Vista - Vista Partial Freezing

Hi,

New to these forums so hi everyone.

Right, I've recently just installed Vista Home Premium x64 on a new build and am experiencing some peculiar freezes. Basically the start menu and all options to click on any buttons/links etc anywhere on the screen lock up - however I am able to Alt+Tab to other windows but not press any buttons etc. If I Ctrl+Alt+Del and then Esc everything starts working again.

This does it intermittently but sometimes 2 or 3 times in a space of a couple of minutes or less.

Any ideas or know of this bug/problem?

Any help would be so much appreciated!!

Cheers.

Hi iandvedwards, welcome to the board.
If you post your computer specs would really helpful in diagnosis since the cause of the freezing thing could be anything from software to hardware. Hope it is just some small glitches. Post back.

Hi

Yah, it's most likely a non responding program (possibly background), or a hanging driver.
One way to troubleshoot the issue is to use the msconfig utility and shut down all startups and other non MS drivers/services, and then reload things one at a time (reboot between) and let run for awhile. If it stays stable then reload another item until you finally get this unstable behavior back again, then the last thing loaded is the problem.

Basic Build below:

> ASUS P5N-D nForce 750i ATX
> Intel Core 2 Duo E7300
> PowerColor HD 4670 PCS Edition 512MB GDDR3 Graphics
> Corsair 4GB Kit (2x2GB) DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 XMS2 RAM
> 250Gb Maxtor HDD
> 500Gb Seagate HDD

I have taken the above advice and disabled all non MS startup/services and have found that I am still getting the problem! Help!

Hi iandvedwards, have you check the SATA cable connections? Loosen or bad SATA cable is a known cause for random freezing. I would suggest you wiggle and tug hard on where the SATA cables connecter at HDDs especialy on the Seagate. Hope this will take care of it. Replace them with aftermarket ones when you have a chance.

Good luck and post back.

Will check the cables when I get home later on. Its just starting to get annoying now as sometimes it'll do it 5-10 seconds after using CTRL ALT DEL & Cancel to unfreeze it - not good when doing university coursework and switching from 2-3 windows lots of the time!

Hi iandvedwards, just in case it is not hardware related, I suggest you to go head and backup your home works and stuffs. To save time instead of endless trouble shooting, reinstall Vista would eliminate all virus, bad programs or system corruptions. Have you done a system repair? or restoration? Post back.

I did a system repair booting via the Vista DVD and no problems, however I know there is a CHKDSK type equivilent you can run in command prompt to check for problems - do you know what this is?

sfc /scannow I believe is what I was looking for! Will try this as well as a CHKDSK/R