Computer Freezing

[VicTully]

I posted this earlier.

Thanks so much for the suggestions. I purchased a can of compressed air this morning. I blew out through evey opening and dust came out. Right at this moment, the core temps at idle is 35 - 38 deg C. and the HD Temp is 27 deg. C. At this time, I think that dust was the culprit.
I will keep an eye on it for a few days.

Thanks again for all your help.

Vic

[Boggin]

I accept that, but as you said it is still freezing, I was wanting you to check the temps again.

[VicTully]

OK, I will do it tonight if I have time.

I wasn't able to go to my son-in-laws because of an illness in the family. Maybe this Friday evening.

[Boggin]

No rush - just hope the illness isn't anything serious.

[lslizzysmith002]

Hi,

It might be possible that your system is affecting by a virus. I would suggest you to use the antivirus software to fix all viruses and then restart your system to check if it starts working fine.

[VicTully]

Thank you for your suggestion. I performed a virus scan and a malware scan first.

[Boggin]

How are the temps and it is still freezing ?

[VicTully]

It's at my son-in-laws house now. He is a computer tech for a school system. We will find out this weekend how it works now.

[Boggin]

Okay.

[VicTully]

Thanks again for your concern.

[Boggin]

Any update on this ?

[VicTully]

Sorry. I got the laptop back from my son-in-law and it wouldn't start. Apparently he didn't try it after putting it back together. I should get it back tomorrow night. I will update then.

Thanks.

[Boggin]

How did he know if he'd fixed it if he hadn't started it back up ?

If he had removed the RAM modules, a common mistake is to not push down hard enough to fully seat them.

When you say it didn't start, did any lights come on ?

When it is a RAM problem like that, nothing will light up, but it may just have been a connector.

Did you take it into a repair shop and tell them about your original problem ?

[VicTully]

My son-in-law repairs all the machines in a whole school system. He should have it ready tomorrow.

It was dead. Wouldn't even take a charge.

[VicTully]

OK, I got the machine back. He said there was a connection that was not completely plugged in. He said once he saw it, there was no question that that was the problem. He said the machine is clean. After I got it home, I found it to still freeze. I ran the Computer Repair program. I let it go for a few hours and it had not frozen. It rebooted last night. I am going to start it up today and let it run to see if it now operates without any problems.

I do realize that the current Windows installation could be the problem. I was hoping that the Computer Repair program would correct any program issue.

From a hardware standpoint, is there any piece of hardware that would cause this situation that could be changed??

I will report on the condition of the system after letting it run for a few hours.

Thanks to everyone for their suggestions.

[Boggin]

If there was a problem with the HDD then I would expect the problems to more than intermittent, but can you open a Command Prompt (Admin) and enter chkdsk /r

Type and enter y for it to execute on the next reboot then enter shutdown /r /t 00 and wait for it to do its thing which will take a while to run.

When it has rebooted after completion, open Event Viewer and ensure Event Viewer (Local) is highlighted in the left pane - if it isn't then just click on it.

When it has read the data, expand Windows Logs - click on Application/Action/Find and type chkdsk or wininit into the find box and press enter.

Cancel the Find box and read the report in the scrollable window.

Other than whatever else it reports, check to see if it reports any KBs in bad sectors.

Memory can also be another cause of freezing.

Go Start - type memory and press enter when Windows Memory Diagnostic comes up then click on the Restart now box.

You will be able to follow its progress as it scans and if it finds any problems.

Drivers can be another problem and updating those can help if they are the cause.

I would expect something to be in Event Viewer if any of those were causing services to terminate.

In Event Viewer click on Errors then on Show All Instances of This Event in the lower right pane.

You'll be looking for errors with the date and time stamp for when the freezes occurred.

However, I would have thought that your son-in-law would have already done these checks.

[VicTully]

He only did the cleaning. He had to get back into it to find out why it wouldn't start. He never even checked that.

Look in the quote area for my comments. I don't know how to break up the quote.

If there was a problem with the HDD then I would expect the problems to more than intermittent, but can you open a Command Prompt (Admin) and enter chkdsk /r

Type and enter y for it to execute on the next reboot then enter shutdown /r /t 00 and wait for it to do its thing which will take a while to run.

When it has rebooted after completion, open Event Viewer and ensure Event Viewer (Local) is highlighted in the left pane - if it isn't then just click on it.

When it has read the data, expand Windows Logs - click on Application/Action/Find and type chkdsk or wininit into the find box and press enter.

Cancel the Find box and read the report in the scrollable window.

Other than whatever else it reports, check to see if it reports any KBs in bad sectors.

Nothing was found when the chkdsk command was ran.

Memory can also be another cause of freezing.

Go Start - type memory and press enter when Windows Memory Diagnostic comes up then click on the Restart now box.

You will be able to follow its progress as it scans and if it finds any problems.

Memory was OK also.

Drivers can be another problem and updating those can help if they are the cause.

There were probably 7 drivers that needed updated.

I would expect something to be in Event Viewer if any of those were causing services to terminate.

In Event Viewer click on Errors then on Show All Instances of This Event in the lower right pane.

You'll be looking for errors with the date and time stamp for when the freezes occurred.

However, I would have thought that your son-in-law would have already done these checks.

I tried to look into the event viewer and it froze on me.

I have no idea what to look at now, except for maybe reloading the entire windows installation.

Thanks for all your ideas. This is a legal installation of Windows 10. It was an online update when it had Windows 7 on it. She upgraded it for free before the offer ran out. I have to find the write up I have to do a reload without having a new serial number.

Thanks again,

[Boggin]

I don't know how to split the quotes up either but you could have just answered my questions which would have followed my post without the need to cross reference.

You can still get Win 10 free, so that isn't a problem and it will auto activate.

You can download the ISO to create bootable media using the Download tool now button from - https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/software-download/windows10 after reading how to create install media.

With the install media you can either perform a repair or a clean install, but with a repair install, if the freeze is because of what you have installed, then you'll still have the problem.

A repair install doesn't affect your personal stuff or installed programs.

Shane doesn't like Avast at all, although there are others who will swear by it.

I don't think it would be practical to run the machine in Safe Mode with Networking given that it is an intermittent problem, so use the Avast Uninstaller and see how the machine runs with the default Windows Defender.

https://www.avast.com/uninstall-utility

That may just have been one of its freezes when you tried to view Event Viewer, so you could try that again.

Another source of info can be the reliability history.

Go Start - start to type reliability and press enter when View reliability history comes up.

If that doesn't get you it, you can access it through the Control Panel - System and Security/Review your computer's status > expand Maintenance then click on its link.

In Maintenance, it will also tell you if there are any problems.

[VicTully]

Thank you, sir. I will try the upgrade asap.

I have been using Avast for many, many years. I have had no problems with it. But I will try deleting it and going with Windows Defender.

Thanks again. I will get back to you as soon as I get through all this.