Windows 10: Need help troubleshooting randomly occurring unresponsiveness and locking up of PC

Hello community,


since roughly September 2020 I am experiencing a randomly occurring issue with my PC Win 10 Pro 20H2, 19042.867, fully patched. Randomly occurring means in this case sometimes hours, sometimes days, sometimes weeks. Interestingly, this PC ran for roughly 2 years without any issue; it only started around September 2020.


Here is what's happening:

I am mostly using my PC at the moment for browsing the internet, working in MS Office and watching some Netflix shows. Rarely gaming these days.

However, sometimes, running programs such as Firefox, Windows, Excel, Outlook etc. become increasingly unresponsive, meaning at the beginning, I might even close a tab, or quit a program, but soon they do not react to clicking any buttons, can no longer be closed neither by clicking the "X" nor by using the Task Manager.

At some point I can only use the Reset Switch as powering down also no longer works. I can use the Start Menu and click on "Restart", "Hibernate" etc, but nothing happens. If I happen to be lucky and start a new program sometimes this works, I typically do not see an icon in the Task Bar; I can only see the lightblue "underline".


It seems the PC is -at some point- no longer remembering changes; example: I close some tabs on Firefox, PC locks up; I reboot, restart Firefox, but the recently closed tabs are back.

Also, when this issue happens, I can hear the fans of my AIO cooler turning up a little; it is like my control program is no longer working.


I really cannot pinpoint what exactly is causing the problem, as the Event Viewer does not show any issue; it only shows "Windows has shut down unexpectedly" roughly translated from German.

The whole system has been reinstalled twice, once including all mainboard drivers, once only with the onboard drivers from Windows. No difference.


SFC /SCANNOW has been completed without issues. Same goes for the usual DISM commands. Memtest has completed without errors.

It would be great if you could lend me a hand here; I really have no idea where to start.

:)

 

Computer Randomly locks up

Ok, so my dads pc (its in sp) completely randomly locks up.

Im not sure what the deal is.

it was working fine, i swapped boards and it game me a memory error but no big deal, fixed that. now, it locks up a few times a day, whether it is in the bios, or post screen, windows, trying to format windows ect.

Im not sure what to do! if its the board i'll rma it and give him "back" the P45 but if its ram or hdd idk...

what do you suggest?

 

Lock Screen Randomly Changes

Hi John,

Welcome to Microsoft Community and thank you for your interest in Windows 10.

I suggest you to go to the lock screen settings and disable the automatic lock screen change and check if the issue persist.

To test the issue I suggest you to create a new user account and restart the computer and check whether you can find other new user account.

I suggest you to create a new user account and check if the issue occurs.

• Go to Settings.
• Choose Accounts and then select Family and other users.
• Select add someone else on this PC.
• Enter a user name and hit next.
• Click on Finish.
• Sign out from the current Account and Log into the new account.

Hope this information was helpful and do let us know if you need further assistance. We will be glad to assist.

 

PC Build Steps

Ok just because I like steps i am going to create some steps. Please give me the stamp of approval/disapproval

• Install system in case
  • Remember to connect SSD and optical to same SATA ports on motherboard
• Turn on PC
• setup HDD
• run blend test in prime95 for 30-60 min
  • run realtemp at the same time

• While in Prime95 test
  • if CPU goes above 70c in RealTemp, I have a leaky CPU
  • if my system locks up or blue screens, there is an instability in the system somewhere
  • if my system does not lock up or blue screen, my CPU is not damaged and I am in the clear!

What do you guys think??