Pc misbehaving, help needed

Redfox25 · 08-12-2023 9:37pm #1

Hi all.

Pc is doing something odd, it starts off fine, boots up no bother but 30 seconds later it becomes unresponsive, I can open programs prior to this but after 30secs all I can't.

Desktop is still visible, I can move the mouse and click on items on the desktop but nothing launches. I had task manager open and its not showing 100% pc usage or ghe likes.

I'm hoping it's a software glitch rather than hardware. Rebooting doesn't sort it either.

Running win 11 if that helps.

Thanks in advance.

Atlantic Dawn · 08-12-2023 9:46pm

Does the keyboard respond? Could you say press Windows Key and E to open Windows Explorer? Also if you press ALT+Tab key does it show any programs to switch to?

Coyler · 08-12-2023 10:23pm

I'd suspect a drive issue or worse case a motherboard one. Computer is booting and you are gettng a lot of the system loaded into RAM which seems to indicate that your CPU and RAM are fine. That fact that is consistent at a certain point tend me towards the storage. Had this happen before to me with a bad secondary HDD. SSD was fine but at some point Windows was trying to access the bad drive it would effectively lock the system as Windows would timeout.

What I'd do is try and boot off a live CD or USB drive and see if everything bar the local storage works. Go to another PC or laptop and use rufus to make a Ubuntu install media and choose the live OS option to try out the OS. Very easy and simple to do and will rule in or rule out a lot of possible issues.

https://ubuntu.com/tutorials/create-a-usb-stick-on-windows#1-overview

Redfox25 · 08-12-2023 10:27pm

Keyboard responds during that short window. Tried to launch a game there, it started and then stopped.

It's very odd.

Alt tab isn't working post the 30s window but before that it didn't show anything

08-12-2023 10:33pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121473189#Comment_121473189

Hmm I doubt it is the hard drive. If it were struggling it would likely be indicated in TM. It could be though I just wouldn’t look at it as the first culprit.

RAM & CPU are obviously fine if they’re passing boot. MB I don’t suspect would be at fault here either, if it was, the PC would more than likely fail to boot/start rather than do so and run slow

OP, I suggest to try reinstall windows. You can do this with or without deleting your files and data. I wouldn’t see any reason to delete them though unless you’ve recently downloaded or installed something you might be worried about.

08-12-2023 10:52pm

If the mouse still responds after 30s can you for example right click and get properties or are mouse clicks stopped too ? Also have you tried turning off your WiFi and rebooting in case it's pausing trying to connect ?