Other Computer hangs when idle, about half the time.

This problem started some time in the last 2 months but I never bothered asking for help on it because the answer just seems so obscure. But I'm getting desperate.

I can use my computer all day without any issues at all, whether that's working or playing games all day, it's perfectly fine. The problem is that when I leave it idle, it will completely freeze. Sometimes I can do ctrl-alt-delete and it might try to open the task manager and then freeze for good. But sometimes it's just completely frozen to begin with and nothing responds at all, cursor doesn't move, nothing. All I can do is a reset. So it suggests it's a software issue rather than hardware (and I did a memtest and checked temps just to be sure - all fine).

My first assumption was that it was some power saving type issue. But I've tried turning the screen saver off completely and changing the power options and it has no affect. I also wondered whether something that runs while idle had become corrupt so I removed my virus software (MSSE) and various other stuff. I now have a full set of new drivers (sound / video) and a fresh install of MSSE, but it had no effect at all, problem still exists. I also tried closing down all background programs so almost like a safe mode, and it still happened.

And what's worse.. is that the problem is only happening half the time now. For a while it was happening constantly which if anything was better because it allowed me to troubleshoot stuff. But now I don't know if anything has an affect or not. Some times I will wake up in the morning after leaving the computer on all night, and it's still working perfectly fine. Some times I'll go and make a cup of tea and sandwich and come back 10 minutes later to it completely frozen. And it even happens when nothing is running - after a fresh reboot.

I'm totally stumped. Spent weeks googling it but none of the stuff I found helped at all. My only idea now is a full reinstall of windows and I hate doing that because there is so much stuff I need to backup and then reinstall.

Anyone else have any ideas?


p.s. Win7, 64bit. 2500k not overclocked, ssd, 8gig ram.

 

did it do it before you had the ssd?

 

Nope had the ssd for about 14 months or so. Such a weird problem, usually I can fix anything with my PC but this is just obscure :C

 

What SSD isit? has it got the latest Firmware etc.Try this although I'll assume it will come back as healthy as you say you can use it all day.
http://www.addictivetips.com/window...eck-health-status-of-ssd-drives-with-ssdlife/

Check Windows Event logs.

What Motherboard?

Alternatively you could use the sleep function for now.

 

Have you turned off hard drive spin down, both in windows, and in the bios?

 

Thanks guys for helping, very kind. Yes spin down was already off, and event log doesn't seem to record anything of value, (it just sees me resetting but not the actual thing that caused the lock up).

Although I think I have made some progress anyway. I have been shutting down all the background stuff and leaving it idle and it seems to have been better this last couple of days. I did this before and yet it still happened, but this last couple of days the computer has been on the whole time and I've had lots of idle time away from it, and yet it's still going strong.

So I am starting to think it's one of those programs. I just need to trial and error now, and find which one now, and then hopefully I can just uninstall and reinstall to fix it.