Windows 10: Freezes but mouse cursor and keyboard still work - must reboot

Greetings,

I have what I think is a pretty unusual freezing problem on my Windows 10 machine that I'm hoping someone can help me with. This only started happening after I upgraded from Windows 7 64-bit to Windows 10 64-bit last fall. I did a fresh install on a brand new Samsung 860 SSD.

Here's what happens: At random times, the computer will freeze. But it freezes in a very particular way. I can still move the cursor around with the mouse. In whatever window was active at the time of the freeze, I can click around and do things, execute parts of the program, etc. I can click into other windows if they're on the screen but not from the taskar. Once I'm in those other windows, though, I clicking with the mouse does nothing.

The keyboard, however, works fine. I can use Alt-Tab to move between windows. If I can figure out the keyboard commands, I can do things in those other windows. And I am able, by clicking the Windows button and tabbing around, restart the computer.

From what I can tell, it's random when it happens. Sometimes I'll get a freeze and then after rebooting, the freeze will re-occur. But not always. I've gone weeks between freezes, but sometimes they're very frequently where I have several in only a few days.

Here's what I've tried to do to fix this but didn't help:

• Swapped out my mouse with a wired mouse
• I reseated my GPU into another slot months ago hoping that would solve this. It did not.
• After I installed Windows, there were no chipset drivers listed on the Asus website under Windows 10, so I installed the versions for Windows 8 64-bit. For reference, here is the support website with drivers listed: SABERTOOTH 990FX R2.0 Driver & Tools | Motherboards | ASUS USA
• BIOS is up-to-date and has been this whole time (version 2901).
• No problems noticed with overheating. I have good airflow through my case and check temperatures regularly.
• My virtual memory is custom set with initial size 3954 MB and maximum size 35850 MB. The C-drive is a 500 GB SSD.

Event Viewer - I don't notice any errors associated with the freezes. Like none at all. I do have quite a few DCOM errors, but they don't co-occur with the freezes. This one, for example, happened almost 10 minutes before the freeze:

The application-specific permission settings do not grant Local Launch permission for the COM Server application with CLSID
Windows.SecurityCenter.WscBrokerManager
and APPID
Unavailable
to the user NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM SID (S-1-5-18) from address LocalHost (Using LRPC) running in the application container Unavailable SID (Unavailable). This security permission can be modified using the Component Services administrative tool.
I also don't notice any additional errors in the Reliability History.

My suspicions from googling (though this is a hard one to google for):

• Something PSU-related. Would there be a good way to look into this more beyond getting a new one?
• I got my motherboard and CPU way back in 2014. Is it possible these just aren't compatible with Windows 10 and I'd need to upgrade?
• My previous computer was also an Asus motherboard, and at the time there seemed to be compatibility issues with Samsung SSDs that manifested in weird audio pops, not freezing. I thought these issues had been resolved, but I'm wondering if there might be more Asus-Samsung compatibility issues that have sprung up.
• After I upgraded to Windows 10, I noticed that Windows wasn't showing my full RAM. I have four sticks of RAM installed. I had to swap them around (basically reverse which slots the two pairs were in), but Windows then did see the full amount.
• I've seen mention of disabling C-states in my BIOS, but I don't want to mess with that unless I think it could work.

I appreciate any help you can all provide me. Now that I'm working from home, having a computer I can rely on is a lot more important, so I'm hoping to get this figured out.

Thanks in advance!!

:)

 

keyboard and mouse not working

Hi Chrystal,

For us to properly isolate the issue with your keyboard and mouse, we would like to know the following:

• Were there any changes made on your computer prior to the issue (e.g., updates, software installation)?
• Are you using a wired or wireless keyboard and mouse?
• Have you tried using a different keyboard and mouse? If yes, how was it?
• Have you tried using your keyboard and mouse to another computer? If yes, what is the result?
• To make sure that we have not missed on anything, what troubleshooting steps have you done so far?

As an initial troubleshooting, we suggest that you try updating your keyboard and mouse drivers to resolve the issue. You may also check and follow the troubleshooting steps in this
article.

We look forward to your response.

 

Computer and mouse freeze

Hi

There are several reasons that could have cause your keyboard and mouse to freeze. To know more about the issue, we will ask some questions to help us:

• Were there recent changes made before the issue occurred?
• What are the steps that you've done so far to know where the issue is coming from?

Meanwhile, we suggest that you refer to this article:
Mouse, touchpad, and keyboard problems in Windows for us to check all setting needed to help us in resolving your issue.

Let us know about the update.

 

Mouse Cursor and pad cursor - Acer Aspire Lap Top.

Hi Tess,

Based on the description that you mentioned, you're having challenges controlling the mouse cursor. It looks like we will need more information about your concern in order to give the most appropriate advice. As such, please answer the following questions:

• Did make any changes to your computer prior to this issue (e.g. updating Windows operating system, hardware changes, etc.)?
• Can you please tell us more description of the behavior of the mouse cursor?
• What troubleshooting steps have you tried so far?

In the meantime, we suggest that you refer to the link below for helpful tips and steps on how you can resolve this issue:

Mouse, touchpad, and keyboard problems in Windows

We also suggest that you update the drivers in
Windows 10 as this process will apply new features and fixes that are essential to your hardware drivers.

We're looking forward to your response.