However that does lead me to two theories… a) The video card really was the issue and I have actually solved my problem. Or b) I still have no idea what the real problem is, but somehow the video card seems to be holding it off. I like to think it was the former… and considering what I’ve investigated and decided previously, I’m fine with saying it’s a video card issue.

Either way though … my freezing problem is apparently gone. I can now actually run Aero on Windows 7 and  not have it lock up on me. I call that a win.

At the end of January Microsoft released a optional update for Windows 7. Might as well try it, right?

Ya, fail.

I installed the update (along with a few other Win7 updates for the month. Restarted. Turned Aero back on. Then left the system idle for a while.

Came back to check it after a while and bam, froze. Did the same thing. The system “woke up” but I couldn’t get my taskbar or anything. Exact same symptoms as before.

Sadly I think I’m throwing in the proverbial towel on this one. Will just end up buying another video card at some point and giving that a try. I don’t think it’s a driver thing. I think it’s a hardware thing.

I rely on too many things with Firefox that I cannot live without. Specifically some of the Firefox Extensions out there like Adblock Plus, Xmarks, etc. I can’t browse the internet with ads anymore thanks to Adblock. It’s ridiculous, the difference. Xmarks is awesome for syncing my bookmarks between systems.

Chrome Extensions

I’m currently running Xmarks on Windows 7 (Firefox and Chrome), Windows XP (Firefox and Chrome) and OS X (Firefox and Safari). So no matter which browse I’m using on ANY system, I always have my bookmarks. MUST have.

Well I finally decided to check out the new Chrome beta and its supported extensions. All of my necessities are now covered… Xmarks is in the game. Ad Thwart for ads. Even a Twitter app (Chromed Bird). Right now I’m running those three, plus ForecastFox, Woot, Cooliris, ChromeReload, and Gmail Checker. Oh, and a couple other minor ones that I’m playing around with.

So far… I like it. It’s quick, simple. I get all of my extension alerts in one place. I have my bookmarks. I don’t have ads. Good stuff.

One beef so far: I can’t find a way to reorder the extensions bar. They just show up in some random order apparently – which may or may not be related to the order in which they were installed. There may be a solution to this out there, I just haven’t found it. No big deal of course, but it would be nice to order them in some way that I desire.

EDIT: Afterthought: Huge plus for Chrome is the ability to install and activate an extension without restarting the entire browser (Firefox? I’m looking at you….).

Initially tried disabling Windows Defender and EFS. I really had no idea what was causing it. And the few threads I found online didn’t seem to have any more of a clue than I.

After taking a few minutes to think about it the next time it happened, I recalled the Aero Peek function and some of the other weird stuff that Aero does. Perhaps a graphics problem? So I’m running an Nvidia 8600 GTS from XFX with 256 MB of memory. Driver was 100% up to date directly from XFX for Windows 7 64 bit. Then I disabled Aero and went to the Windows classic view.

Have not had the problem since. That leads me to believe it is either a driver problem, a video card problem, or an Aero problem.

Today I downloaded an updated driver and have turned Aero back on. Now it is merely a waiting game to see if the problem has been actually fixed or still remains.

EDIT: Nope. Still not fixed. Turned Aero back off. Back to Windows Classic.

How?

I disabled Aero and went back to Windows Classic. Hasn’t frozen since. In my last post I hinted at a video problem – and I suspect that may have been it. With Classic enabled, the Aero “Peek” and other little things like that are disabled with the Aero package as a whole.

And like I said, it hasn’t frozen since… going on nearly a week now. I couldn’t get by 2 or 3 days before.

The “combo drive” (CDRW+DVDROM) in my Macbook decides to shit the bed. OK, so it’s not totally dead – but it makes some awful noises and decides to randomly spit out a disc it’s trying to read. Definitely a drive problem. Does the same thing in Windows. I wasn’t even able to play Starcraft that I installed on it. Just ejects my disc.

eBay to the rescue though. $60 later and I have a replacement drive on the way. This time figured I’d go with a “superdrive” … or what Apple calls a DVD burner. Damn things are expensive.

A new replacement drive is $100+ and some were as high as $200 depending on where you look (iFixit, I’m looking at you). With instructions from iFixit, it shouldn’t be too hard.

I do this shit for a living… replace hardware in laptops I mean. I have no problem swapping a system board or a processor or display in a laptop. Sure, it’s a smaller space, but patience and attention to detail is key. With an Apple though… it’s a whole different ballgame.

Ok, maybe not. But it will probably be a bit different than most of the “Wintel” junk I tear apart all day.

Oh… and my Windows 7 freezing problem is STILL not fixed. Tried new video drivers. Didn’t help. Also just now turned off Aero. Why am I thinking video issues? Well when I go to wake it up (and it just sits there like a dumb cow) I can hear a fan spin up in my case – which sounds small enough to be the fan on my video card. I don’t know for sure, it’s just another hunch. We’ll see how it goes.

If you recall, my Windows 7 system would freeze up after being idle for any length of time. I could move the mouse – but do nothing with it. No key combinations would work either. The hard drive activity light would blink regularly but not actually do anything. Eventually the system would start responding again. Sometimes after a couple minutes, sometimes after 20 minutes.

I might have made some progress. Since posting that message I’ve disabled Windows Defender (because it is awful and I don’t need it anyway) and have disabled the EFS service. Since then, everything seems OK so far – but this is really a day to day problem so while it might appear to be resolved now, it may return tonight or tomorrow.

Situation is this: After the system has been idle for a period of time (I don’t know, 20-30 min?) and I move the mouse, I’m unable to click or do anything. The mouse moves but that’s it. CTRL+ALT+DEL doesn’t work. CTRL+SHIFT+ESC doesn’t work. I can see a consistent and repetitive blink from the hard drive activity light but it doesn’t seem to be actually doing anything. If I leave the system alone for a few minutes, it returns to normal.

At first I had just forced it off (held power button). It booted fine and everything was OK. I checked the power settings and set EVERYTHING to Never or Off. I do not use a screensaver – I have the monitor set to turn off after 30 minutes but that seems to be irrelevant since it will also do it with the monitor still on.

I was suspicious of my hard drive since I literally just had my other replaced – thinking they sent me a DOA drive. CHKDSK reports no problems. Western Digital’s Data Lifeguard utility passes all tests.

I also suspected my motherboard since Intel reports that it is technically not supported any further with Windows 7 – even though Windows installed necessary drivers OK. That doesn’t seem to matter though.

All of my driver’s are installed correct and report no problems. Windows Update is done. No programs need be running (no antivirus, everything else closed). I’m starting to find that I am not the only one with this problem.

Just as a reference, here are my specs. And I’m running Windows 7 Professional (from an OEM copy via Newegg). Hopefully there’s an update to SOMETHING that addresses this.

When I woke up this morning and tried to wake my computer (only have the monitor turn off after about 20 min – no screensaver), the monitor came back on and I could move the mouse – but it wouldn’t do anything else. Just kind of sat there.

I could see my wallpaper but that was about it. I have my taskbar on autohide and it would not show up. Tried pressing power button the computer to make it shut down – nothing. Tried CTRL+ALT+DEL, nothing. CTRL+SHIFT+ESC, nothing.

Had to force it to turn off. Booted up OK and seems OK after that – but it was strange.

I’ve also been going through some Black Viper tweaks today. Nothing major. Disabled a couple services, turned UAC off, turned off some Windows components (Why the hell are the Tablet PC features installed by default?).

Just trying to optimize it and get things working the way I like.

So far so good actually. When I ordered Windows, I also ordered up another 2 GB of memory to put me up to 4 total. Don’t know if I REALLY need that much… but I am running the 64 bit version, so why not?

All said and done, the install was only about 20 minutes … wait a second, only 20 minutes? Yes. I didn’t believe it either. At this point I’m just spending a ton of time trying to get things back the way I like (I HATE how it uses the “users” folder to store everything. I keep having to move things around and fix them. Quite annoying.

In order to make things a bit more homey, I’m actually just working normally (playing on Twitter, playing with my WordPress) and finding things I’m missing or need to change. It’s working well, but still a lot to do. Thankfully I have all day tomorrow to play more.