Solved Windows 8 64 bit, strange freezes every so often

Hi,

Been experiencing random system freezes from time to time. Did a Google search on that and there was a page that talks about that that included many fix suggestions.

One was the internal timer and was "fixed" with a simple copy paste line in the Command Prompt in Admin level. Another was a graphics card update, did that. Another talked about the browser (I use Firefox pretty much exclusively) but what was talked about didn't really pertain to me so didn't bother with that. I'm at work right now so can't post the link to the site but I did have another freeze this AM after all the fixes I tried out. So wondering what could be causing it. I have 3 external drives, I run an NVIDIA graphics card. It's a pretty good system with an i7 processor and 32 gigs of DDR3 RAM. Computer, when forced reset button is pushed, boots up just fine. No feedback from the system itself about drives or anything else.

So if anyone can perhaps try to clue me in on what else I might look at I'd appreciate the help.

Thanks

Richard

You can start by checking your event viewer for logs that are time-coincident with the freezes and post any that are found.

OK. Found this from this AM's freeze up:

Name resolution for the name dm1.storage.live.com timed out after none of the configured DNS servers responded.

Click to expand...

All I can think of is that Firefox has a Sync module built in and I did fill out the info on it and the freeze's have all started up when I had Firefox up and running. So perhaps the Sync is causing the system to stop responding? I remember about a year ago I had tried out Sync and had some bad hiccups with it then. That's all I can really think of.

I opened up the Options and unchecked all the options for Sync (bookmarks, extensions, passwords, cookies, etc...)

my2cents said:

You can start by checking your event viewer for logs that are time-coincident with the freezes and post any that are found.

Click to expand...

Name resolution for the name dm1.storage.live.com timed out after none of the configured DNS servers responded.

Click to expand...

Hi RAMWolff,

I wish I could say the above was a possible cause for your issue; however, I doubt that it is. That message simply means your ISP was slow to respond during boot and that happens to me (at times) as well. Even though that is close to being time-coincident, I'm guessing that more likely happened during the reboot after a freeze. I think at this point it would be better to provide all you system specs so we can have a look and see where we can go from there or you can simply download Speccy and post the report results:

Speccy - System Information - Free Download

Hi again RAMwolf,

Just on general principles, you could try this just in case their might be some undetected corruption:

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/26512-dism-fixing-component-store-corruption-windows-8-a.html

Thanks. I'll give this a try. After turning off all the sync stuff in Firefox came back to the computer after watching a morning show and found everything frozen up again. I've also had very bad luck with my Seagate external backup drives this past year and after 3 drives, first one took ALL of my backed up life with it and it's unrecoverable, got that replaced and it too was a bad drive and now I've got an Enterprise sort of drive from Seagate (they offered it to me) so reset button to force a reboot for the system again but unplugged that drive to see if **IT** is too going south.

Here are the results uploaded in a txt file.

my2cents said:

Name resolution for the name dm1.storage.live.com timed out after none of the configured DNS servers responded.

Click to expand...

Hi RAMWolff,

I wish I could say the above was a possible cause for your issue; however, I doubt that it is. That message simply means your ISP was slow to respond during boot and that happens to me (at times) as well. Even though that is close to being time-coincident, I'm guessing that more likely happened during the reboot after a freeze. I think at this point it would be better to provide all you system specs so we can have a look and see where we can go from there or you can simply download Speccy and post the report results:

Speccy - System Information - Free Download

Click to expand...

Seems to be sitting at 20%. Been about 10 minutes now.

my2cents said:

Hi again RAMwolf,

Just on general principles, you could try this just in case their might be some undetected corruption:

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/26512-dism-fixing-component-store-corruption-windows-8-a.html

Click to expand...

OK, completed the DISM repair thingie. Seemed to have fixed something and then something happened. I rebooted the computer, before I got the initial beep I had reattached the Seagate backup drive, the system hung, never made it to the boot up screen. Curses to Seagate for another bad drive, at least is seems to be yet another issue with one of their drives. Can't believe it.

Well I've submitted a case to Seagate to have them look into this and if it's them again I'm not sure WHO to trust at this point for a backup drive solution. Used to be such a good company but this is THREE drives now in the past 6 months. NOT GOOD!

I've been offline so I was unable to respond. So, it sounds like DISM fixed something? And then you couldn't boot with a Seagate external drive attached? I guess the easiest question would be "are you OK now?"

So far so good with the drive unattached. This is so not cool though. I hope that Seagate can get their you know what together eventually. Got any external drive backup suggestions?

Yes I do in fact! If you are looking at an external drive to primarily store data and backups, stay clear of those USB 3 types that are not actually SATA drives. Some of the more common names for these are WD My Passport, Toshiba Canvio, etc. All of these drives have some sort of special security firmware that always causes issues and I have no idea how or why. So, here's what I use:

ORICO 6518US3 -BK USB3.0 2.5 " & 3.5 " SATA Hard Drive Dock Station - Newegg.com

or the same as above with eSATA capabilities:

Orico 6518SUS3-BK USB3.0 & E-SATA SATA HDD Docking Station Enclosure - Newegg.com

Easy-in, easy-out with no heat issues. Changing drives is a snap! Then you can use any SATA, SATA II or SATA III drive. You can also plug 2.5" laptop drives into it as well. This came in handy when I replaced my laptop's 2.5" HD with an SSD.

Good luck and I'm glad you got some of your issues fixed!

my2cents

Thanks so much. LOVE LOVE LOVE your avatar! lol

You are quite welcome and thank you for that acknowledgement too!

Cheers,

my2cents

Another quick question. Does the Seagate Backup Plus fall under the mentions you gave in your post above for backup solutions that are not true SATA drives? If so is there a on line list to refer to so I can steer clear of them in the future?? I'd share this on Facebook too so my friends there can be made aware (G+ and Twitter too!)

Not sure about the Seagate Backup Plus but if it looks and resembles a woman's cosmetic case (slightly larger), then its probably out of the same mold. Another indicator would be that it requires no external power source (eg, runs off USB power). However, that is an important point because if you plan to travel a lot, then my suggestion might not be a good fit for you because it does require AC power via an adapter.

Hmm, the drive does require a power supply, so did the other two Seagate drives that went south. They are in those piano black cases though.

RAMWolff said:

Hmm, the drive does require a power supply, so did the other two Seagate drives that went south. They are in those piano black cases though.

Click to expand...

OK, I may have made a mistake when I identified them as being able to run on "USB only" power because I really don't know much about those types of drives; however, if you are OK with AC power, then I would recommend that you go with my suggestion (or something similar).

It's OK. I think what I'm going to do is match my other external drive that's working fine and get one of those dual enclosures with RAID functions. I found a really nice one on Amazon.com by Vantec. I've had really good luck with that companies enclosures and the reviews on this particular enclosure tells me it's probably a win win.