BleepingComputer.com: Windows 7 keeps freezing

I've had a new PC for about 2 months. For the first month all was well, but for the past few weeks maybe once or twice per day, everything will just freeze for no apparent reason. The cursor just sticks suddenly, and then nothing works other than switching off/resetting. CTL/ATL/DEL doesn't do anything in this situation.

I can't see anything obviously wrong, has anyone else had this problem? I know it could be any number of things causing it and it's impossible to give a definite diagnosis based on my description, but I was just wondering if this was a common problem and if so what some of the possible causes were.

have you tried scanning it ? scan it with maleware bytes? did u install any programs

This may be relevant:
http://windows7news.com/2010/02/14/microso...reezing-issues/

Aus Smithy, on Feb 22 2010, 07:20 AM, said:

That is quite the interesting read.

Thank you Aus Smithy that was a good find and should help some.

Thanks for the replies. Sorry for not replying a bit sooner, been busy past few days.

That is an interesting link Smithy, will take a closer look now. I have scanned it, and haven't installed anything that should cause it to keep freezing. Firefox keeps crashing far more regularly than it should too, which is annoying. Hopefully Smithy's link will help me get to the bottom of it!

I thought my problems were going away, but now seem to be getting worse.

Computer keeps freezing, suddenly the cursor just sticks and you can't do anything but turn the computer off and back on, CTL+ALT+DEL doesn't work for example. Sometimes it'll go a whole day without freezing, then other times it'll freeze, then freeze again within minutes of restarting. It also tends to freeze if the screen saver has been on for more than a couple of minutes. The final problem is that the PC just won't shut down usually when you try to shut it down. The shutting down screen tends to come up for 15-20 minutes if you leave it, before getting a blue error screen and the message:

DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE


The technical information at the bottom reads:

STOP: 0x0000009F (0x0000000000000003, 0xFFFFFA8006CD2060, 0xFFFFF80003F93518, 0xFFFFFA800B057610)



Has anyone been having similar problems, or does anyone know what the best solution might be?

I tried looking at Microsoft's website, and found this page: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/246243 I followed the instructions and tried running Sigverif.exe, but it didn't find anything wrong.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated, although I do understand that a specific solution will be hard to provide without sitting in front of the PC. Thanks.

What is your computer's brand and model?

Download BlueScreenView
No installation required.
Double click on BlueScreenView.exe file to run the program.
When scanning is done, go Edit>Select All.
Go File>Save Selected Items, and save the report as BSOD.txt.
Open BSOD.txt in Notepad, copy all content, and paste it into your next reply.

Wow, thanks for the quick reply. Computer was made by a friend, so isn't one of your usual "brands". I just ran Belarc advisor, which reveals all the details of the system:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Operating System
Windows 7 Home Premium (x64) (build 7600)
Install Language: English (United States)
System Locale: English (United Kingdom)

Processor
2.60 gigahertz AMD Athlon II X4 620
512 kilobyte primary memory cache
2048 kilobyte secondary memory cache
64-bit ready
Multi-core (4 total)
Not hyper-threaded

Drives
500.10 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
456.74 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space

Optiarc DVD RW AD-5240S ATA Device [CD-ROM drive]
3.5" format removeable media [Floppy drive]

STM3500418AS [Hard drive] (500.11 GB) -- drive 0, s/n 9VM6792X, rev CC38, SMART Status: Healthy

System Model
Enclosure Type: Desktop

Main Circuit Board
Board: ASRock K10N7SLI
Bus Clock: 200 megahertz
BIOS: American Megatrends Inc. P1.10 03/23/2009

Memory Modules
8192 Megabytes Usable Installed Memory

Slot 'DIMM0' has 2048 MB (serial number SerNum00)
Slot 'DIMM1' has 2048 MB (serial number SerNum01)
Slot 'DIMM2' has 2048 MB (serial number SerNum02)
Slot 'DIMM3' has 2048 MB (serial number SerNum03)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



The BlueScreenView program seems to point to one particular driver as causing the problem from what I can gather? Here is the copy and paste of the report as requested.


==================================================
Dump File : 032410-18093-01.dmp
Crash Time : 24/03/2010 14:21:56
Bug Check String : DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE
Bug Check Code : 0x0000009f
Parameter 1 : 00000000`00000003
Parameter 2 : fffffa80`07714680
Parameter 3 : fffff800`00b9c518
Parameter 4 : fffffa80`0aff3010
Caused By Driver : ntoskrnl.exe
Caused By Address : ntoskrnl.exe+71f00
File Description : NT Kernel & System
Product Name : Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
Company : Microsoft Corporation
File Version : 6.1.7600.16385 (win7_rtm.090713-1255)
Processor : x64
Computer Name :
Full Path : C:\Windows\minidump\032410-18093-01.dmp
Processors Count : 4
Major Version : 15
Minor Version : 7600
==================================================

==================================================
Dump File : 032110-20390-01.dmp
Crash Time : 21/03/2010 19:53:27
Bug Check String : DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE
Bug Check Code : 0x0000009f
Parameter 1 : 00000000`00000003
Parameter 2 : fffffa80`06cd0a20
Parameter 3 : fffff800`00b9c518
Parameter 4 : fffffa80`0b101ca0
Caused By Driver : ntoskrnl.exe
Caused By Address : ntoskrnl.exe+71f00
File Description : NT Kernel & System
Product Name : Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
Company : Microsoft Corporation
File Version : 6.1.7600.16385 (win7_rtm.090713-1255)
Processor : x64
Computer Name :
Full Path : C:\Windows\minidump\032110-20390-01.dmp
Processors Count : 4
Major Version : 15
Minor Version : 7600
==================================================

==================================================
Dump File : 032110-17937-01.dmp
Crash Time : 21/03/2010 03:25:53
Bug Check String : DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE
Bug Check Code : 0x0000009f
Parameter 1 : 00000000`00000003
Parameter 2 : fffffa80`06cd2060
Parameter 3 : fffff800`03f93518
Parameter 4 : fffffa80`0b057610
Caused By Driver : ntoskrnl.exe
Caused By Address : ntoskrnl.exe+71f00
File Description : NT Kernel & System
Product Name : Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
Company : Microsoft Corporation
File Version : 6.1.7600.16385 (win7_rtm.090713-1255)
Processor : x64
Computer Name :
Full Path : C:\Windows\minidump\032110-17937-01.dmp
Processors Count : 4
Major Version : 15
Minor Version : 7600
==================================================

==================================================
Dump File : 031610-18171-01.dmp
Crash Time : 16/03/2010 21:05:35
Bug Check String : DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE
Bug Check Code : 0x0000009f
Parameter 1 : 00000000`00000003
Parameter 2 : fffffa80`06cd0a20
Parameter 3 : fffff800`03f93518
Parameter 4 : fffffa80`07177010
Caused By Driver : ntoskrnl.exe
Caused By Address : ntoskrnl.exe+71f00
File Description : NT Kernel & System
Product Name : Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
Company : Microsoft Corporation
File Version : 6.1.7600.16385 (win7_rtm.090713-1255)
Processor : x64
Computer Name :
Full Path : C:\Windows\minidump\031610-18171-01.dmp
Processors Count : 4
Major Version : 15
Minor Version : 7600
==================================================

==================================================
Dump File : 031610-17453-01.dmp
Crash Time : 16/03/2010 04:14:34
Bug Check String : DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE
Bug Check Code : 0x0000009f
Parameter 1 : 00000000`00000003
Parameter 2 : fffffa80`06cd0060
Parameter 3 : fffff800`00b9c518
Parameter 4 : fffffa80`098f6ca0
Caused By Driver : ntoskrnl.exe
Caused By Address : ntoskrnl.exe+71f00
File Description : NT Kernel & System
Product Name : Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
Company : Microsoft Corporation
File Version : 6.1.7600.16385 (win7_rtm.090713-1255)
Processor : x64
Computer Name :
Full Path : C:\Windows\minidump\031610-17453-01.dmp
Processors Count : 4
Major Version : 15
Minor Version : 7600
==================================================

==================================================
Dump File : 030610-19171-01.dmp
Crash Time : 06/03/2010 09:30:44
Bug Check String : DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE
Bug Check Code : 0x0000009f
Parameter 1 : 00000000`00000003
Parameter 2 : fffffa80`06cd0a20
Parameter 3 : fffff800`00b9c518
Parameter 4 : fffffa80`0f69cb50
Caused By Driver : ntoskrnl.exe
Caused By Address : ntoskrnl.exe+71f00
File Description : NT Kernel & System
Product Name : Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
Company : Microsoft Corporation
File Version : 6.1.7600.16385 (win7_rtm.090713-1255)
Processor : x64
Computer Name :
Full Path : C:\Windows\minidump\030610-19171-01.dmp
Processors Count : 4
Major Version : 15
Minor Version : 7600
==================================================

==================================================
Dump File : 030310-17609-01.dmp
Crash Time : 03/03/2010 02:09:22
Bug Check String : DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE
Bug Check Code : 0x0000009f
Parameter 1 : 00000000`00000003
Parameter 2 : fffffa80`0982b970
Parameter 3 : fffff800`00b9c518
Parameter 4 : fffffa80`071de880
Caused By Driver : ntoskrnl.exe
Caused By Address : ntoskrnl.exe+71f00
File Description : NT Kernel & System
Product Name : Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
Company : Microsoft Corporation
File Version : 6.1.7600.16385 (win7_rtm.090713-1255)
Processor : x64
Computer Name :
Full Path : C:\Windows\minidump\030310-17609-01.dmp
Processors Count : 4
Major Version : 15
Minor Version : 7600
==================================================

==================================================
Dump File : 030110-16859-01.dmp
Crash Time : 01/03/2010 03:40:54
Bug Check String : DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE
Bug Check Code : 0x0000009f
Parameter 1 : 00000000`00000003
Parameter 2 : fffffa80`06cd1a20
Parameter 3 : fffff800`00b9c518
Parameter 4 : fffffa80`087b8e10
Caused By Driver : ntoskrnl.exe
Caused By Address : ntoskrnl.exe+71f00
File Description : NT Kernel & System
Product Name : Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
Company : Microsoft Corporation
File Version : 6.1.7600.16385 (win7_rtm.090713-1255)
Processor : x64
Computer Name :
Full Path : C:\Windows\minidump\030110-16859-01.dmp
Processors Count : 4
Major Version : 15
Minor Version : 7600
==================================================

==================================================
Dump File : 030110-17000-01.dmp
Crash Time : 01/03/2010 03:16:45
Bug Check String : DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE
Bug Check Code : 0x0000009f
Parameter 1 : 00000000`00000003
Parameter 2 : fffffa80`06cd2a20
Parameter 3 : fffff800`00b9c518
Parameter 4 : fffffa80`0a0afca0
Caused By Driver : ntoskrnl.exe
Caused By Address : ntoskrnl.exe+71f00
File Description : NT Kernel & System
Product Name : Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
Company : Microsoft Corporation
File Version : 6.1.7600.16385 (win7_rtm.090713-1255)
Processor : x64
Computer Name :
Full Path : C:\Windows\minidump\030110-17000-01.dmp
Processors Count : 4
Major Version : 15
Minor Version : 7600
==================================================

==================================================
Dump File : 021410-17406-01.dmp
Crash Time : 14/02/2010 03:56:49
Bug Check String : DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE
Bug Check Code : 0x0000009f
Parameter 1 : 00000000`00000003
Parameter 2 : fffffa80`06cd0060
Parameter 3 : fffff800`00b9c518
Parameter 4 : fffffa80`07835010
Caused By Driver : ntoskrnl.exe
Caused By Address : ntoskrnl.exe+71f00
File Description : NT Kernel & System
Product Name : Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
Company : Microsoft Corporation
File Version : 6.1.7600.16385 (win7_rtm.090713-1255)
Processor : x64
Computer Name :
Full Path : C:\Windows\minidump\021410-17406-01.dmp
Processors Count : 4
Major Version : 15
Minor Version : 7600
==================================================

==================================================
Dump File : 020910-18671-01.dmp
Crash Time : 09/02/2010 04:10:14
Bug Check String : DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE
Bug Check Code : 0x0000009f
Parameter 1 : 00000000`00000003
Parameter 2 : fffffa80`06cd1060
Parameter 3 : fffff800`00b9c518
Parameter 4 : fffffa80`08437ca0
Caused By Driver : ntoskrnl.exe
Caused By Address : ntoskrnl.exe+71f00
File Description : NT Kernel & System
Product Name : Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
Company : Microsoft Corporation
File Version : 6.1.7600.16385 (win7_rtm.090713-1255)
Processor : x64
Computer Name :
Full Path : C:\Windows\minidump\020910-18671-01.dmp
Processors Count : 4
Major Version : 15
Minor Version : 7600
==================================================

==================================================
Dump File : 020810-19343-01.dmp
Crash Time : 08/02/2010 07:44:12
Bug Check String : DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE
Bug Check Code : 0x0000009f
Parameter 1 : 00000000`00000003
Parameter 2 : fffffa80`06cd1060
Parameter 3 : fffff800`00b9c518
Parameter 4 : fffffa80`0abe8670
Caused By Driver : ntoskrnl.exe
Caused By Address : ntoskrnl.exe+71f00
File Description : NT Kernel & System
Product Name : Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
Company : Microsoft Corporation
File Version : 6.1.7600.16385 (win7_rtm.090713-1255)
Processor : x64
Computer Name :
Full Path : C:\Windows\minidump\020810-19343-01.dmp
Processors Count : 4
Major Version : 15
Minor Version : 7600
==================================================

==================================================
Dump File : 020610-17390-01.dmp
Crash Time : 06/02/2010 20:23:01
Bug Check String : DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE
Bug Check Code : 0x0000009f
Parameter 1 : 00000000`00000003
Parameter 2 : fffffa80`06ccf060
Parameter 3 : fffff800`00b9c518
Parameter 4 : fffffa80`0b3fbca0
Caused By Driver : ntoskrnl.exe
Caused By Address : ntoskrnl.exe+71f00
File Description : NT Kernel & System
Product Name : Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
Company : Microsoft Corporation
File Version : 6.1.7600.16385 (win7_rtm.090713-1255)
Processor : x64
Computer Name :
Full Path : C:\Windows\minidump\020610-17390-01.dmp
Processors Count : 4
Major Version : 15
Minor Version : 7600

Eh, with the Kernel it could be anything.

What is your graphics card brand?

What anti-virus program do you use?

Show you what I know, I saw it was the same thing each time and thought that was a good thing!

Display
NVIDIA GeForce 9500 GT [Display adapter] (2x)
DELL E176FP [Monitor] (17.1"vis, s/n FC5296450AML, April 2006)

Virus Protection
AVG Anti-Virus Free




I wouldn't have any idea how to fix this, other than perhaps reloading Windows. I did read somewhere about a similar problem with that blue screen error message and overclocking was mentioned as a possible cause?

Haha...if it was something else, then yeah, it would make our job easier. But there is an endless list of things that can make the Kernel go wacko.

Update your NVIDIA drivers here. That may not be the cause, but it never hurts to have updated drivers. At least it means we can rule it out as a possibility.

AVG...hmm...the only way to know for sure whether or not it is causing or contributing to the BSOD is to uninstall it and go without an AV for a couple days. Just keep it off the internet if possible (assuming you have another PC to use for that).

Yes, a reinstall would probably fix it, but we'll screw around with it before going to the last resort.

Do you overclock your processor?

What power supply do you have? cryptodan can tell you if it's adequate or not. That's outside my area of expertise...

Another thing...go ahead and do a full Malwarebytes scan while you're at it. It never hurts, and we can rule out malware as a cause (shortens the list of possible causes).

Sorry been away for a few days.

I updated the NVIDIA drivers from their website and ran a full Malwarebytes scan too, which didn't find anything. The NVIDIA control panel recommended I download a motherboard driver that I didn't have, so I did that too. I'll try disabling anti virus and firewall for a couple of days if updating those drivers doesn't work. I really don't want to reinstall everything if I can avoid it.

I wish I wasn't so computer illiterate. I think the power supply is 600W and that the processor is over clocked. I'm not 100% sure though, is there any way I can check?

If the processor is over clocked that can cause issues.

Is there any way to check if it's over clocked, and if it is to stop it being over clocked? Apolgies for my lack of knowledge, it's just not something I've got any experience with.