MyPCHealth

Computer freezing after being idle for a while

If you are having a problem with your comptuer freezing when it has been idle for a while or any simiar issues its worth having a read of this page. I have have come up with a list of things for you to try and hopefully solve your problem. Some are my own ideas and some have been taken from forums, but im hoping this page is better than reading 10+ pages of comments where most people are saying they have the same problem and only a few potential solutions. So hopefully this page should help you out.

Microsoft Articles

Firstly its worth looking at some microsoft articles. Below are some links to microsoft articles on the issues relating to comptuer and freezing hanging issues. Some have hotfixes to be installed others potential work arounds. If any relate to your issue they are worth installing or following.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2005467/en-gb - Information only - Windows 7 Desktop Temporarily Fails To Update After Resuming The Monitor.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/974431 - The October 2009 stability and reliability update for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 is available.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2300639 - The desktop stops responding for some time after you resume the display on a computer that is running Windows 7.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/977186 - Error message when you try to resume a Windows 7-based or a Windows Server 2008 R2-based computer from hibernation: "Stop 0x0000009F"

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/977178 - You receive various Stop error messages in Windows 7 or in Windows Server 2008 R2 when you try to resume a computer that has a large SATA hard disk.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2265716/en-us - A computer that is running Windows Server 2008 R2 or Windows 7 stops responding randomly.

Software Issues

Vairous peices of software could be causing issues when resuming from sleep. Is worth doing the following:

Make sure your all your drivers are up to date most importantly the Video Drivers. First install the latest from the computer manufactures website (such as dell, hp etc) if that does work try installing directly from the gaphics chip manufacter such as nvidia or ati.
Update windows to the latest version. Make sure all Service Packs, updates and patches have been installed.
Its possible there is a compatibility issue with the motherboard and computer memory causing this issue. Its worth updating the motherboads bios to the latest version.
PC Doctor from pc toosl and other antivirus programs have been known to cause this issue. Its worth updating them to their latest versions to iron out any imcompatability issues.

Hardware Issues

Its worth checking your hardware just to make sure there are no problems:

Check your memory outside of windows for errors. Help to do this here (if it fails the memory test then replace the memory with modules compatible with the motherboard)
Check your memory while in windows for errors - Free program here - (if it fails the memory test then replace the memory with modules compatible with the motherboard)
Check the video cards memory - Free program here - (if it fails the memory test then replace the graphics card)
Click the windows button. Then type chkdsk /r /f in the search box and press enter to check for errors on the harddisk that may be restricting the computer coming out of hibernation.
Check the hard disk for errors - Guide here - (It if fails the harddisk needs replacing)

Work Around

Try disabling Start Menu's auto-hide feature.