Windows 7 Freezing can't find the ISSUE

Discussion in 'Windows 7' started by Bryan583, Oct 13, 2014.

  1. Bryan583

    Bryan583 MDL Novice

    Feb 26, 2014
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    Hi all I recently picked up a Dell Optiplex 740 got it home and tested the system with my Ultra-X quicktech pro software and everything has passed. I threw in a NEW 250Gb HDD, installed windows 7 Pro. Once windows was installed I checked device manger to see if all drivers were installed or if I needed to download & install any, everything was good. Moved on to run a WSUSoffline update (to save bandwidth) and thats the first time the computer froze up. Held power button > shutdown then restart. tried the same thing again and did the same thing... I changed media from usb to dvd ...No change.

    I then looked at the event viewer to see if I could find a conflict or error but in the process it froze again...I noted the time and upon restart I opened MMC (Microsoft management console) added event viewer then saved to Desktop. Looking in the Summary Under Critical there was a system 41 event Kernel power but the time didnt match up with the time it froze it matched the the time windows restarted. Anyways after about 6-7 more times freezing, I googled (on my main comp) the system 41 kernel power and optiplex 740 and alot of what I read referred to the Graphics driver... went to the dell site downloaded the right driver transferred to usb and tried to install....no go....tried in safe mode success, restart and playing around it froze again. Once again tried looking at event viewer...same thing system 41 error. I changed the video card to a PCIe card i had laying around booted up installed driver from ATI...and this damn thing is still freezing.

    I have actually formatted and installed windows 7 3 times thinking it was a bad install or bad iso i had. The dell site for the optiplex 740 doesnt have much for drivers I also updated the bios from the dell site and its still freezing.
    right now I have the computer on loop testing the system to see if something comes up .

    If you made it this far THANK YOU... I am all out of Idea's as to what is causing this issue, im starting to think it might be the motherboard.

    THANKS IN ADVANCE FOR ANY HELP
     
  2. zahnoo

    zahnoo MDL Senior Member

    Feb 2, 2011
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    I'm going to watch this thread closely. One of my Windows 7 machines freezes periodically and has done so for almost four years. With the exception of the main board, I've swapped every piece of internal hardware and every externally attached at least twice with known good units, reinstalled Windows 7 multiple times and I've never been able to solve this. The mobo is a bit old so it well may be the culprit; I have swapped the CPU. Nothing has worked and I feel your pain!

    Since this computer is not a critical use machine, about a year ago I just stopped fiddling with it and press resent every once in a while when I need to.

    I wish to High Heaven I had a solution for us both, maybe someone here will. If you get the problem solved, please lets us know what worked. I'm sure there are more than two of us with this problem.
     
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  3. R29k

    R29k MDL GLaDOS

    Feb 13, 2011
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    Well video, bad ram and bad hard disks can cause freezing.
     
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  4. LatinMcG

    LatinMcG Bios Borker

    Feb 27, 2011
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    opti 740 and 755 had a bad batch of mobos in first few months they were built.. not saying it is.. but could be..

    try booting a live linux with yumi usb tool. does it freeze or show errors?
    do memtest.
    try hirens boot cd also to load mini xp.
     
  5. CaffeinePizza

    CaffeinePizza MDL Junior Member

    May 19, 2013
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    if that 740 is the SFF or USFF, check for bad caps. Check for bulging caps around heatsink. I once had a 745 that wouldn't even boot. Ordered some caps from badcaps(DOT)net and soldered them in. Booted like a charm.
     
  6. Bryan583

    Bryan583 MDL Novice

    Feb 26, 2014
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    I tested them when I first got the computer and they all PASSED **BUT** after running a loop of tests 15 rounds on the system the RAM failed so Im going to find out which one and replace it.

    I will Be trying both a linux flavor and hirens to see if they freeze before and after changing ram.

    This is one of the Mid tower optiplex's it was a off lease and picked it up cheap... none of the caps are bad, I believe that the bad caps were the earlier version optiplexs'


    Thank you all I will update if anything changes.
     
  7. Mr.X

    Mr.X MDL Guru

    Jul 14, 2013
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    A week ago, aprox. my computer (desktop) began to freeze, sudden and randomly. Turns out after a visual inspection two bad capacitors were swollen, those for voltage filtering and after replacing them now freezing has gone.
     
  8. Bryan583

    Bryan583 MDL Novice

    Feb 26, 2014
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    Well after running a loop of hardware tests 1 of the Memory sticks were bad, tested each one individually then pulled the bad one, so far no freezing issues but slow as hell running win 7 ultimate with 1Gb of ram...... ordered more just waiting for it to get here. It must of been an intermittent problem at first, because I tested it before I did anything and everything tested good. Thanks for the Help. Once the New Ram gets here I will be running a stress test to make sure it holds up and doesn't cause any more issues.