Vista Freezes: during boot & when launching CPU-Z/HWMonitor

[RYB]

Hi guys,

My PC has been exhibiting some strange behaviour over the past few months (Vista 64bit). It seems to freeze when:

1. Booting up: at least once or twice a week, my PC will freeze during boot (it will freeze when it shows the Microsoft Corporation green loading bar screen).

2. Launching either CPU-Z or HWMonitorPro from desktop: about 9 times out of 10, either of these programs will freeze my PC when I start them up. They very rarely start up successfully.

Both CPU-Z and HWMonitorPro are from the CPUID website, so I'm not sure if they share something in common which causes my PC to freeze.

They may encounter problems when taking sensor readings and freeze, but other similar programs that display sensory readings like SpeedFan, Riva Tuner & GPU-Z run fine without freezing, so I'm not sure.

All other software/games work fine.

I've restored CPU/RAM clocks/volts to factory defaults but the freezing still occurs, so I'm confident it's not a system stability issue.

I'm a bit stumped tbh, how would one go about troubleshooting this problem? As always, I appreciate any suggestions.

 

[MarcLister]

Are you running an antivirus or something like that? Just wondering if disabling it and then running CPU-Z/HWMonitor to see if the AV is interfering with the program in some way is a good test to carry out.

If that helps, then perhaps try and get your AV to exclude the CPU-Z/HWMonitor folders from its scans.

I'm also running Vista x64 and when I load an Excel spreadsheet, Excel will load instantly but the actual spreadsheet can take between 5-10 seconds to load, despite it being a very small file. And when I pause my MP3s then resume it later (i.e. a few minutes later) the music will restart then after about 2-3 seconds stop and then about 5 seconds later carry on. Just wondering if that is a similar issue you have. Both Vista x64 and I wonder what is causing it for me.

 

[RYB]

Hi Marc thx for the suggestion - good reasoning regarding the antivirus.

I use Avast antivirus. I disabled it from Windows startup, rebooted my PC and tried CPU-Z but my PC still froze. I also disabled other startup programs just incase (Windows sidebar/Speedfan/Riva Tuner etc) but the freezing still occurs.

What antivirus do you use? I wouldn't be able to tolerate the delays you speak of when playing MP3s/opening spreadsheets etc. Assuming the antivirus is causing the delays, have you tried using a different antivirus? Worth a try.

PS. Your name, Lister - reminded me of the new Red Dwarf episode specials coming to Dave this Easter, can't wait

 

[MarcLister]

Hi Marc thx for the suggestion - good reasoning regarding the antivirus.

I use Avast antivirus. I disabled it from Windows startup, rebooted my PC and tried CPU-Z but my PC still froze. I also disabled other startup programs just incase (Windows sidebar/Speedfan/Riva Tuner etc) but the freezing still occurs.

What antivirus do you use? I wouldn't be able to tolerate the delays you speak of when playing MP3s/opening spreadsheets etc. Assuming the antivirus is causing the delays, have you tried using a different antivirus? Worth a try.

PS. Your name, Lister - reminded me of the new Red Dwarf episode specials coming to Dave this Easter, can't wait

No probs. At least we can eliminate Avast as the culprit.

I use NOD32 which was fine on XP. No idea what it is about Vista causing the problems. Might pester some of my MSN pals to see if they have any ideas. That or start a thread.

And luckily I'm a Red Dwarf fan. I was called Dave at Uni by my geek pals.

 

[IAmATeaf]

Have you checked your event logs to see if anything is being reported, from what you've said it sounds like a hard disk problem to me. You could try leaving the current versions of CPUz where they are and download a new copy then use it from a different location and see if that still exhibits problems.

 

[RYB]

Hi Teaf thx for the suggestions.

I downloaded a new copy of CPU-Z to a different location, I tried it but it still froze my PC.

After the PC froze, I rebooted to desktop and checked out System logs in the Event Viewer. The only error related to the freeze was this one:

Event ID 6008: "The previous system shutdown at 20:19:14 on 14/02/2009 was unexpected."

Not very helpful unfortunately. However, there was a different error which came after it:

------------------------------------
Warning: Event ID 19 - WHEA-Logger

A corrected hardware error occurred.
Error Source: Corrected Machine Check
Error Type: Bus/Interconnect Error
Processor ID Valid: Yes
Processor ID: 0x3
Bank Number: 0
Transaction Type: N/A
Processor Participation: Local node originated the request
Request Type: Generic Error
Memory/Io: Memory
Memory Hierarchy Level: Level 0
Timeout: No
------------------------------------

This event mentions a hardware error that was corrected, so you might be on to something when you say it could be a hard drive problem. I've checked the event viewer and this event happens every time I turn on my PC. Whether it's related to my PC freezing I simply don't know. It's a shame the event couldn't give more info about the problem.

I was called Dave at Uni by my geek pals.

Hehe