Windows 10 keeps randomly freezing, but only when I'm not watching (sinister).

Drez

So my sinister computer keeps freezing when I'm not looking at it. It seems pretty random, and I can't nail it down to a specific trigger, but it definitely does happen while my computer is running. I am sure of that much.

What happens is: I can move the mouse, but I can't do anything. The start (task?) bar preview (where you hover over an icon of an active application gives you a visual preview of that application) tends to work in this condition. Trying to ALT-TAB or left click into an application doesn't work. Trying to do anything with the active/in focus app doesn't work. CTRL-ALT-DEL doesn't work. Nothing works, except you can move the cursor with the mouse and it alternates between the pointer and the blue "I'M BUSY" circle.

It seems to happen while Firefox is open/in focus, but idle. But it happens with other applications too.

Any ideas? Any way to QA this without pulling my hair out?

In lieu of solving the problem, I'm considering just doing a fresh install. But I did a free upgrade from Windows 7 to get to where I am now. If I go that route, what's the best way to do a fresh install?

Orogogus

As far as testing goes: If it's always when you're not watching, maybe sleep mode or one of the advanced power saving options like hard disk off is the culprit, assuming they're not all disabled. You could maybe set them all to 1 minute and see if the computer immediately freezes at that time.

Alternatively, if it might be a software issue, close all program and kill any unknown apps in Task Manager, then see if the computer ends up frozen after leaving it on overnight or when you're at work/school.

spool32

Second vote for sneaky power saving options fucking up your machine.

Also my PC behaves very poorly with less than 15gb of free space on the OS drive. If your shit is full, consider downsizing.


Regarding a fresh install, I haven't done one yet but the word is that if you validated your upgrade once, you can wipe the drive from then on and it will activate for free whenever you reinstall on that PC.

Hahnsoo1

Yeah, once you've upgraded to Win 10 from Win 7, your Microsoft account has an entitlement that says "Hey, you have Win 10 now", and you should be able to do a clean install normally (assuming you are using the same Microsoft account and hardware).

I ended up doing this for my PC. I upgraded to Win 10, fresh installed to a new SSD using a Win 10 install DVD, then went back to the old drive and downgraded it back to Win 7. Now I have a dual-boot Win 7/Win 10 system, and it works fine.

Shadowfire

Hahnsoo1 wrote: »

Yeah, once you've upgraded to Win 10 from Win 7, your Microsoft account has an entitlement that says "Hey, you have Win 10 now", and you should be able to do a clean install normally (assuming you are using the same Microsoft account and hardware).

I ended up doing this for my PC. I upgraded to Win 10, fresh installed to a new SSD using a Win 10 install DVD, then went back to the old drive and downgraded it back to Win 7. Now I have a dual-boot Win 7/Win 10 system, and it works fine.

Starting in November, I think, you can clean install Win 10 using a Win 7/8/8.1 key.

Drez

So will I have an issue if I upgrade my motherboard in the near future. Will Microsoft consider that a "new PC"?

Gaslight

Drez wrote: »

So will I have an issue if I upgrade my motherboard in the near future. Will Microsoft consider that a "new PC"?

It didn't when I rebuilt my system with a new mobo earlier this week. The clean install of Win10 took my Win7 key.

Drez

OK cool.

SanderJK

A possibility out of the "I never knew this could cause problems until recently " book...

Check all your USB devices. I had a 360 controller that was loose and it drove my entire PC crazy as it was dealing with a USB device it didn't understand.

Everything was superslow and at point my Win10 couldn't find my second HDD. It was just gone.

Spent several hours trying to fix it until I disconnected and reconnected the controller and instant fix.

Kruite

My computer was doing this with Chrome.

I got around it by setting my PC to got to sleep mode after 30 min of idle time.

Shadowfire

It just struck me that you upgraded to Windows 10 from 7. I've seen a lot of computers come through that, after upgrading, exhibit some really weird behavior with hibernation. Turn off hibernate and things get back to normal.

It's worth a shot, anyway.

Drez

I'll have an update soon. Been screwing around with it a lot.

Thanks for the continued advice.

Drez

So it's been about a week or more since I fixed the random freezing. I cleaned out my background apps in task manager and removed a bunch of stuff from startup. I have a suspicion it was this Marvell Raid Controller. It's a legit process, but something tells me that was the culprit.

Thanks for all the advice!

I think I will not reinstall Windows 10 at this time. Maybe if I upgrade my MOBO and RAM, or before my Oculus/Omni arrive, to have a clean start. But it's not necessary now. The only other recurring issue I have is that I keep getting Remote Procedure Call failures when trying to open photos from somewhere/anywhere on my PC, even the desktop. The new Windows 10 default photo viewing app is a bit glitchy.