Vista Ultimate Keeps Freezing - Help!

[Power Junkie]

Hey folks.

I'm hoping someone on here can save me from taking a hammer to my PC.

I have an XPS 720 H2C that up until 2 nights ago, was running fine.
Then all of a sudden, my OS (Vista Ultimate) started freezing after about 10 minutes.
I am unable to do anything when this happens apart from press the power off button.

I haven't installed anything new.
I haven't updated anything.
I haven't done anything unusual.
I have Norton Antivirus running in the background etc

The system is a Quad Core 2.93ghz, 4g ram (although Vista only allows 3...bah) and it's a 32 bit OS.
I have a Zotac 1gb GTX 285 Amp GFX card, a Blu-Ray drive and a Liteon DVD DL RW.

So no changes. Nothing. The system has crapped out on me.

I have rolled back to 2 previous save points (first one made no difference) and I have also installed the latest updates to try and fix it.

I now throw myself at your mercy and hope you don't tell me to get a Mac/Linux - tell me my OS is lame, that Dell is overpriced crap (I got my second hand dirt cheap).

In the words of Princess leia...Help Me DaniWan, you're my only hope.

...now if only I can hit the send button before it dies.

[freshfitz]

I had the same problem and went out and got an imac! It could be a few things if you can get into the os before your 10min is up goto start run cmd type in chkdsk /f say yes to the yes no and reboot, Memory could be bad download and run memtest86, Or you could have a bad fan inside the pc and it is overheating. check all your cooling fans make sure they are working ( i would do this first)

[JemB]

How clean is the system physically, ie how much dust in the box etc, how clean is the cpu fan. this can and will make a real difference.
or it could just be vista being vista even after you beat it round the head with a stick to make it run properly it's buggy

[Power Junkie]

Hey guys.
I tried the chkdsk method - no luck; fans are all working - same thing; power supply for the XPS 720 H2C comes hot as standard! - check.

The system is cleaned pretty regularly - I just open the side, marvel at the pretty lights and clean it out.
I have no idea how many fans this thing has, but they all look clear to me.

I have updated Nvidia drivers as well - no change.

It's stable for 30/40 minutes on first attempt, 10 minutes on second and maybe an hour on third. By that time I'm too annoyed to try again.

It took me ages to be happy with Vista but I'm seriously thinking of going back to XP.

Any last ideas before I go through the nasty trauma of backing up and re-installing?

Thanks again for all comments and suggestions.

[maceman]

Maybe you should try a register cleaner before going back to XP or go to Win 7. It should be pretty light.

One good register cleaner is jv16 Power Tools
You can download the 30 trial from here:

http://www.macecraft.com/download/jv16powertools2009/

Hey guys.
I tried the chkdsk method - no luck; fans are all working - same thing; power supply for the XPS 720 H2C comes hot as standard! - check.

The system is cleaned pretty regularly - I just open the side, marvel at the pretty lights and clean it out.
I have no idea how many fans this thing has, but they all look clear to me.

I have updated Nvidia drivers as well - no change.

It's stable for 30/40 minutes on first attempt, 10 minutes on second and maybe an hour on third. By that time I'm too annoyed to try again.

It took me ages to be happy with Vista but I'm seriously thinking of going back to XP.

Any last ideas before I go through the nasty trauma of backing up and re-installing?

Thanks again for all comments and suggestions.

[JemB]

How much stuff do you have running at startup? how many running processes have you got? have you tried dumping norton? is it running a scan when this happens? seriously try switching to something that's lighter on the system like avast. not being funny about it but that alone can make a huge difference especially if you have a lot of other things going on.

[JemB]

BTW any error logs to give a clue?

[Power Junkie]

Hey JemB.
No error reports as I have to manually power off after it freezes.
I looked for error report after it first started happening.

Startup is light, but I did disable anything that was non MS...and it still froze.

I disabled Norton...and it still froze.

I'll give the Registry Cleaner a go, but I'm not holding out much hope to be honest.

Once again, thankyou so much for taking the time to help, and any further offers will be appreciated.
I just can't understand how it started freezing when nothing new had been installed; software or hardware.
I never had this on XP!

[Windows7Guy]

Hello Power Junkie,

Have you considered going to Windows 7?

It would be best to do a clean install of Windows 7 - back up data first!

Just an FYI, when upgrading from Windows Vista to Windows 7 you must upgrade the version currently installed within Windows Vista to the corresponding version in Windows 7. I.E. Windows Vista Home Premium to Windows 7 Home Premium; Windows Vista Business to Windows 7 Professional; and Windows Vista Ultimate to Windows 7 Ultimate. You also cannot upgrade a 32-bit operating system to 64-bit -- to migrate from 32-bit to 64-bit will require a custom install.
Please check out the requirements here for Windows 7:
If you want to run Windows 7 on your PC, here's what it requires:
•1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
•1 gigabyte (GB) RAM (32-bit) or 2 GB RAM (64-bit)
•16 GB available hard disk space (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)
•DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver
You can find the official Microsoft Windows Upgrade Advisor here:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/get/upgrade-advisor.aspx

Before making any attempts at upgrading your Windows operating sytem; you should first backup all of your important data!
You can also go with the easy transfer, there is a very well planned out tutorial on the microsoft site:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/help/upgrading-from-windows-xp-to-windows-7

Also, please refer to Microsoft official site:
Windows 7 Compatibility: (There you will find out about hardware and software compatibilty.)
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/compatibility/en-us/default.aspx
There is a pulldown from which you can choose "hardware" and "software".

Finally, if you want to do some research; there are also some great articles, instructional videos and such to help with your Windows 7 migration and upgrade decisions located at our Springboard site:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/default.aspx

Thanks again and good luck!

John M.
Microsoft Windows Client Support

[JemB]

try a new or different power supply if you haven't already. it seems quite symptomatic of a failing psu. unusual on a dell but definitely worth a go

[Power Junkie]

Ok folks, here's the latest.

Firstly John, I don't really want to spend more money on a new OS as there is no gaurantee the problem will be solved. It'd be like throwing money away.

I finally backed up my C drive, formatted it and did a fresh installation of Vista Ultimate.
It still froze after I had it up and running.

I then swapped the 750gb Seagate HD that I had intalled the OS on to a 250gb Seagate HD.
Once again, fresh install and again still freezing after random times.

I opened the 720 H2C up and made sure there were no loose connections and that the fans were all working. Check.

I'm now uing a backup 720 but still want to get the other one fixed.

I'm hoping tht someone out there will be able to narrow ddon the problem with the new info.
Could it really just be a PSU problem, Jem?
How easy is it to change the PSU?
More to the point, ho much will it cost?
Is there a particular PSU thaat you recommend?
I'm told the power cable for the 720 H2C is very pricey as it is. Can I ue the same cable?

...can you tell I'm going mad here?

Any help would be very much appreciated.

[caperjack]

hi,to detemin if it software or hardware ,goe a copy of knoppix live cd and boot to it and see if it stays running ,if it runs for days you know it software ,maybe .
http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html

you loaded winvista on 2 different drives ,load one and install no new software ,norton included and rune it to see if it freezes

[JemB]

I can't guarantee that it is the psu, but as I said it is definitely worth a go.
Most Dell psus have custom pin-outs. so be carefull of using an off the shelf job. if you can find a dell one with enough juice it should be fine. Please check the details for your model first. as it is quite a high end model this may not be the case.
I'd try and borrow one to test if poss.
Swapping out a power supply is quite straightforward. if the plug dont fit the hole, it's the wrong one. Just note all the connectors first.

[Adamsappleone]

I noticed you said you did a re-install of Vista and it still froze.
Seems like it may be a hardware issue or heat issue rather than software.
Is this machine water cooled?
I would check video card, memory, cpu and psu.
You can also run Task Manager (or bettter still, Process Explorer, free from Microsoft) in a small window on top of other apps, and when things start to go amiss, look in the Task Manager CPU column to see if anything is suddenly hogging CPU time (aside from System Idle process). That might point you toward the problem.