Windows 10: File Explorer spiking in processor use, after a system wide freeze. Happens frequently 2-3...

As the subject suggest, I've been experiencing framedrop/freezing/lagspikes while playing games and general in Windows at random intervals2-3 times per minute. Tried several fixes, but with no prevail. I did a clean install of Windows and the issue still persist. Windows is up to date, as well as graphics driver and BIOS. All solid state and hard disk drives have capacity left no red bar. Have done stability test/stresstest using OCCT. Each one have runned for 1 hour without any errors or BSOD. Linpack, Memory, 3D, VRAM and Power delivery. I have also done SFC and DISM, they reported no issues. Eventviewer shows no error or critcal events. Before I did the clean install of Windows, I had severeal thousand critical events on event id 476.


I belive it is File Explorer because i recorded task manager while a spike was occuring, and for some fractions of a second, file explorer spiked up to 18%. It was the only variable that changed while a spike was occuring. Task manager did freeze while the spike was occuring.


I read that if file explorer cause freezes it might be a hardware problem. It is difficult determine what if any hardware is at fault. Espacially since there was no errors reported under stresstesting.

Any tips or tricks I could try to find the faulty hardware?

And or what is most likely at fault.

:)

 

explorer frequently freezes

Hi all. I'm running Windows 10 home (10.0.19041) on a Thinkpad X1 carbon. In the last week, explorer has started to freeze very frequently. There are two behaviors that seem to trigger a freeze:

1) When attempting to save-as from Google Chrome, explorer will become unresponsive (including the save-as dialogue itself, the desktop, and any other explorer windows currently open). Forcing explorer.exe to quit is the only thing that helps - at which point the save-as dialogue is unfrozen, allowing for the file to be saved without issue.

2) When transferring a file, the transfer will initially hang at 0% for 30-90 seconds before eventually transferring. (At first I thought this was only an issue when transferring to a network drive, but it actually happens when I'm transferring within my laptop's SSD.)

I've fiddled with explorer's settings as suggested on other posts, and I've run virus and malware scans. Nothing seems to help. Any ideas?

 

explorer frequently freezes

Thanks for the response, dalchina. Here's what I got:

1) Hard Disk Sentinel reports the following:

The status of the solid state disk is PERFECT. Problematic or weak sectors were not found. The health is determined by SSD specific S.M.A.R.T. attribute(s): Available Spare (Percent), Percentage UsedThe TRIM feature of the SSD is supported and enabled for optimal performance.No actions needed.
2) chkdsk reports the following:

Windows has scanned the file system and found no problems.No further action is required.
3) I have tried to link these freezes with high activity in task manager, but I haven't been able to do so yet. It doesn't help that, when explorer freezes in this way, task manager also freezes. However, I'll try as you suggest and display task manager before moving a file. (This is difficult because this behavior is intermittent, but perhaps I'll be able to manage it.)

4) I haven't tried reproducing this issue in safe mode / with another user. I'll give that a shot.

 

File Explorer freezes in certain files

It seems that a systematic approach is required. From your previous posts I take it that the following statements are correct:

• Windows Explorer freezes when you double click any type of file (.docx, .xlsx, .txt, .mp3, .jpg)
• The problem happens independently of the folder where these files reside.
• The problem does not happen while in Safe Mode.
• The problem persists after formatting the system partition and re-installing Windows 10 from a Windows 10 installation medium.

If all of the above statements are correct then one would conclude that the problem is caused by some application that you installed after re-installing Windows. To find out what it is you need to do this:

• Perform yet another installation of Windows.
• Create an image of the completed installation. Store it on an external USB disk.
• Check if the problem persists.
• If it does not, install one or two of your applications.
• Check if the problem is back. If it is, uninstall the new applications or restore the image you created in Step 2.
  
• If the problem is not back, install more applications and keep checking if the problem returns.