Windows 7 driver freeze

Windows 7: System Restore Windows 8 or Windows 8. If Chkdsk runs while starting Windows, it could be a sign of a hard disk failure. For more information, see the following Knowledge Base article: Check disk Chkdsk runs when you start Windows 8 or Windows 7 Please note that Chkdsk can take a very long time to run.

On large hard drives, it can even take a day or more. If Chkdsk finds and fixes a problem, this may be a sign that the drive is failing.

If so, you may continue to experience problems in the future. If problems are repeatedly found or can't be fixed, consider replacing the hard drive. Contact your PC manufacturer for assistance, if needed. Random hangs can also be caused by other faulty hardware. Consult with your PC manufacturer to run available hardware diagnostics.

This could include:. PC diagnostics that test the integrity of the core PC devices, such as the processor fans and cooling system. Malicious software may also cause random hangs and other performance problems in Windows. See this article for information about finding and removing viruses: How do I find and remove a virus? It is also recommended that you run one or more online detection tools from reputable antivirus software providers if you suspect a malware infection.

One such example is the Microsoft Safety Scanner. Antivirus software can sometimes contribute to performance problems in Windows. This is particularly common if your antivirus software is out of date, or if you are running more than one antivirus software on your PC at the same time.

If you have multiple antivirus solutions installed, uninstall all but one. Check for and install updates for your antivirus software. For more information, see these articles: How do I uninstall antivirus or antispyware programs? What to do if your antivirus software stops working.

A generic freeze is usually indicative of some type of performance problem due to bad hardware or problems with the way Windows is configured, including low memory or disk space. You may see Windows freezing periodically if there is an issue with an important driver on your system. Display drivers, Bluetooth drivers, network drivers, and motherboard drivers can all contribute to temporary freezing of the system. Check the PC manufacturer site to be sure you have the latest firmware for your PC, and that you are running the latest available drivers for all the hardware on your system.

Install all recommended Windows Updates. This ensures that you are running the most improved version of Windows. A freeze could be part of a general performance problem that is causing a slow or lagging computer. If so, you may be able to help the problem by optimizing Windows for better performance. If your PC freezes temporarily when using a specific app, the cause is probably not with the underlying operating system, but rather there is a likely a conflict with the app that is freezing.

You can try a variety of steps to resolve the issue, that vary depending on what kind of app is freezing:. Maybe not. The Window Watcher tells all, reporting every window created by every running program, whether the window is visible or not. Vista and Windows 7 love updated drivers so here is how to update the major ones. This is my generic how to for proper driver updates : This utility makes it easy to see which versions are loaded : DriverView - Free - utility displays the list of all device drivers currently loaded on your system.

For each driver in the list, additional useful information is displayed: load address of the driver, description, version, product name, company that created the driver, and more.

Control Panel - Device Manager - Display Adapter - write down the make and complete model of your video adapter - double click - Driver's tab - write down the version info. Always check in Device Manager - Drivers tab to be sure the version you are installing actually shows up. This is because some drivers rollback before the latest is installed sound drivers particularly do this so install a driver - reboot - check to be sure it is installed and repeat as needed.

Manually look at manufacturer's sites for drivers - and Device Maker's sites. Hardware acceleration or not, its efficient. Just to let you know that this is still an issue. For a few days I have had problems with my computer freezing while using Firefox. So I updated my Nvidia driver which forced me to use the GeForce experience Then the first freeze.

I then upgraded to FF Have tried your advised solution. Looking forward to it working. By freezing, I mean only a hard restart will allow access to my computer again, then it is normal for awhile. I started having this problem just after having the latest version of Firefox pushed to me which also coincided with a driver update to my Nvidia graphics card. I uninstalled Firefox and the Nvidia drivers, rebooted, Win installed the latest Nvidia drivers, I re-installed the latest Firefox and still had problems with the OS freezing up.

I finally just re-installed the last Nvidia driver that I had been using and havent had a problem since. It does not appear to be just Firefox that is causing this but the interaction of Firefox with the Nvidia driver so the hardware acceleration suggestion makes sense. I had problems with both the and drivers for Win I had no problems running IE except that it is a pig or Chrome. This may not work for some systems but it seems to be the fix for most.

Also avoid installing Nvidias unnecessary software "GeForce Experience" and set up windows to not automatically install drivers from windows update otherwise it will install the bad drivers on its own and the problem will re-occur.

Nedloh, Thanks for updating this and for linking to the related nVidia GeForce Drivers thread on the issue. At first look at the Dell support page, only XP drivers are available. However several are marked "Urgent" under sata drives. It took about 20 minutes to install system would stall but once installed and rebooted twice my system seems to work fine. I have not seen this mentioned - I've been trying to get this to work for a week and first skipped the XP drivers.

Saturday, May 23, AM.