Windows Freezing

Hey there,

I am at a bit of a loss as to where to turn to for some much needed help/advice on an issue with my computer that has lead to it being unusable as of last night.

For a while now my computer has been locking up now and then when I’ve been playing a game (mainly WoW, since that’s my main game). It was fairly infrequent, and a quick reset usually solved the issue. I’d be playing a game and the screen would completely lock up, the sound would just be a continual loop of whatever sound was happening when it locked, and I couldn’t do anything until I rebooted; sometimes it would automatically reboot on its own, but most often I would just have to manually reboot it. As I say, it was fairly infrequent though still annoying, but a quick reset an it seemed to work.
Yesterday, however, it kept doing it whenever I loaded up WoW, and then suddenly it wouldn’t even get to the game, it’d just lock up even when getting to the desktop. I’d boot it up, it’d go past the BIOS, get to the desktop, and after a minute the whole screen would just lock up, and I wouldn’t be able to do anything with it.

One thing I was able to do was run the machine in Safe Mode. I could load into Safe Mode and stay in there for hours and it doesn’t lock up. I can even load up WoW in Safe Mode (but the frame rate was like 4 fps), but as soon as I come out and go to normal Windows Mode it locks up.
I’ve tried all the usual stuff like updating all my drivers, I’ve tried updating the BIOS, I’ve tried to ensure that all the Windows updates are installed, I’ve tried unplugging all my USB devices. I’ve even tried to perform the Windows reset where it keeps your documents but removes everything else, and it starts the process, gets to about 36% and then just locks up and doesn’t continue. Finally, I tried to do a complete reset rather than the one that keeps the documents, it crashed whilst performing it and now whenever I load up the computer it goes past the BIOS, gets to a blue screen saying ‘Please Wait’ and then just stays on there indefinitely, never moving forward, often freezing on the screen itself as well.

I’m at a bit of a loss as to what will solve the problem.

I’m hoping that some of you may have a bit of advice or experience with this. I’m not that clued up on all the techy side of things, so bear with me.

Thanks for taking the time to read this and hope to hear from some of you soon.

That it works ok in safe mode is very good news because it tends to suggest that your hardware is probably ok and that this is a Windows problem.

You've done all the right things, though I'd have personally held off doing a BIOS update - that always wants to be your absolutely very last resort.

Reinstalling Windows is also the right thing to do in your situation, but if you have a problem with your Windows installation then trying to do a 'reset' from within a flaky Windows is probably not a good idea. You need to download a new copy of Windows, probably on another PC, and clean install from that....

I'm assuming here that you run Windows 10? If so download a new copy by running the Media Creation tool that you can download from https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10. Tell the tool to download a copy of Windows for installing on another computer, DO NOT select 'upgrade this computer'. Get the tool to create either a bootable USB stick or a bootable DVD, whichever suits you best....

Then on your PC boot that install media, choose a custom install, delete all partitions on your system drive so that all space shows as 'unallocated'. Then create a new partition the size of the whole drive - Windows will create additional partitions, this is quite normal. Now install Windows into the largest partition (the one that's selected by default)....

One Windows is installed run Windows Update repeatedly until no more updates are found. This will (should) install all the drivers you need, only manually install drivers if Device Manager shows devices with a yellow triangle and black exclamation mark next to them.

If it fails in this state then it probably is a hardware problem....

I'd second everything Ubuysa just said. On top of that, has your machine recently updated (also assuming Windows 10) to the 1803 version? When mine went to (I think it was 1703) it caused me a huge number of freezes that a complete rebuild eventually fixed.

If you do opt to rebuild it, I'd recommend making sure that you have the chipset and network drivers on your USB stick as well - nothing more frustrating that those not being there and not being able to download them. If Windows can find and use its own drivers then let it, but if not, they will be available.

Thank you for the responses folks.

I think it is going to have to be a rebuild, as it literally won't get into the system anymore. Because it crashed halfway through a system reset it now just goes past the BIOS and then goes to a blue screen saying 'please wait' and never goes any further. Looks like a full rebuild is the way to go. I already backed up all the important files on the computer anyway, so I am not too fussed. I'm just not the most technically minded person, so I'll have to take it a step at a time.

Is downloading the Windows 10 copy for installing on another computer pretty straightforward using the Media Creation Tool? Will I need to pay for a whole new Windows 10 copy using that method? I'll give it a try over the weekend. Hopefully that will solve it.

I bought the PC nearly two years ago, so all the warranties for the parts expire around 16th July, so I'm hoping to get this sorted before then, just in case I need to replace the parts. I really want to avoid buy whole new components just because I go over the warrant expiration by a few days.

lucmox said:

Thank you for the responses folks.

I think it is going to have to be a rebuild, as it literally won't get into the system anymore. Because it crashed halfway through a system reset it now just goes past the BIOS and then goes to a blue screen saying 'please wait' and never goes any further. Looks like a full rebuild is the way to go. I already backed up all the important files on the computer anyway, so I am not too fussed. I'm just not the most technically minded person, so I'll have to take it a step at a time.

Is downloading the Windows 10 copy for installing on another computer pretty straightforward using the Media Creation Tool? Will I need to pay for a whole new Windows 10 copy using that method? I'll give it a try over the weekend. Hopefully that will solve it.

I bought the PC nearly two years ago, so all the warranties for the parts expire around 16th July, so I'm hoping to get this sorted before then, just in case I need to replace the parts. I really want to avoid buy whole new components just because I go over the warrant expiration by a few days.

Click to expand...

Dead easy to do - just follow the instructions on the creation tool to create a USB stick (you obviously need a stick to create it on that is big enough - 8GB from memory)

No - you don't need to re-purchase Windows. In fact you will most likely find it just automatically activates (assuming you bought the machine with Windows installed by PCS)

It might pay you to get in touch with PCS now, pre-emptively. At least if you then need to raise the issues further, you've effectively logged the support call during the warranty period.

EDIT: Yup, 8GB - as verified here (with some nice instructions too) https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/sof...s10?d2784474-fdb0-4e9d-9e47-5e88c0e053ec=True

Just verify you have a 64- or 32- bit version of Windows prior to downloading (though I'd be amazed if it weren't 64-bit).

Just one further point in addition to what Tony1044 has said; be certain to download the exact same version of Windows 10 that you have now, your existing license will only activate the same version. So if you have Windows 10 Home 64-bit then that's the version you must download. You can't install Windows 10 Pro for example because your Windows 10 Home license won't activate it.

Since you have had an activated copy of Windows 10 installed, the Microsoft activation servers will already have a record of your PC being Windows 10 licensed, so when you do the install if you're asked for a product key you can skip that step (there is a small 'Skip this' item on that screen). When you first connect to the Internet your new Windows will contact the Microsoft activation servers, establish that you are licensed and automatically activate.

I don't get my Windows that way (I have what's called a MAPS - Microsoft Action Pack Subscription) but doesn't the tool not now download a single binary that activates based on key?

Tony1044 said:

I don't get my Windows that way (I have what's called a MAPS - Microsoft Action Pack Subscription) but doesn't the tool not now download a single binary that activates based on key?

Click to expand...

Yes, but you have to download the right version and the install does (depending on version) ask for a product key at install time.

My laptop (Win 10 Pro upgraded from Win 8 retail) doesn't ask for a product key, but my Win 10 Home (OEM) does.....go figure!

Good evening folks,

Just wanted to provide you with an update on the issue.

So, I downloaded Windows 10 new install to a USB, and tried to boot a fresh install from the BIOS. Went in and deleted all my partitions, then created a new partition the size of the main drive and went to install on there.

It started off fine, went to the installing part and then froze. Tried it again and as it was doing it once again it froze. Not sure if I am doing it wrong, or if it’s the same issue just occurring during the installation part.

lucmox said:

Good evening folks,

Just wanted to provide you with an update on the issue.

So, I downloaded Windows 10 new install to a USB, and tried to boot a fresh install from the BIOS. Went in and deleted all my partitions, then created a new partition the size of the main drive and went to install on there.

It started off fine, went to the installing part and then froze. Tried it again and as it was doing it once again it froze. Not sure if I am doing it wrong, or if it’s the same issue just occurring during the installation part.

Click to expand...

Sadly that sounds like a hardware issue. There are a couple of things you can try however....

1. Boot the install media again and select 'Repair My Computer'.

2. In there is a memory diagnostic test that will check your RAM, it's not the best RAM tester but since your problem looks pretty serious it will probably do. Run that memory diagnostic, if it reports any errors then you have flaky RAM. Let us know if this test fails.

3. Also in there is a Command Prompt option, select that to get a command prompt. We're going to check your hard disk but first we need to know what drive letter has been assigned to your hard drive by the installation media (it might not be C). At the command prompt type C: to switch to the C: drive and then type the dir command. If you see a folder called Windows then that's your hard disk. If you don't see a Windows folder then type D: to switch to the D: drive, enter the dir command again and see whether there is a Windows folder on that drive. Keep working through the alphabet until you find the drive with a Windows folder. Once you've found your hard drive enter the command 'chkdsk /r' (without the quotes and with a space before the /r). If that reports any errors then this might (only might) have been your problem. If it reports errors that could not be corrected you have a hard disk problem.

Let us know how that goes....

ubuysa said:

Sadly that sounds like a hardware issue. There are a couple of things you can try however....

1. Boot the install media again and select 'Repair My Computer'.

2. In there is a memory diagnostic test that will check your RAM, it's not the best RAM tester but since your problem looks pretty serious it will probably do. Run that memory diagnostic, if it reports any errors then you have flaky RAM. Let us know if this test fails.

3. Also in there is a Command Prompt option, select that to get a command prompt. We're going to check your hard disk but first we need to know what drive letter has been assigned to your hard drive by the installation media (it might not be C). At the command prompt type C: to switch to the C: drive and then type the dir command. If you see a folder called Windows then that's your hard disk. If you don't see a Windows folder then type D: to switch to the D: drive, enter the dir command again and see whether there is a Windows folder on that drive. Keep working through the alphabet until you find the drive with a Windows folder. Once you've found your hard drive enter the command 'chkdsk /r' (without the quotes and with a space before the /r). If that reports any errors then this might (only might) have been your problem. If it reports errors that could not be corrected you have a hard disk problem.

Let us know how that goes....

Click to expand...

Hey there.

I was afraid that may be the case.

Before I tried installing again and it freezing halfway through, and when I was still able to get into Safe Mode (not able to anymore because of it freezing during the install) I ran the memory diagnostic and it seemed fine. I'll try it again tonight when I get home from work, as well as the chkdsk scan, to see if anything is going on with the components.

Thanks for coming back with more suggestions; I'll let you know how it goes on.