Help me PLEASE - I have tried everything AND IT STILL FREEZES

[Emmellar]

HELP ME PLEASE. I have a Packard Bell iXtreme X6220 desktop (I know, it went wrong from Day 1).

More or less since I got it this PC freezes randomly and then works again, sometimes it's really bad and unusable but on some rare occasions it will work for a good hour or two. Other times it takes ages to respond to a simple mouse click like it's running multiple commands or something. Other times the application in use (usually a web browser or Word) comes up with the Not Responding tab on the top bar.

I have tried the following remedies to no avail:

1. Upgraded to Windows 7 Professional (clean) with no other software installed thereafter (done this twice)
2. Swapped out the crumby 250W PSU with a 700W PSU
3. Swapped out the Nvidia GT220 graphics card for an ATI Radeon HD5400
4. Swapped the wireless card (grasping at straws)
5. Swapped memory modules around
6. Run it on 3GB memory instead of the supplied 6GB
7. Run Memtest86 (no faults)

One thing that DOES seem to work is running the PC in safe mode with networking which is a workaround of sorts but the screen resolution is then rubbish etc. I am sure this little fact is very important but do not have enough know-how to isolate what the problem is after that.

I'm on the verge of buying a new motherboard or ditching the whole thing for a new unit which would be a waste since it does have reasonable components and besides I can't really afford to. In fact I'm so determined to sort this that my wife is starting to think I'm losing the plot!!!

Can anyone give me some pointers as to what else I can do or check? I have installed Speccy so can provide detailed data if needed.

Thanks

Martin
*****************************************************
Operating System
MS Windows 7 64-bit
CPU
Intel Core 2 Quad Q8300 @ 2.50GHz 38 °C
Yorkfield 45nm Technology
RAM
6.00 GB Dual-Channel DDR2 @ 399MHz (6-6-6-18)
Motherboard
Acer EG43M (CPU 1) 46 °C
Graphics
Viseo 230Ws (1920x1080@60Hz)
ATI Radeon HD 5400 Series (Sapphire/PCPartner) 59 °C
Hard Drives
977GB Western Digital WDC WD10EADS-00M2B0 ATA Device (SATA) 40 °C
Optical Drives
HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GH41N ATA Device
Audio
High Definition Audio Device

[gman863]

This could be a "stealth" hard disk issue.

I call it a stealth issue because the usual basic tests (S.M.A.R.T., chkdsk, WD Data Lifeguard short DST) often give the drive a false passing grade.

Here are a few things to try:

* Run chkdsk /f and watch the testing process. Although it's normal for the chkdsk test to speed up and slow down at times, watch for hang times (freezes) greater than 1 or 2 seconds - they are red flags of a likely problem with the hard drive.

* If you have a spare good SATA drive, hook it up, disconnect the existing drive and reload Windows (you have 30 days to test without activating it). If the problems stop, it's a likely signal the original HDD is bad.

Although this isn't a guaranteed fix for your problem, it has worked for me in solving freeze-up issues on at least four PCs over the past year.

Hope this helps.

[Emmellar]

Thanks gman863. Ran chkdsk /f and difficult to tell if it was freezing up as such. During Stage 2 index checking it certainly slowed down once it hit 60% and it stopped counting upwards many times thereafter but nothing more than 2 seconds

Assuming this was normal behaviour I think I'll follow your other suggestion and get my paws on a second SATA drive from work and see if that is better.

Cheers

[baklogic]

As it runs o.k in safe mode, it would be worth trying-- msconfig and first make sure all microsoft services are not stopped, but disable all others- and go on to start up, and run down the list to see that anything you can see that does not need to start is disabled, and restart and see if it works any better.
I have to go, now, I can look back later, but someone else might pick up from here.

[Emmellar]

Thanks baklogic.

Because I had only just installed Windows 7 and done a couple of things involving my Defy smart phone I only had 3 non MS services to disable - they are all now disabled and PC restarted. I have also turned off all 4 Start Up programmes in the msconfig startup tab.

However to be honest none of the 3 services that I disabled were on the original setup and the 4 programmes which I turned off were pretty innocuous so I can hardly believe they are the problem.

Aaaahhhh, even as I type this the computer froze for around 1 minute (Chrome went grey because I tried to start msconfig from the Start button). Apart from that actually, so far so good.......

Let me run it for a while and report back.......

(I also downloaded and ran Western Digital's own HD test which took 12 hours and yielded... a PASS)

[Emmellar]

No the msconfig route is not working.

When I try to run Control Panel and Management Console the PC just stops responding then after a few minutes there's a flurry of HD activity and everything comes to life.

Freezing as usual in other words

[Emmellar]

SOLUTION FOUND!

I bought a new WD hard drive (caviar black 1TB) and we are now in business.

It leaves the question though: why after running every possible check under the sun did the existing hard drive (also WD) not show up any errors?

Martin

[Oldphil]

The original drive may not have had a mechanical problem, even with a few re-loads the remnants of a bug may have been left behind. There was no mention of drive formatting or cleaning. You could go to the drive makers site to see if they offer a cleaning program, you may end up with a spare drive never can tell.

Phil

Edit I just noticed it is a WD they have a program that writes 0's to the drive, I would give that a shot it has helped my more than once.

[Emmellar]

I'm on it! Thanks.