help you to either
identify good and bad portions of the drive, or even possibly recover the
area that is misbehaving.