PC freeze, (almost) no warning, requires power cut - Windows 7 x64

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brunoais

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Aug 27, 2013
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I'm having issues with my win7 x64 laptop locking up in some specific situations

I don't really know the cause but I already know some things that are not the cause, for example, it is not caused by overheating.

The only warning with it is the near-instant freeze that, once the main symptom that is is going to freeze it is uninterruptible. When it freezes it is for real.
The only way to unfreeze it is to force shutdown by pulling the power cord (or pressing 4s on the power button).
I've tested waiting for 1h to confirm this.

The warning happens when there's lag in the input of whatever I'm trying to input. The easiest thing to notice in is the mouse lagging. That happens for about 2s before the freeze. It can be eaily mistaken for HDD causing the lag except the HDD light keeps flashing as if the the freeze was not going to happen.

The freeze reveals itself by having the screen with the last image processed before the freeze, the columns repeating the indefinitely the last 0.1 to 0.2 seconds of sound before the freeze and the CPU heating up as fast as it can (I suspect an infinite cycle).

During the freeze,
All passive hardware operation are still available. The fan speeds up as the CPU heats up, the battery light still reacts to the power cord.
On the other hand, all active operations that require the OS do not work. The Caps lock stays as it was and the wireless antenna does not switch on or off (it stays as it was).

Possible cause
This only happened after installing texlive.

Reproduction
This seems to happen more frequently when I have multiple connections to the internet, possibly, half-open connections.
It always takes hours of uptime before it displays this problem. Usually days but it's not a requirement.

My wireless driver is:
Atheros AR9485 Wireless Network Adapter v.9.2.0.496 (release date: 21-03-2012)


I'm open to any other questions you may have to try to solve this.

P.S. I'm an advanced user so I'm familiar with many technical terms
 
I'm not having BSOD, so I cannot give you a dump.
I also thought that that those instructions were moot because it is a freeze, not a BSOD.

Anyway, I'll do as if it is a BOSD, then...
I can't seem to be able to edit the 1st post so I'll write it here.

· OS - Windows 7
· x64
· What was original installed OS on system? NO
· The OS is full retail version.
· Age of system (hardware) - ~1 year since first used.
· Age of OS installation: ~10 Months.
· have you re-installed the OS? Yes (once)

· CPU - Intel Core i7-3630QM CPU @ 2.40GHz
· Video Card - Intel(R) HD Graphics 4000 & NVIDIA GeForce GT 740M
· MotherBoard - ACPI x64-based PC

· System Manufacturer - Asus
· Exact model number - Asus N56VZ

· Laptop
 
Hi,

You have several crash dumps from a month or so ago to last year.

DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE (9f)

This bug check indicates that the driver is in an inconsistent or invalid power state.

Code: 
BugCheck 9F, {3, fffffa8007a63a10, fffff800038073d8, [COLOR=#ff0000]fffffa8007c52530[/COLOR]}

Code: 
>[ 16, 2]   0 e1 fffffa800a75e040 00000000 00000000-00000000    pending
           \Driver\[COLOR=#0000cd]nvlddmkm[/COLOR]

The nVidia video driver is the driver that blocked the IRP.


The latest crash dump is from late June, so if anything I am listing as a step is no longer installed, please skip to the next:

1. Ensure you have the latest video card drivers. If you are already on the latest video card drivers, uninstall and install a version or a few versions behind the latest to ensure it's not a latest driver only issue. If you have already experimented with the latest video card driver and many previous versions, please give the beta driver for your card a try.

2. Navigate to services.msc and disable the nVidia Streaming Service, and then restart the computer.

3. AiCharger.sys is listed and loaded in the modules list which is the Asus Charger driver. It's included in many Asus bloatware, which you appear to have installed. Please go ahead and uninstall any and all Asus software as it's unnecessary bloatware.

4. In your loaded drivers list, dtsoftbus01.sys is listed which is the Daemon Tools driver. Daemon Tools is a very popular cause of BSOD's in 7/8 based systems. Please uninstall Daemon Tools. Alternative imaging programs are: MagicISO, Power ISO, etc.

5. Remove and replace Kaspersky with Microsoft Security Essentials for temporary troubleshooting purposes as it's very likely causing conflicts:

Kaspersky removal - Service articles

MSE - Microsoft Security Essentials - Microsoft Windows

Regards,

Patrick
 
The driver crashes are solved and have been solved using the solution pointed in 1. Meanwhile, a new version of the drivers appeared, I upgraded to it and the BSOD were gone.

My current issue is system freeze. Do you mean that any of those can be the cause of the freeze?
While it can be bloatware for many, I use the USB charger controller and I use the antenna switch (wireless and bluetooth) from Asus.

I have already tested removing all of those months ago, before and after these freezes happen (sorry I forgot to mention that). They would still happen regardless.

About 4... OK. I'll use magicISO. It should work as well for my kind of use.

OH! About 5. Do you identify me having Kaspersky installed on my PC? AFAIK, I have never installed that! If it is it is illegally installed because I didn't start its installation. What I'm using right now is MSE as you suggest.

Anyway, my current issue lies on system freezes. Can it be caused by any of these?
 
Anyway, my current issue lies on system freezes. Can it be caused by any of these?
Click to expand...

Yes.

What about #2, did you follow that as well?

Also, you have various Kaspersky drivers loaded. That is why I mentioned removal. Again though, this was back in June.
 
I didn't do anything about kaspeski in the last months so they are still loaded somewhere. Any advice on how to remove them?

About advice #2. I had tried that when I tried everything you suggested at the same time some time ago. I didn't try individual things, only everything at the same time. Should I try that again?
 
· Age of system (hardware) - ~1 year since first used.
Click to expand...
Do note if less than 1 year, the notebook maker is still on the hook to provide warranty support - to include support for the OEM installed Windows.

As for Kaspersky, if you ever used the free "on-line" scanner, that still involves installing components on the local machine. It is highly unlikely Kaspersky was installed "illegally" - especially since Kaspersky is a legitimate security company with a good reputation.

You said, "it is not caused by overheating", but then you said just a few lines later, "and the CPU heating up as fast as it can." Have you cleaned this system as much as you can of heat trapping dust? I suggest you open all access bays, remove any removable drive, battery or other devices to expose the cavities and innards as much as possible, then blast out the dust with a suitably equipped air compressor or can of compressed dusting gas. Do this outside. And if using cans of dusting gas, be sure to keep the can level so you are not dispensing the contents in liquid form. And note this stuff is NOT canned "air", but toxic difluoroethane - so again, do it outside.

What are your temps? I use and recommend CoreTemp to monitor CPU temps in real time.

Does it lock up on battery or charger or both? If this were a PC, I would suggest swapping in a known good, spare power supply.
 
Where I live, the warranty is 2 years.

About Kaspersky, maybe it installed in one of those installers that include extra software and I failed to deselect it for install. Whatever is on my computer, it is not registered in the installed programs.

For temperatures, I've been using speedfan. It monitors all temperature sensors, not only the CPU one.
I know it is not overheating. This even happens when it is cool; CPU temperature below 50ºC. At a time when I can place my hand on the exit of the fan output and keep the hand there (for a while until it becomes too hot). Also, at normal use, the fan is never at full speed. With the fan working, overheating only happens after the fan runs at maximum speed.
I do loads of precautions to prevent dust from entering the computer. I can execute a 100% CPU usage program, the fan speeds up but nothing wrong happens to the computer. On the other hand, while almost at idle, it can freeze.

Some minutes ago, I was playing a full screen game that is CPU intensive. Max temperature of any core was 63ºC with a room temperature of 38ºC (yes, it is hot here). Not it is 35ºC here and the CPU is ~32% usage. Temperatures are of 49-52ºC which seems normal to me.

That's how I think it is not overheating.
Also:
"and the CPU heating up as fast as it can."
Click to expand...
This is when the computer freezes, not before. I just thought it could be useful information. For me, it seems like it is related to an infinite loop somewhere but I'm not sure.
 
Where I live, the warranty is 2 years.
Click to expand...
Perhaps for the hardware, but OEM Windows licenses require the builder to provide Windows support for 1 year. But, as part the sales package, the builder can always extend those warranties.

Speedfan is good, once you verify it has paired the correct label to each sensor.

63°C is pretty warm, but not too warm if it only hits that when taxed - especially for a notebook, which inherently have inadequate cooling.

A CPU can go from cold to overheated in just a few short seconds - this is why the motherboard chipset/BIOS verifies a CPU fan is connected and spinning during the boot process. With 100°F room temps, you need keep watch.

Temperatures are of 49-52ºC which seems normal to me.
Click to expand...
Nothing wrong there.
 
I'm sorry but if you're not willing to listen to advice then why come here asking for help? Kaspersky is a likely (contributing if not the sole) the cause as Patrick has pointed out, we've seen many issues with Kaspersky so we aren't making it up for the sake of it. Due to the fact that you aren't getting crash dumps we can't find the actual cause directly.

The two year manufacturer's warranty is not the same as the 30 day seller's refund policy in that within 30 days of purchasing the product and you are unhappy with it you are entitled to a refund as long as you haven't cause permanent damage.

The two years manufacturers warranty is for the brand of the laptop you bought I.e. Dell, ASUS etc. they are allowed to give you a replacement if your product is faulty through no fault of your own.
 
Jared said:
I'm sorry but if you're not willing to listen to advice then why come here asking for help?
Click to expand...
Sorry about that :|. I didn't notice that that was the idea I was showing with my answers. I'm just trying to give as many facts and my insights as I can.
Digerati said:
Does it lock up on battery or charger or both? If this were a PC, I would suggest swapping in a known good, spare power supply.
Click to expand...
Sorry. I forgot to answer this one.
The answer is: Both. It does not matter which one. It does not prevent it from happening.
 
Thanks. Somehow I didn't have that one because I had failed to find it in that website last time I searched (2-3 months ago)...
Anyway, I installed it (and rebooted) and I'm now testing to see if it freezes again.
 
I've been testing and the freeze happened again during this night during some minutes interval while I was going to a small break.
I didn't have the chance to reboot.

What can I do so that you can help me?
 
Wrench97 said:
Did the system recover by itself?
Click to expand...
No.
Wrench97 said:
What programs were running at the time?
Click to expand...
From what I can remember, the usual:
Mozilla firefox
Mozilla Thunderbird
Google chrome
notepad++
LoLClient.exe
Steam
Dropbox
Intel graphics HD
Team viewer
puush
Speedfan
HexChat
skype
Task manager
Resource manager
git extensions
smart SVN

This excludes the usual windows programs, including Explorer (not internet explorer)

I don't remember having any more programs opened and visible. The rest were background programs without a GUI or UI.

Edit:
At the time when I arrived to the computer, the fan was a near max speed just like the other freezes.
 
Last edited:

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