Computer frozen

WardonGordon

Hi all,

I am looking for advise regarding an issue I am having.

My laptop is 5 years old and yesterday I had my first issue. It runs windows 10.

It froze during use. The mouse freezes and nothing will work. Control alt delete also won't work.
I have to manual shut down by holding power button.

Every time I turn it on it will work for a minute or two and then freeze again.
If I get in quick I can load task manager before freezes. It shows 100% CPU USAGE but all programs at 0%.
The problem is once it freezes I can't do anything at all!

Last night I reset my computer saving personal files but the problem persists this morning.

Anyone can point me in right direction please.

smuggler.ie

Start in safe mode, see if operational, then scan for malware, miners.
Review event logs / reliability history to see if any issue indications there.
Also can try Autoruns to see what processes kick in on startup.

WardonGordon

Hi,

I can run the computer in safe mode and it doesn't freeze.
When not in safe mode it freezes from high cpu usage still.

If it runs in safe mode does that exclude a hardware problem?

smuggler.ie

WardonGordon wrote: »

Hi,

I can run the computer in safe mode and it doesn't freeze.
When not in safe mode it freezes from high cpu usage still.

If it runs in safe mode does that exclude a hardware problem?

Yep

scamalert

go into event viewer and see if theres any critical errors and see what codes it gives.


check administrative events tab under customs views in event manager for anything that has red circle or triangle with time date when it crashed to narrow down timing.

most likely some driver software clash that could happened from update or some similar software, unplug any peripherals if using any.

WardonGordon

Hi,

so I ended up resetting my computer.
Set up is loading ( the screen with cortana talking) and then it freezes after about 30 seconds.

I scanned with antivirus and found no issues.

I could boot in safe mode but I couldn't update because it wasn't available in safe mode.

I went on to event and it showed red triangles and it said manual power off which is when I turned off the computer with the on/off button.

I am quite confused about the whole thing.

Is it time to bring it to a repair store ?

scamalert

Theres a lot of minor things that could be causing it, if cpu spikes to 100% find out which process or app does that once you hit ctrl alt del go into details Tab to see all of the apps and find which process consumes the cpu should be obvious early on bootup.not one on the processes window that doesn't show all of the running applications.



whats the model and spec of laptop, is it hdd or ssd in it,any external drives connected ?


check startup menu as well if theres any app that you dont recognize google them and if they are unnecessary disable them in safe mode for time being.


also event viewer should be full of different warnings point is to find if any match prior to crash, as it should be quite full of different ones, but you need to see if theres matching ones with a crash time.Its easy enough depending on which version of windows you use to do that, as this issue indicates towards win10 issue rather then some software.



Otherwise if your not into troubleshooting then yes bring it to get fixed by someone else.


as these things tend to be hit and miss not knowing what happened prior to cause them. but since you have access to safe mode and its most likely windows related means you could most likely find the culprit and fix it yourself.

also check on disabling cortana - might not be relevant but its known to cause issues from time to time and is useless in general.

WardonGordon

Hi,

It's an aspire v3-572pg

No external drives.

The problem is worse now.
I factory reset the computer. However as I mentioned now it is freezing when I try to set it up and I am getting an error when I try to set it up in safe mode.

I guess I am out of options now?

System interrupt was what was running high in the cpu usage.
I scanned for malware and it reported nothing.

The computer freezes completely after 30 seconds. So I have to manual power off.

When I was in safe mode I couldn't update. And the only autoruns I could disable were what was starting up in safe mode.

smuggler.ie

I suggest you backup all your data while you can (copy/paste from Safe Mode to external storage) before you do anything else.


Safe Mode is for troubleshooting - not for reset/setup/update
In Safe Mode Windows run on "bare minimum" services/processes required for windows just to run. Windows Update is disabled.
Windows Update itself can be cause of "eating" all CPU - you can test this by disabling Windows Update service, however this might not be your issue.

In Safe Mode ->open CMD(run as admin) ->type this command and hit Enter : sc config wuauserv start= disabled

Now start you computer in normal mode to see effect.

To restore, type this command and hit Enter : sc config wuauserv start= demand


What version of Win10 you have(1803, 1809)?
What antivirus soft you run?

Providing you have your data out, you can continue troubleshooting or, to speedup process, just reinstall fresh Windows


If not familiar what and how - give to some one who knows.

scamalert

you jumped a bit to far doing factory reset as you could of still worked on issue in safe mode if you got any valuable data and still can access it do backup, before doing anything else at this point, if you haven't formatted your drive clean.

WardonGordon

I have all the data I need backed up already.

Why is it still freezing after a factory reset?

I downloaded norton antivirus but it wouldn't scan on safe mode , it just stayed at 0 items scanned.
So I found a recommend one on a reddit guide but it reported no malware.

The fact that I can't set up windows as the freezing still occurs and I get an error in safe mode is really confusing me.

Does this suggest it's a hardware issue or the fan not cooling or something.

Can anyone suggest what to do next.

smuggler.ie

Computer running fine in Safe Mode suggest hardware is most likely OK.
In Safe Mode, non of third party drivers, some (including some Windows) processes, etc. aren't loaded and this allow for computer to run.
From this point you can troubleshoot and try to find out what process is taking place that kill CPU.

I don't know what have taken place before issue started (update, soft install, browsing "some websites", opening suspicious mail, torrent download, browser extensions, add-ins ) - its you who operate device, so think - what was last you have done/noticed. With limited info its hard to troubleshoot - data, data, data - help us to help you.

If avail, can you manage to open Task Manager and sort processes by CPU%(Right click task bar, select Task Mgr(Processes tab will be selected ) > click on CPU tab once to sort highest on the top) before it freezes - give us picture.

If you can operate in Safe Mode with Networking - there is ESET online scanner - free and good (other tools also available) - run it.

As i mention above , you can disable Win Update from running on start.
You can uninstall browsers or other programs you might suspect.
Once your data is safe, fresh install might be easiest/fastest option

smuggler.ie

Don't panic - pick option you want to go for: continue troubleshoot or fresh install(in your case most suitable as you have data backed up and restored to factory , so no software anyway)

JoyPad

One hardware issue that Safe Mode might not highlight is a dying hard disk. I've seen something very similar to what you are describing, with an HDD that was about to die. It started with random freezing, then progressed to freezing on startup, and culminated with a BIOS message, something like "Hard drive imminent failure".

One simple way to diagnose this is by downloading SeaTools from Seagate: https://www.seagate.com/support/downloads/seatools/
I would recommend using a different computer to download and create the USB Bootable drive, then use it to test the HDD inside your system.

If that is the problem, then you are in luck, as hard drives are quite cheap these days.