Windows Vista Randomly Freezing Vista freezes randomly

[Kubi 0]

So I just installed vista upon the almighty computer, and it worked fine for a day or less. (Bah). I installed all my drivers and such and went on my merry way. Now all of a sudden it starts freezing on me. It's completely random, I can find absolutely NO pattern to why it's doing this. I've reformatted multiple times to make sure it wasn't just a bad install. I've updated my drivers, they are ALL compatible with Vista. I've read it could be an issue with an April 06 Security update Microsoft released but I have no such update installed. Being a fresh install I have next to no programs installed. The only ones I have are Mumble, Xfire, HJT and Windows Live....oh, and firefox

Here's my specs:

Logfile of Trend Micro HijackThis v2.0.2Scan saved at 2:54:19 PM, on 7/24/2008
Platform: Windows Vista SP1 (WinNT 6.00.1905)
MSIE: Internet Explorer v7.00 (7.00.6001.18000)
Boot mode: Normal

Running processes:
C:\Windows\system32\taskeng.exe
C:\Windows\system32\Dwm.exe
C:\Windows\Explorer.EXE
C:\Program Files\Windows Defender\MSASCui.exe
C:\Windows\System32\rundll32.exe
C:\Windows\SOUNDMAN.EXE
C:\Program Files\Windows Sidebar\sidebar.exe
C:\Program Files\Windows Live\Messenger\msnmsgr.exe
C:\Windows\ehome\ehtray.exe
C:\Program Files\Xfire\xfire.exe
C:\Windows\ehome\ehmsas.exe
C:\Program Files\Mumble\mumble.exe
C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe
C:\Program Files\Trend Micro\HijackThis\HijackThis.exe

R1 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Search Page = http://www.bing.com/
R0 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Start Page = http://www.msn.com/?ocid=iehp
R1 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Default_Page_URL = http://www.msn.com/?ocid=iehp
R1 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Default_Search_URL = http://www.bing.com/
R1 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Search Page = http://www.bing.com/
R0 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Start Page = http://www.msn.com/?ocid=iehp
R0 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Search,SearchAssistant =
R0 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Search,CustomizeSearch =
R0 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Toolbar,LinksFolderName =
O1 - Hosts: ::1 localhost
O2 - BHO: (no name) - {7E853D72-626A-48EC-A868-BA8D5E23E045} - (no file)
O2 - BHO: Windows Live Sign-in Helper - {9030D464-4C02-4ABF-8ECC-5164760863C6} - C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Windows Live\WindowsLiveLogin.dll
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [Windows Defender]%ProgramFiles%\Windows Defender\MSASCui.exe -hide
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [NvCplDaemon] RUNDLL32.EXE C:\Windows\system32\NvCpl.dll,NvStartup
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [NvMediaCenter] RUNDLL32.EXE C:\Windows\system32\NvMcTray.dll,NvTaskbarInit
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [soundMan] SOUNDMAN.EXE
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [amd_dc_opt] C:\Program Files\AMD\Dual-Core Optimizer\amd_dc_opt.exe
O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [sidebar] C:\Program Files\Windows Sidebar\sidebar.exe /autoRun
O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [MsnMsgr] "C:\Program Files\Windows Live\Messenger\MsnMsgr.Exe" /background
O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [ehTray.exe] C:\Windows\ehome\ehTray.exe
O4 - Startup: Xfire.lnk = C:\Program Files\Xfire\xfire.exe
O13 - Gopher Prefix:
O16 - DPF: {D27CDB6E-AE6D-11CF-96B8-444553540000} (Shockwave Flash Object) - http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/
O22 - SharedTaskScheduler: Windows DreamScene - {E31004D1-A431-41B8-826F-E902F9D95C81} - C:\Windows\System32\DreamScene.dll
O23 - Service: NVIDIA Display Driver Service (nvsvc) - NVIDIA Corporation - C:\Windows\system32\nvvsvc.exe

--
End of file - 3045 bytes

This is a serious post, I don't want any "Oh, it's because you're running Vista". That's unnecessary and not very helpful. Thanks.

EDIT: The second I hit "submit" my computer froze.

[Saint_Michael 3]

Well I am getting a lot of websites saying they have the problem and not to many solutions, but I have soem results, I think. Download this patch and see if it fixes anything, of course with Vista SP1 out I don't know if this patch was included or not.

[Kubi 0]

Already have the patch. Does not fix the issue.

[truefusion 3]

Try closing Vista's sidebar and see if that helps. It could be a gadget that is causing the random crashes. If that's not it, then perhaps doing yet another fresh install but this time wait a while before installing anything, like 30 minutes or so, might help. If no crash, then install one thing, wait a certain amount of time, like maybe 30 minutes or so, and repeat. Start with the graphics card driver. I've been doing some research and it seems to be mostly concerning the graphics card. Let's forget about the fact that the drivers for your system is "Vista compatible," and assume that all are faulty for now. After installing all the drivers at set intervals and the problem persists, if you were installing the drivers from a CD that came with your hardware, perhaps those drivers are already outdated. If they are and the problem still persists after upgrading, then perhaps it is Vista.

[Kubi 0]

Personally, I HATE windows gadgets, so those have been disabled. I'm going to uninstall the drivers, which I got direct from nVidia and wait to see if it freezes

[Stridr 0]

I am also a user of Vista and generally speaking Vista is just unstable. Your best bet may be stopping unneeded programs or patching as frequently as possible, always check for patches. If not, some programs or unneeded drivers may be causing this. Do not overload your computer with unneccessary applications too. The programs you have listed may not be fully compatible with Vista and could be causing problems.It could also be a hardware issue, or if your hardware does not support vista well, problems could surface, such as the processor or a slow writing HDD.

[rvalkass 5]

Depending on how often it's crashing, I agree with the "install something every 30 minutes" approach. Completely format your hard drive, then make a clean install of Vista. Leave it for 30 minutes (or roughly however long it takes to freeze). If it freezes in that time then Vista doesn't like your hardware, and probably never will. If it doesn't freeze then install one driver at a time, and leave it for 30 minutes in between each one. Then install each application to see what they do. Finally, go through the updates, but do them one by one. I know it'll take ages, but if it works out what's causing it then it's worth it.You can also try opening Task Manager, and leaving it open on its own with the list of processes sorted by CPU usage.. When it freezes, look to see which application was at the top of the list, hogging all the CPU/RAM. Uninstall it and see if the crashes stop. If nothing appears to be using all the resources then it is more likely a hardware/driver issue.

[Kubi 0]

I don't believe it's a hardware FAILURE because of the fact that windows xp will work just fine. I've installed XP previous to vista and there were no issues. I've completely patched up. I uninstalled my video drivers but that didn't work. Sidebar has been disabled, as well as Aero(Cry). Leading the way in memory hogging is dwm.exe(system32) at a whopping 50.768Ks of memory. Next up in firefox. Which I'm actually going to stop using for now because IE takes up half the memory.

 

Keyboard has been snapped in half and I'm looking on newegg for new parts. I figure while I'm at it might as well get an upgrade .

 

EDIT: As I said before it's a fresh install so I haven't installed many programs. Only the ones I need (Windows Live) and (Mumble).

 

EDIT EDIT: I ran task manager while I was doing stuff and when the computer froze it showed nothing. IE was top of the list with normal consumption...

 

Going to buy some new parts, time for an upgrade anyways..

 

http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/

http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/

http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/

[Saint_Michael 3]

Yeah we been talking offline about this and talk ot a few friends of mine about this issue and the conclusion I came up with is nothing. Hardware is fine, all the wires are connected properly, we tried disabling various programs and Aero. We tried the various patches, updates, rollbacks and all that stuff but nothing and so it leads me into another conclusion in which there is a incompatibility issue somewhere that we are missing. Hopefully when kubi puts in the new hardware together that might fix the problem.

[Kubi 0]

I now believe it's my sound drivers. I've been running my computer with no sound and it hasn't frozen in 2 hours. I proceeded to disable my sound drivers and still no freezing. It makes sense because my computer freezes most often when I'm playing games or watching videos, which require sound.

 

Unfortunately I can't go long without sound drivers so I need to find some compatible ones. I'm using the standard Realtek onboard sound card...And the new motherboard I bought, as with every single motherboard - uses realtek audio...

 

These are the drivers I'm using

http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/

 

I'll try installing the XP sound drivers, maybe those will work.

 

UPDATE: XP drivers didn't work. Found out I was just getting lucky, vista froze again with no sound drivers.

New parts should arrive by Tuesday. Hopefully that'll put an end to this nightmare.

 

UPDATEx2: I changed the voltage of my ram from 2.7v to 2.6v. The RAM was built for 2.6v so I thought maybe this would help. Computer hasn't frozen yet.

 

Bah...froze

[wordpress_lover 0]

lol 95% of people polled in my previous webhoster's forumDIDN'T LIKE Windows Vista. Lots of "older" software has problems working with it.Hang on to Windows XP - a much safer option.

[Kubi 0]

In reference to my first post:

This is a serious post, I don't want any "Oh, it's because you're running Vista". That's unnecessary and not very helpful. Thanks.

I appreciate the help, not the part where I get told "stick with xp, people hate vista".

Thank you.

[wordpress_lover 0]

In reference to my first post:I appreciate the help, not the part where I get told "stick with xp, people hate vista".

Thank you.

Kubi, thank you for being frank!

You have the option of waiting till Microsoft comes out with
another better version of Windows Vista, or you can go through
finding and updating all the drivers you need for Windows Vista.

It's your choice - no one's forcing you to pick XP. What you're sharing
is appreciated - in fact many are in your shoes and want to know
what can't be done (drivers update, firmware, etc)

As for public polls and reviews, I can't change facts. Majority
hates Vista.

[Kubi 0]

I received my new motherboard and memory today. Yet newegg - the geniuses they are JUST shipped my processor. So I won't have that for a few more days. Once that comes and everything is installed I'll let you guys know. Think I should reinstall vista once I replace the parts just to be safe?

[Echo_of_thunder 1]

Vista I have learned is very picky with memory and also with catch this, They kind of Computer. I tried vista on a Dell, when it first came out, also on my gateway. Gate ways kept lagging and would reboot on its own sometimes. Im my opts? Drop Vista and go back to XP, better and much more stable OS