win 7 freezing - how to debug

hi folks,

My comp is starting to freeze occassionally - no BSOD, no nothing. Just started happening in the past week. Perhaps has to do with a failed SQL Server installation, but not sure.

When it freezes, the comp just stops responding, and the screen freezes. I'm looking in the event viewer, and the last error I see has to do with Schannel (see below for details). Looking online, this seems like a relatively common error, and unlikely to be the cause of the freeze.

Any suggestions as to how I might track down the culprit?

thanks!


Win 7 Pro x64 SP1, fully updated
Thinkpad T410 (2516-CTO)
8GB RAM
2x 500GB HDDs

Code:

Log Name:      System
Source:        Schannel
Date:          7/27/2012 10:57:25 AM
Event ID:      36888
Task Category: None
Level:         Error
Keywords:      
User:          SYSTEM
Computer:      compname
Description:
The following fatal alert was generated: 10. The internal error state is 10.
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
  <System>
    <Provider Name="Schannel" Guid="{1F678132-5938-4686-9FDC-C8FF68F15C85}" />
    <EventID>36888</EventID>
    <Version>0</Version>
    <Level>2</Level>
    <Task>0</Task>
    <Opcode>0</Opcode>
    <Keywords>0x8000000000000000</Keywords>
    <TimeCreated SystemTime="2012-07-27T15:57:25.015910100Z" />
    <EventRecordID>391428</EventRecordID>
    <Correlation />
    <Execution ProcessID="920" ThreadID="2832" />
    <Channel>System</Channel>
    <Computer>compname</Computer>
    <Security UserID="S-1-5-18" />
  </System>
  <EventData>
    <Data Name="AlertDesc">10</Data>
    <Data Name="ErrorState">10</Data>
  </EventData>
</Event>

 

thanks DavidGP. SQL Server enterprise evaluation install. for a bazillion different reason.

only yellow exclamation is a bluetooth device that's been there forever, so it's not the problem.

the problem is very intermittent, so can't boot into safe mode and then try disabling drivers - it would probably take me literally months or years to figure it out that way. I was hoping there was a way to figure it out via the event log or something like that...

i suspect it's the crappy sql install, that is giving errors upon uninstallation attempts. blech.

 

How did the SQL Server install fail, and what errors do you get when trying to uninstall?

It is quite possible that your problem could be caused by the SQL Server, as it may have multiple services running.

Try using http://support.microsoft.com/mats/Program_Install_and_Uninstall to uninstall the SQL Server completely.

 

When you get the freeze does Windows eventually recover or do you have to perform a hard restart?

 

I finally managed to uninstall properly by reinstalling just the management and client tools. Then it uninstalled without errors. Let's see if the problems continue...