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How do I troubleshoot a Windows 7 freeze or slowness?

Sometimes my computer freezes up and I don't know why (i.e. I can't find a trigger, it doesn't happen when I open a specific program). It happens about once every two days.

Last time this happened I had Waterfox open with 3 tabs and Outlook opened. I was browsing through messages and everything froze all of a sudden. I noticed that it freezes for 1 second, let's me move the mouse for 1 second, then permanently freezes.

Is there anyway I can find out what's going on?

My computer has 5 fans on the case and 1 fan on CPU so I don't think heat is a problem. I'm plugged into a UPS so it's not a power surge or anything like that.

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Celeritas
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    Check your hard drive for physical damage. Check for overheating. Check for under- or over-volting with your PSU. Overheating can happen between the CPU and the heat sink, which you would need to look at to know for sure, so if you're not comfortable with that sort of thing, take it to a computer shop. –  Sep 10 '12 at 04:19
  • Check your RAM. – cutrightjm Sep 10 '12 at 04:24
  • see these questions How do I troubleshoot a Windows 7 freeze or slowness? and How to diagnose computer lockups and freezes? – Sathyajith Bhat Sep 10 '12 at 04:27
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    > I noticed that it freezes for 1 second, let's me move the mouse for 1 second, then permanently freezes.   Next time you boot, open the Task Manager (Ctrl+Shift+Esc) and configure it to hide when minimized (Options menu). Then when it happens, look at the Task Manager’s green icon in the notification area (“tray”) and see if it is dark-green or bright-green. From your description, I highly suspect that it will be bright-green because something is sucking CPU cycles. You can then try pressing Ctrl+Shift+Esc again to open the Task Manager to see which process is pegging the CPU. – Synetech Sep 10 '12 at 04:28
  • @RandolphWest could you tell me how to do this please? – Celeritas Sep 10 '12 at 05:29
  • What happens when it freezes? Do yo have to restart the PC (does it automatically reboot itself)? Do you get an error message or BSOD? When it freezes, do you think it's just the mouse/keyboard response or the PC freezes (ie, has it ever happened when playing music/video and did the music/video also freeze)? – Dave Sep 10 '12 at 07:48
  • @DaveRook no blue screen no error messages. Just stuck. If I push the power button it doesn't begin shutting down so I don't think it's an issues with keyboard and mouse responsiveness. Not it's never happened with music video, usually very simple tasks like web browsing and e-mail. – Celeritas Sep 10 '12 at 08:41
  • Does it always happen with certain type programs. Your example is with Waterfox and Outlook - has this crashed occurred during other programs? – Dave Sep 10 '12 at 08:45
  • @DaveRook not that I recall but I'll keep an eye on it – Celeritas Sep 10 '12 at 08:47
  • That is the first thing I would suggest - Waterfox is 64bit and so it could be (as already suggested by Ekaj) a RAM issue with the 64bit or a CPU heating issue (as per Randolph). I'm not sure why or how and let's wait to see if this is the case or not. When you know more, please let me know but do try it with both Waterfox and Firefox (run one at a time) to see which does / doesn't cause the problem. Due to your issue, I think trial and error will be the way to resolve it sadly. – Dave Sep 10 '12 at 09:05
  • @Synetech when I minimize the task manager (and select hide when minimized) it goes to where the arrow is that hides a bunch of the icons. – Celeritas Sep 10 '12 at 18:59
  • @Celeritas, in Windows 7, you can click the arrow, then click-and-drag the Task Manager icon to the tray to make it remain visible. As for seeing temperatures, use a program like SpeedFan. – Synetech Sep 10 '12 at 19:59
  • @Synetech SpeedFan readings - uh oh there's a flame beside a couple :-( – Celeritas Sep 11 '12 at 02:59
  • @Celeritas, all of the settings use the same default values which may or may not be valid for your components. You will need to configure appropriate ranges for each reading (you may be able to just download a ready-made configuration if someone else happens to have the same hardware as you and submitted their configuration: Get config button in Info tab). That said, 82°C and 66°C are somewhat high, and your fan speeds are low. Try clicking the Automatic fan speed check-box to let SpeedFan speed up the fans to cool the system down (and slow them when not needed). – Synetech Sep 11 '12 at 05:04
  • If the readings are correct and the system is overheating, I think the reason that your system freezes is that the motherboard’s thermal-management function is detecting the overheat and throttling the CPU (lower the effective speed), causing the system to become sluggish or unresponsive. Fixing the heat problem should resolve the sudden freezing. – Synetech Sep 11 '12 at 05:05
  • @Synetech my motherboard isn't on the list on SpeeFan's website. It's an Asus P8Z68-V LE – Celeritas Sep 11 '12 at 07:14
  • Did you try the auto-speed setting? – Synetech Sep 11 '12 at 15:16
  • @Synetech is that where I check the box beside "automatic fan speed" and that's it? – Celeritas Sep 11 '12 at 20:12
  • Yes, you check the box and then SpeedFan will adjust the fan speeds automatically. It will increase them when the system is running hot and slow them down when the system is not hot (thus reducing the noise). You can also manually adjust the fan speeds. Before clicking the auto box, try clicking the up-arrows next to the fans to turn them up to 100% to see if the temperatures drop and you get better stability. – Synetech Sep 11 '12 at 20:16
  • I tried changing them to 100% and the temperature didn't change and I couldn't hear a difference. I tried checking automatic and still nothing. – Celeritas Sep 11 '12 at 20:48
  • This is seriously getting annoying. I've got a widget always ontop and both RAM and CPU were hardly in use and it froze up. I've got tons of fans and the computer is less than a year old so I don't think it's a heating issue. I've red SpeedFan is notoriously inaccurate, any other suggestions? – Celeritas Sep 21 '12 at 04:04

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