How to stop Microsoft Windows security auditing from regedit for Windows 7 home

The events/auditing are not the source of your problem. Let go of that idea and share more details.

ok, but this is what I see every.single.time, immediately after the freezing.  More details:

It happens no matter what I'm doing, I can be working with photoshop, on Chrome,  working with another program, and suddenly the laptop locks up. I can move the mouse, but can't open a different window than the one I'm on, and can't make changes in the open window. If I click on something, when the laptop unfreezes, it will go to that window.

It's a personal laptop, not on a network. The only thing I haven't done is start windows in safe mode, because I might have to be in safe mode for hours to know if it happens. What else can I do to help you troubleshoot?

Open Reliability History (look in Control Panel, Maintenance, I think) and let us know what errors are in Reliability History. That may help us with why the machine is freezing.

Follow up:  Control Panel, Action Center, Maintenance and then Reliability History

Interestingly, when I ran that it froze, but only the reliability monitor. Finally I closed it and got a message I see now and then, Windows Explorer is not working.  I did run a report, and it's empty.  But here are three screenshots.

Windows Explorer not working     <-- Windows 7.

Open cmd.exe with Run as Administrator and run SFC /SCANNOW.   Allow to complete and then close out, restart and test

Ok, will do that thanks, John!

Haven't restarted yet, but this is what I got:

C:\Users\Mel>SFC /SCANNOW

Beginning system scan.  This process will take some time.

Beginning verification phase of system scan.
Verification 100% complete.

Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations.

Ohh... well, that's disappointing, but I'll see if I can get someone to do it. Thanks for your help.

There is a Windows 7 Repair Install.  You can try that. You need the Windows 7 DVD or a working recovery partition.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/3413-repair-install.html

Ok, I don't have those, but thanks anyway. I have a pretty reliable guy here in town.

The repair is the only remaining option so you probably need to go to the person above and have them reinstall Windows .

if your problem is recent, a system restore can help you out quickly

Thanks, Nobus, it's been going on for quite a while, I'd say almost a year. Thanks again to everyone.

I know.  Thanks for the update

The problem was not analyzed, but instead, the conclusion is repair your machine and/or reinstall it.
Now the author does not wait until repairs are performed but selects this as solution in advance.

I don't recommend this practice in a forum. Please wait and see if things have actually helped - then select a solution.

ok- as I wasn't getting any other responses, I assumed this was the only answer that would work. Thanks for the tip, next time I'll leave it open. Do you have any other tests I can try? I'd be happy to open another question.

The laptop guy I have here says that most of the time a freezing problem is due to a bad hard drive. What are your thoughts on that?  Thanks.

He can run hardware diagnostics to determine.  That is pretty straightforward

Ok, thanks

First thing always is to isolate the problem. We could boot another system (like the free ubuntu) from USB and let it run for a day and see what happens. Next would be windows in safe mode.

Melody - you said  'ok- as I wasn't getting any other responses,' but i got no reaction to my suggestion for a system restore
for diags - i recommend running ram and disk diags, to be sure about the basics
i use the UBCD for that :

Hardware diagnostic CD    UBCD
---------------------------------------------------
go to the download page, scroll down to the mirror section, and  click on a mirror to start the download
Download the UBCD and make the cd   <<==on a WORKING PC, and boot the problem PC from it
Here 2 links, one to the general site, and a direct link to the download

since the downloaded file is an ISO file, eg ubcd527.iso - so you need to use an ISO burning tool
if you don't have that software, install cdburnerXP : http://cdburnerxp.se/

If you want also the Ram tested - run memtest86+ at least 1 full pass,  - you should have NO errors!
direct download :  http://www.memtest.org/
 
For disk Diagnostics run the disk diag for your disk brand (eg seagate diag for seagate drive)  from the HDD section -  long or advanced diag !  (runs at least for30 minutes)

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/      

**  you can make a bootable cd - or bootable usb stick
*** note *** for SSD drives  use the tool from the manufacturer, like intel 's toolbox :
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/18455/Intel-Solid-State-Drive-Toolbox

for completeness -here's how i handle disk problems : https://www.experts-exchange.com/Storage/Hard_Drives/A_3000-The-bad-hard-disk-problem.html

==>>****in order to be able to  boot from CD or usb - you may have to disable secure boot in the bios

nobus, Mcknight, I want to thank you both for all of the information and advice.  As it's pretty cheap to do down here, and I'm lazy, I've decided to have the local laptop tech install a new hard drive and upgrade me to windows 10.  As someone pointed out, the hard drive is seven years old, and security updates for Win7 are stopping at the end of this year.

This is cheaper than buying a new laptop, and should solve my freezing issue and fend off any problems with having an old HD.

Again, though, thanks for your diligence and your sharing of knowledge.

>>  and should solve my freezing issue   <<  only if the freeze comes from the drive or software.....did you diagnose it yet??

Nobus, I'm looking at this stuff, and it's beyond my meagre abilities.  I can figure out how to boot from a  cd, but this stuff is breaking my brain. I think I'm going to spend the money and get the new hard drive and Win10. If I am still having problems, the guy here will do all those diagnostics for me. Thanks for all the detailed info, it's just too much for me.

Ask your support guy for help as they would be able to do this for you.

OK, will do.  I live in a smaller city in Mexico, so my options are limited, but I'll ask.

ok; i hope it gets solved for you

Thanks, nobus!

Ok, update: I took it in, and he ran diagnostics. He said the hard drive was fine.  I decided to put off getting Win10, as I'll lose some programs I've had for a while, and I need to arrange to get them again (quickbooks, and others).

Last night it was really slow, and shut itself off twice. I ran malwarebytes premium and it said no problems. This morning it started up, shut itself down, went through startup repair and system restore, then after a fe minutes it shut itself down again. This time when it started it stayed on. So far.

Event viewer shows all kinds of things. I dunno, do I need a new laptop?

That was an older laptop (8 years IIRC) and so for Windows 10 Pro 64-bit 500 GB SSD and 8 GB of memory, a.new machine would be a good idea

So can you tell from the errors that it is failing? Thanks.

I mean, it is up and running right now.

It has a couple of critical errors around Power. I was thinking more of just overall age and it running slow.

ok, bought a new laptop. https://www8.hp.com/mx/es/laptops/product-details/21910099  AMD , 8GB, 3.4 Ghz, 1 TB storage.

Sounds fine and good luck with it

Thanks.. will look over and close this question soon.

you could still test the system by installing a new drive with a different oS, like ubuntu