Win7 has a weird freeze problem on start up

ofirharlev

Posts: 6   +0
All-right fellas I'm new here, yeah, and my name is Ofir. I'm from Israel hence the weird sounding name.
The problem I have should be a challenge to the most experienced of you. I'm no pro, so how do I know it? BECAUSE MY PC IS AN ABOMINATION SENT FROM [bleep] TO DESTROY MY SOUL.
After getting my frustrations out of the way, I'll start spilling my guts about this problem:

I turn on my PC after a while it has been off. at least 40 minutes. and it boots alright. everything seems to be in order. The small hard-drive led is blinking, stating that windows should be up and about in no-time. The Win7 logo creates itself on my screen from these 4 lil' balls of light. The hard-drive led is still blinking. Such drama!
the 3 keyboard lights(the "lock" lights) blink also and just then the PC freezes. God wouldn't be able to make it work in this state.
I reset the little devil, the PC boots itself, I get the question whether I want Windows startup manager to check itself out or if I want Windows to start normally. At first I gave it a go, but of course I wasn't surprised to find out that Windows couldn't fix the problem. So from then on I just didn't bother with it.
so I start my windows normally and it boots up good and everything is alright. seriously, the PC works perfectly. as smooth as butter.

Now, let me fill you in with the facts:
If I restart my Windows from Windows, it starts up good.
If I turn the PC off and immediately on, it starts up good.
If I turn the PC off, wait a couple of minutes and turn it on, it starts up good.
If I turn the PC off, plug it out of the electricity socket, wait a couple of minutes, plug it back in and turn it on, it starts up good.
If I turn the PC off, wait about 40 minutes, turn it on....it happens! it freezes.
If I wait those 40 minutes, turn the PC on, wait for it to freeze, hold the PC's power switch for 5 seconds for it to turn itself off and then turn the PC on again, it also freezes.
I know what's the cause of it. I have quite an old E-MU 1212m sound card. It's PCI. If I take it out of the socket, the PC doesn't get the freezing problem.
If I uninstall it's up-to-date drivers, it also doesn't freeze.

So why won't I accept that it's the sound-card?
Because It worked perfectly up until about a month ago and because it works perfectly when the PC IS running.

The PC seemed to have the courtesy to give me the following note before I last formatted:

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: BlueScreen
OS Version: 6.1.7600.2.0.0.256.1
Locale ID: 1037

Additional information about the problem:
BCCode: 124
BCP1: 0000000000000000
BCP2: FFFFFA8004C4D6F8
BCP3: 0000000000000000
BCP4: 0000000000000000
OS Version: 6_1_7600
Service Pack: 0_0
Product: 256_1

Files that help describe the problem:
C:\Windows\Minidump\082311-20420-01.dmp
C:\Users\Ofir\AppData\Local\Temp\WER-35225-0.sysdata.xml

Read our privacy statement online:
go .microsoft.....8&clcid=0x040nine

If the online privacy statement is not available, please read our privacy statement offline:
C:\Windows\system32\en-US\erofflps.txt

Does any of you have ANY idea as to why this might be happening?
Thanks in advance,Ofir.
 
Just a stab in the dark, but do you have any oddball USB devices installed? Sometimes my lappy will freeze at that logo point until I pull out the USB receiver for my cordless game controller. Most of the time it's ok - just sometimes it causes a hang. I just take it out for a few seconds, Windows continues, and I put it back in.

Is it annoying? sure. But it's not the end of the world.
 
hmmm... I do have a couple of USB's connected.
a wireless keyboard+mouse connected to a usb hub, a cable connected to nothing for my phone, and a wired mouse.
I'm quite sure I tried it without the USB hub, but not without the mouse and\or cable.

I don't think it's the problem though since, as I mentioned, the sound-card seems to be the root of this problem.

I'll try it though, thanks.
 
I wasn't sure my title was correct, but this one sure ain't.
I have no problem restarting. I have a problem....getting rid of the problem.
I don't get a blue screen. the message shows after I reset the PC and windows starts up fine.
 
Well, then I hate stating the obvious, but have you tried swapping out\disabling the sound card? If drivers have been installed and reinstalled and checked and rechecked, my guess would be some sort of ESD damage. This is the sort of thing we see often when there is that hard-to-diagnose ESD damage.

If it wasn't Win7, I'd say maybe it's a resource conflict. That seems unlikely. More likely is ESD damage to the card\board\bus, or a problem with the memory it's accessing. Either way, your only course of action seems to be to try swapping it out. Just because it worked last month, doesn't mean it will work flawlessly this month as well.

Things eventually die. Some things sooner than others.
 
@ofirharlev
Can you please attach last five (5) minidumps with your next post? You can find them in C:\windows\minidump. Please don't forget to zip them in a single file.

0x124 more often than not usually points to a hardware issue, as Zilpha too said in his last post. Also give us complete system specifications including PSU make/model/wattage etc.
 
@ofirharlev
Can you please attach last five (5) minidumps with your next post? You can find them in C:\windows\minidump. Please don't forget to zip them in a single file.

0x124 more often than not usually points to a hardware issue, as Zilpha too said in his last post. Also give us complete system specifications including PSU make/model/wattage etc.

Weird, I can't seem to find a "minidump" folder or file...
 
well, the correct answer was this:
You've described a sound card or PCI slot that is defective when it is cold, and it failed about a month ago. Try a different slot if you have a spare one.

I got it from techguy.org .

who would've figured =\

thanks guys. I'm off.
 
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