System becomes unresponsive, forcing me to restart

[Tenes]

Hi!

I've been having a very strange issue for the past month or so, namely that seemingly randomly my PC will become 'unresponsive', I will describe the first time I noticed it in hopes of providing enough information.
At first I noticed that new browser tabs won't load despite my internet connection doing just fine at the time. Nonetheless I tried running the internet diagnostic tool as it might at least tell me if the connection really is doing fine or not. The diagnostic tool didn't open, no loading ring appeared near my cursor, no error appeared.
I immediately thought that some "helpful" Win10 feature was temporarily eating up all the resources, so I tried opening the task manager to at least know what's happening.
The task manager failed to open the same way as the diagnostic tool. The command prompt failed to open either, so I couldn't attempt to open the task manager that way. The strangest thing was that the apps and internet sites opened before I noticed the issue were working just fine.
I tried rebooting the PC from the menu, but that too didn't have any effect. Everything stayed as it was, the system didn't even attempt to close any running programs.
I grew impatient and used the power button to maybe restart the PC, which it eventually did, extremely slowly. It ended up stuck on the Win10 blue closing screen, I didn't hear any HDD activity so I held down the power button and shut down the PC that way.
After booting it up again, everything went back to normal.
The same thing repeated three more times.

I have two HDDs, one has two partitions for the OS and storage respectively, and the second as a single partition for other things.
I am afraid that the issue may lie in the HDD failing in some way, but I decided to ask the Operating System forum in case there's a different possible explanation.

I am ready to provide any PC specs you'd need.
Thanks

 

[PeterOz]

Hi Tenes
To start off Please
Download and run and then post. https://www.ccleaner.com/speccy/download

To post: https://www.ccleaner.com/docs/speccy/using-speccy/publishing-a-speccy-profile-to-the-web
Then
Can you go here and download speed fan and install Click On Me .
Run speed fan then click on the Exotics tab > show the magic. post a screen capture.

Also if this is a Desktop can you post the Make, Model and power of your PSU

Cheers
PeterOz

 

[Tenes]

Hi Tenes
To start off Please
Download and run and then post. https://www.ccleaner.com/speccy/download

To post: https://www.ccleaner.com/docs/speccy/using-speccy/publishing-a-speccy-profile-to-the-web
Then
Can you go here and download speed fan and install Click On Me .
Run speed fan then click on the Exotics tab > show the magic. post a screen capture.

Also if this is a Desktop can you post the Make, Model and power of your PSU

Cheers
PeterOz

Hello!
Thanks for your reply,

here is the link to the Speccy snapshot:

http://speccy.piriform.com/results/HFX0UB6XaiGrMYLzfiwkJz8

some of the entries are written in Polish which I doubt I can really do anything about, so if there's any particular one you need that translating tools don't work on, I'll translate for you.

Attached is the requested screenshot of Speedfan results, though apps like these have trouble making sense of my PC as I've discovered, and as you can see here judging by the unearthly jet engine level fan RPMs.
As for the PSU, I can't check it at this very moment, but I'll be sure to do so later if the other info doesn't give any valuable clues.

Thanks

 

[PeterOz]

Hi
bad news is temps all look good - was hoping they were causing the problem.
To test can you please uninstall Java - check for both 32 and 64 bit ( We can install again if needed)
There may be more then 1 copy of java.
Go to control panel programs and features click on java and click on uninstall.
Test, and when you can power supply info please

 

[Tenes]

Hi
bad news is temps all look good - was hoping they were causing the problem.
To test can you please uninstall Java - check for both 32 and 64 bit ( We can install again if needed)
There may be more then 1 copy of java.
Go to control panel programs and features click on java and click on uninstall.
Test, and when you can power supply info please

Hi,

I uninstalled Java, only one version appeared in the control panel but I'm pretty sure it's gone.
I checked the PSU model, it's Corsair VS550:

VS Series™ VS550 — 550 Watt 80 PLUS® White Certified PSU (EU)

The CORSAIR VS Series combines stable 80 PLUS efficiency power and affordable pricing from the world’s most trusted name in PC power supplies.

www.corsair.com

As for checking whether uninstalling Java helped or not, I'm sorry to say that it's a matter of waiting until the problem occurs again or not.
I hope that I can count on further help then, and that the PSU info helped in some way.

 

[PeterOz]

As for checking whether uninstalling Java helped or not, I'm sorry to say that it's a matter of waiting until the problem occurs again or not.

Yes i am sorry but no magic bullet. Try and see

I hope that I can count on further help then,

Of course we will offer further help if needed.

PSU info helped in some way.

It always helps - it's amazing what problems and damage a cheap PSU can do.
Glad to see you have a brand name. Will look through things and if I need help I will ask our PSU expert to look at things.
Cheers
PeterOz

 

[phillpower2]

Do you still require assistance with this Tenes

 

[Tenes]

Do you still require assistance with this Tenes

Well, the nature of my issue forces me to wait for results.

I understand that leaving this thread open yet inactive for long might not be desirable, so I think that it may be closed.
If my issue persists, I'll simply create a new thread and link to this one.

 

[phillpower2]

I understand that leaving this thread open yet inactive for long might not be desirable, so I think that it may be closed.
If my issue persists, I'll simply create a new thread and link to this one.

Almost correct but no need to start a new thread, should the same issue happen again, send any staff member a PM and ask them to reopen this thread for you, there is absolutely no need to start any new thread for the same issue.

 

[phillpower2]

Thread reopened at request of OP.

 

[Tenes]

Hi!

The issue I described occured again last sunday and a couple of days prior to it.

One of those occurrences happened immediately after booting up my PC - it was very slow to load, so slow in fact that my monitor had enough time to go into sleep mode between the loading of Windows and displaying the login screen. At first I didn't realize what was happening, so I waited. All the normal startup things a PC does after logging it took a little over half an hour.
Luckily I managed to open up the task manager this time, hoping to see something suspicious, but everything looked just fine and the way I'd expect it to. The only thing standing out was that, while my PC was obviously struggling to do pretty much anything, and probably had a very long list of things it was yet to open or run, my main HDD wasn't working very hard, in fact task manager showed its time of activity to be mostly 0% with some spikes. I also managed to open Speccy, CrystalDiskInfo and SpeedFan to maybe finally see something wrong, but they also didn't show anything suspicious.
I ended up shutting the PC down by holding the power button, and after booting it up again everything went back to normal.

The second time, last sunday, happened the usual way, while the PC has already been running for some time. I immediately noticed the issue, because at the time I was using Audacity to record my voice, and at one point the recording failed to start and Audacity stopped responding. After I noticed the issue, I also checked for all the other symptoms I described in the original post - the task manager failed to open, new internet tabs didn't load, etc.

Now that I'm almost certain that hardware is not at fault, I am starting to suspect that the issue may be caused by a problem so vague and tangled in the system's entrails that reinstalling Windows would be an easier solution, but still I'd like to listen to some hypotheses from people who may know more than I do.

Thanks

 

[PeterOz]

Download MiniToolBox and save the file to the Desktop.

Close the browser and run the tool, check the following options;

List last 10 Event Viewer Errors
List Installed Programs
List Devices (Only Problems)
List Users, Partitions and Memory size

Click on Go.

Post the resulting log in your next reply for us as an attachment

 

[Tenes]

Download MiniToolBox and save the file to the Desktop.

Close the browser and run the tool, check the following options;

List last 10 Event Viewer Errors
List Installed Programs
List Devices (Only Problems)
List Users, Partitions and Memory size

Click on Go.

Post the resulting log in your next reply for us as an attachment

Alright, here is the log file!
I noticed that some of it generated in Polish, since it's my system language. I can't do much about that, I think, so if any particular line seems important and Google translate won't handle it, I'll be able to help.

(a link leading to the text file on Google Drive, since it seems to fail to attach on the site)

MTB.txt

drive.google.com

 

[PeterOz]

Can you also run the cmd prompt as administrator and run chkdsk /r

 

[Tenes]

Can you also run the cmd prompt as administrator and run chkdsk /r

Of course, but first I'd like to make sure as to what exactly this command would do, as internet sources give only a shallow explanation in my opinion.
From my understanding, the command will try to find and fix errors on the disk, but also that it will "lock" the drive being checked - what exactly does that mean?
What kind of errors would the command try to find?
When running the command, should I specify for it to fix any particular partition, such as the system one?

Furthermore I must add that after installing Windows, I ran a couple of apps to remove unnecessary bloat. I know how intrusive Windows 10 can be, so I'd also like to know if there is a possibility that Windows would try to undo such changes while trying to "repair" the disk?

Thanks!

 

[PeterOz]

Furthermore I must add that after installing Windows, I ran a couple of apps to remove unnecessary bloat

This could be part of the problem.
Exactly what did you remove
Are you a student - you are running an education edition of windows 10.

Without running the full edition updates can't do the job they are made for.
Can I say 100% the full edition will fix the problem - NO
But you are trying to use something that is not as it should be.
Bloatware fro Microsoft should not be a big issue today with good ram and large drives.

What is chkdsk Read this. Click On Me
Download this and run Click On Me Standard Edition

 

[PeterOz]

Furthermore I must add that after installing Windows, I ran a couple of apps to remove unnecessary bloat.

I will ask for another opinion just so you get a balanced view
@Bruce

 

[Tenes]

This could be part of the problem.
Exactly what did you remove
Are you a student - you are running an education edition of windows 10.

Without running the full edition updates can't do the job they are made for.
Can I say 100% the full edition will fix the problem - NO
But you are trying to use something that is not as it should be.
Bloatware fro Microsoft should not be a big issue today with good ram and large drives.

What is chkdsk Read this. Click On Me
Download this and run Click On Me Standard Edition

The apps helped me remove/disable Cortana, the Xbox app, and a couple of others I cannot name now, prevented Microsoft from randomly changing settings on my PC, as I heard they sometimes do in order to experiment, and stopped Windows from forcing me to update when it wants to, letting me choose.

I already had CrystalDiskInfo, here are the latest results for both HDDs.

 

[Bruce]

reboot the PC into Safe Mode and see how it performs?
also create another login account and sign in using that new user profile, again, seeing how the PC performs.

I certainly can't rule out a failing drive. disconnect the non-OS drive and see how things go.

I could suggest running a whole bunch of system cleanup tools, but honestly, at this stage, I'd simply be biting the bullet, backing up all my personal stuff and nuking the rig from space - that is - complete fresh reload of Win10 from the latest Windows image burnt to a USB stick via the Windows Media Creation Tool.

you'll get the rig back to how it was (speed wise) before all this, even a bit better as Windows will be pristine. but more so, if there is a drive failing, the reinstall process should highlight that fact.
yes, you'll burn in hell for a few hours as you reload all your software, find passwords, and download and reload all the software you had, but it'll probably be a quicker process in the long run and a process with a better chance of success than applying band-aid solutions to an unknown, hard to pinpoint, issue.

 

[PeterOz]

Did you read and understand my link on chkdsk