Windows 7 keeps freezing at the desktop

[MasterBlaster76]

I've recently upgraded to a Core 2 Quad processor - specs are in my sig - and I hope this hasn't got anything to do with what Win 7 is now doing. It's freezing up on the desktop - complete shutdown; can't move the mouse, can't access the Task Manager, can't do anything.

Now, I've checked the Device Manager, and that's not showing any problems, conflicts or anything else that brings up a yellow exclamation mark - and it's not happening during games, or other CPU intensive activity. My PSU is a Corsair 650w and the shop didn't say that I need to upgrade that - I also asked other people and they said I shouldn't have to upgrade the PSU to accomodate the new CPU.

I read that it might have something to do with the PC's power management, so I turned all of that off, but it's still doing it. I had the CPU installed by my local shop so I don't think it's got anything to do with how it was fitted. If there was a problem with the CPU, wouldn't the PC just refuse to start, or start but keep bringing up the BSOD, especially if it was somehow overheating? Could it be that the Quad Core doesn't sit well with Win 7 and 3gb of RAM (yes, I know I'm clutching at straws here)?

I really hope one of you PC experts can tell me this isn't anything to do with the CPU upgrade, and that it might be something easily fixed! :upray

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[sohum]

Does it just happen sporadically/randomly or deterministically (such as every time you start up).

Memory problem would probably BSOD it.

See if there is are any Errors or Warnings in the event logs (just type in Event Logs in the start menu).

 

[Sureshot]

Whs, best bet first will be System logs.

Could be anything really, the logs will reveal the cause.

 

[MasterBlaster76]

OK, I've checked the Event Viewer, there are various warnings and errors all the way back to February, but today there was a Critical - the only one on there - apart from one other one to do with the Xbox 360 not being compatible with that version of Windows - I think I downloaded new drivers for it - it's working fine anyway.

It says:

Event 41, Kernel Power

The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly.

I, of course, am none the wiser.

Over to you guys!

Edit: There are a few errors on there recommending I run Chkdsk, so I'll do that now.

MasterBlaster76 added 2 Minutes and 6 Seconds later...

Does it just happen sporadically/randomly or deterministically (such as every time you start up).

Memory problem would probably BSOD it.

See if there is are any Errors or Warnings in the event logs (just type in Event Logs in the start menu).

It doesn't seem to happen after any particular event - so I'd say it's fairly sporadic.

 

[Chewie]

You could just take it back in and get them to fix it Say that it only started after the installed the new processor, so it's their responsibility to fix it free of charge

 

[MasterBlaster76]

I'll see how it is for a couple of days; I've run chkdsk on all the disks - it found several errors and fixed them all. Do you reckon it's a CPU issue then, Chewie? As I said, it's not doing this during games or anything else CPU intensive. If it keeps doing it, I'll definitely be getting in touch with them again, that's for sure.

Loving the new CPU though - GTA IV has gone from being just about playable to running as smooth as silk - and I've other games to try with it as well.

 

[Abhas]

Have you changed your Hard Drive as well? Maybe it has developed some bad-sectors.. From experience, random occurances like yours are generally due to RAM or HDD. Ram errors usually come up with a BSOD, while when the disk fails, or nears failure, it simply slows everything down and at times hangs, most probably when it encounters the problem area.

Abhas added 0 Minutes and 25 Seconds later...

Run a good Disk check utility to determine the health of the disk.

 

[Chewie]

I have no idea But taking it back would be the easiest thing to do lol

 

[MasterBlaster76]

Have you changed your Hard Drive as well? Maybe it has developed some bad-sectors.. From experience, random occurances like yours are generally due to RAM or HDD. Ram errors usually come up with a BSOD, while when the disk fails, or nears failure, it simply slows everything down and at times hangs, most probably when it encounters the problem area.

Abhas added 0 Minutes and 25 Seconds later...

Run a good Disk check utility to determine the health of the disk.

No - I changed my HDD a while back, everything was fine so I don't believe it's a HDD problem; it's still relatively new and it's where Win 7 is installed. I ran Chkdsk - isn't that sufficient? If not, could you recommend a freeware Disk checker? And if this does solve the problem, how often would you recommend checking disks for errors so that it doesn't happen again?

 

[sachin_rocks]

I think you should not have bought that proccy as now i5 at the some extra price is much better .
Even i bought the same processor with my computer in oct 2009

 

[Chewie]

I would not agree that an i3 is better than a core 2 quad. An i5, yes. But not an i3.

 

[MasterBlaster76]

I think you should not have bought that proccy as now i5 at the some extra price is much better .
Even i bought the same processor with my computer in oct 2009

I know about all that, and I would've done, but my mobo doesn't support i5 or anything like that. This will be my last CPU upgrade with this mobo.

 

[sohum]

The i5 series (and the few i7's on the same socket type) isn't going to be a largely upgradeable processor in the future, either, since they have a different socket type (I think LGA1156) that is unlikely to be re-used in future processors.

Anyhow, that event log error didn't really say anything of value. :/ You checked all the logs, right (there are a bunch of them once you drill down the tree).

You could always run memtest86+ to check if it's a RAM issue. Just download the ISO, burn it to a CD and boot from it and run it for a couple of hours. If there are no errors, then the memory will check out.

Considering that the issue is happening after your new processor was installed, it seems fairly accurate that that is the cause. I believe we use those processors in our machines at work and our machines have had some problems--so it may be a compatibility issue with the processor and something else in the machine (for us, it seems to be due to the graphics driver from NVIDIA).

Anyways, if you had the processor installed by someone you should take it back to them and tell them your issues.

 

[MasterBlaster76]

Well, I ran chkdsk to look for errors, and it found a few. Since fixing them, it hasn't happened again for a couple of days - before, it was happening more than once a day - touch wood, it's OK now.

 

[Sureshot]

Well, see how it goes. You could also improve stability by using CCleaner (I run it frequently as it removes quite a lot of crap (used to be called CrapCleaner)).

See how those improvements go, but it could be related to so much. Have you checked drivers? Windows 7 is pretty good with drivers and driver corruption, I'd check those as well.

Also, I presume they re-installed Windows following the upgrades?