Windows 7 freezing

Hello! I am experiencing my screen freezing after a few hrs of non use on my PC. I usually leave my PC on 24/7 and have a screen saver for the dual screens. About 4 days ago I downloaded 2 Windows Updates - one for Nvidea and one for Realtek Audio. Shortly after that I began experiencing the screen freezing after I stopped using the PC for the evening. I have Win7 w/updated service packs, 16MB Ram and 1gB HDD. It has also cut off my internet connection as well as disabling the audio and an alert for starting Windows Security Services. When I click on the flag, it says it can't find the service. I turned the PC off 2 days ago to keep the screens from 'burning' and when I restarted it, all this happened! I also have Norton 360 on this machine but not getting any alerts re any virus or malware. I suspect its a bad or corrupt software download (not the first time that's happened from MS) but I tried uninstalling the nVidea program but it didn't make any difference. Anyone know what might be causing this? Thanks… Taz

Uninstall each of the two updates, one at a time then reboot and test, see if that fixes problem. If not, or alternatively, do a System Restore to before the updates were applied.

Well I uninstalled the two updates, but found out my restore feature wasn't activated so I can't do that. I have since activated it. I did find out that I had set the boot for diagnostic boot. I unchecked that and went to a standard boot and it fixed a lot of issues (ie internet connection), however the PC still freezes after about 10 mins of being idle. I changed the screen saver to none, still did it. Changed the power management to never being off and no change. I'm a bit stumped on this one. I even removed and reinstalled Norton 360 as I was trying to run a scan and that froze up. I reinstalled Norton, updated it and ran it under safe mode and it actually completed the task for a quick scan. The scan indicated 35 security vulnerabilities that were fixed, As long as I'm working on it , it seems fine. But once I stop typing or moving the mouse after 10 mins or so, it freezes and the only way to bring it back is to reboot it. Further suggestions to try? Thanks, Taz

I'd start by running chkdsk to find and correct and file system problems then sfc to fix any corrupted or missing critical system files:

How to run chkdsk or System File Checker (SFC) from the Recovery Console

• Boot your Vista or Windows 7 installation DVD
• When you see "Press any key to boot from CD or DVD", press Enter
• At the "Install Windows" screen, click on Repair your computer at lower left
• At the System Recovery Options screen, make note of the drive letter assigned to your boot drive (normally C:) and click Next
• At the Chose a Recovery Tool window, click on Command Prompt. You will be sitting at X:\Sources directory
• Run chkdsk or SFC
• If you did not note the drive letter of your boot disk, you can enter bcdedit and look at the osdevice line to see what it is.
• For chkdsk, type chkdsk c: /r and press Enter (use the letter from above if not C:).
• For sfc, type sfc /scannow /offbootdir=c:\ /offwindir=c:\windows and press Enter (use the letter from above)

Let either run to completion undisturbed.

Vista or Windows 7: If you don't have a install DVD, you can download a legal copy here:
Windows 7 Direct Download Links
Download Official Windows Vista RTM with SP1 Setup Files (32-bit and 64-bit)

Make sure you get the same version you have installed: 32 or 64 bit; Home Premium, Pro or Ultimate.

It took about 7 hours to do the chkdsk. I tried doing the SFC but the command prompt you gave me wouldn't work. It was looking for more information on specific files. My D: drive is my boot drive and C: is the data so I adjusted for it. Going to see if maybe this has done the trick….