Windows 7

[Nutritious]

Avast is also a free antivirus I've been using for years now.

[Cerrax]

Okay, I'm at my wits end with Windows 7. Here's the story:

About a six months ago, I bought Windows 7 Home Premium. I dual-booted my MacBook Pro with Boot Camp to install Win7. It worked great, but I started to notice that it would freeze when an internet browser (read: any internet browser) was open. It wasn't always immediately. Sometimes it froze 15 minutes in, sometimes not until hours after. Needless to say (as some here may remember) I came looking for answers. I tried installing a different anti-virus, different browser versions, turning off all unnecessary plug-ins and programs, changing power settings. Nothing has helped. Now even installing updates is slow, and can cause freezes.

I check the event logs every time it happens and the only alert that shows up is an unexpected power loss (which is from me manually forcing the laptop to power down).

Two of the simplest tasks, updating and browsing, are causing Win7 to freeze up. A lot. I can run Visual Studio 2008 at full tilt, but I can't browse the internet. WTF?

I'm so fed up with this. I've never been a fan of Windows and unfortunately my career choice pretty much forces me to use it (Software Development). So if anybody, has even a glimmer of hope for me, I would very very much appreciate it. I have no idea what is causing it.

MacBook Pro

2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo

2 GB RAM

OS X 10.5.7 Leopard

Windows 7 Home Premium

[Nabeel Ansari]

Maybe that's your MacBook saying "I don't like you Windows GTFO OFF MY HARD DRIVE"

(sarcasm, before the prophet comes in and says something about me not knowing what i talk about yet again)

[Moseph]

Can you leave the browser open in offline mode without it freezing? (And/or with the ethernet cable yanked or the wireless disabled,)

[Cerrax]

If it is left idling while still connected, sometimes it will still freeze, but it's not as often as when I'm actively browsing. An idling browser while disconnect, it runs completely fine. Only when I'm actually connected does it cause a problem.

[Nabeel Ansari]

If it is left idling while still connected, sometimes it will still freeze, but it's not as often as when I'm actively browsing. An idling browser while disconnect, it runs completely fine. Only when I'm actually connected does it cause a problem.

This doesn't happen in the OSX boot does it?

EDIT: Did some thinking and realized that was a stupid question.

[prophetik music]

Maybe that's your MacBook saying "I don't like you Windows GTFO OFF MY HARD DRIVE"

(sarcasm, before the prophet comes in and says something about me not knowing what i talk about yet again)

hey, at least you're trying to say something helpful. you managed to do it without meaning to.

i'm thinking it's one of two things. your MBP is getting locked up (possibly a video card issue, do you have a discrete card? what is it?), or something to do with cooling and power consumption (check this out).

it's mac hardware not liking windows, almost definitely.

[Nabeel Ansari]

hey, at least you're trying to say something helpful. you managed to do it without meaning to.

i'm thinking it's one of two things. your MBP is getting locked up (possibly a video card issue, do you have a discrete card? what is it?), or something to do with cooling and power consumption (check this out).

it's mac hardware not liking windows, almost definitely.

You sure it's not just his Mac hardware wireless network stuff isn't just not liking windows?

[prophetik music]

who knows? i don't have it in front of me. it could be something really spacey, like magnetized dust in the case that's screwing with his hard drive, or a random short in the case caused by a screw that got loose or something.

but i doubt it. since all of those people had the same problem as him, i'll bet it's one of those options.

[Cerrax]

Well it seems nVidia was having this problem with a lot of their cards (on PCs and Macs running Win7) so they have released updated drivers. I've installed them and so far, no freezes!

Crossing my fingers that this has fixed it.

[prophetik music]

=) good to hear.

so, cool story, guess what was the first thing to pop up when i googled "windows 7 mac freeze"?

[Cerrax]

This thread?

[prophetik music]

the one i linked you.

[DerangedWhale]

windows 7 came with two disks, one said 32bit disk and the other said 64bit, whats the difference between the two and how do i tell if my comp is 32 bit or 64 bit?

Thank you

[Nabeel Ansari]

windows 7 came with two disks, one said 32bit disk and the other said 64bit, whats the difference between the two and how do i tell if my comp is 32 bit or 64 bit?

Thank you

A 32 bit operating system can only use around a little more than 3 GB of RAM (it addresses 4, but only actually uses around 3.2). If you look at your processor in your system specs and it says "x86", your computer can only support a 32 bit operating system.

If your processor says 64, you can use the 64 bit. 64 bit Windows can address a lot of RAM (i think more than current motherboards can even hold). Most 32 bit apps can run in 64 bit OS, so if your processor can do it you usually wanna install the 64 bit version.

[prophetik music]

A 32 bit operating system can only use around a little more than 3 GB of RAM (it addresses 4, but only actually uses around 3.2). If you look at your processor in your system specs and it says "x86", your computer can only support a 32 bit operating system.

If your processor says 64, you can use the 64 bit. 64 bit Windows can address a lot of RAM (i think more than current motherboards can even hold). Most 32 bit apps can run in 64 bit OS, so if your processor can do it you usually wanna install the 64 bit version.

slightly incorrect.

32-bit operating systems can only utilize 2^32 bytes of ram - in other words, 4gb of ram. your system reserves a small amount for usage below the OS level, leaving you with around 3.8 or 3.9 gigabytes of ram. your video card also eats into that - so, if you've got a card with 512mb of vram, you're looking at 3.4-3.5gb of usable ram on your system. 64-bit can use 2^64 bytes of ram, which is closer to 127.5gb. like, mega-server stuff. also, in 32-bit, no one program can use more than 2gb of ram without using a (software) 3gb switch (which are notoriously glitchy to begin with). 64-bit doesn't have this limitation.

you'd think that everyone would just use 64-bit, but there's a lot of software incompatibility, particularly with drivers (the Yugo of the software world) and games. there's also the fact that a few processors (out of hundreds) can't function with x64-based systems. it's rare that you have that issue, though.

64-bit software has come miles in the last year or two, though. just check your most-used programs and make sure that they're compatible with 64-bit windows, or that there's a driver for your hardware. i'd suggest 64-bit if you can - it's going to be better in the long run.

[Nabeel Ansari]

64-bit software has come miles in the last year or two, though. just check your most-used programs and make sure that they're compatible with 64-bit windows, or that there's a driver for your hardware. i'd suggest 64-bit if you can - it's going to be better in the long run.

Also, DerangedWhale,

The Windows 7 Upgrade advisor tells you if your computer and its applications is okay for Windows 7 and offers diagnosis reports for both 32 bit and 64 bit, so that's a great way to tell you if it's worth installing the 64 bit or not based on what and how many applications it tells you will not be supported by 64 bit.

EDIT: I think my sentence was a little confusing, so:

Download Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor from Microsoft's web site. It'll tell you everything you need to know about whether you should install 32 or 64 bit.

[Cerrax]

Note that 64-bit also requires twice as much RAM as the 32-bit.

1GB for Win7 32

2GB for Win7 64

I'm stuck with the 32-bit until I can get more RAM.

Also, that update didn't do the trick. Still freezing. DLed RivaTuner and Power Assistant, so hopefully these can finally stop the freezing.

[prophetik music]

w7 64-bit doesn't really need more ram - it recommends those because 64-bit applications are often heavy on RAM usage (since that's the whole point of 64-bit windows). except for the architecture difference, there isn't a lot that's changed.