Windows 10: PC Freezing with "Waiting for Cache"

Hello. I come here out of desperation for the issue I have been battling for the past 5-6 months. My windows version is 1909 (Build 18363.418).

Here's my best description of the issue. Essentially, my computer will soft-freeze for a varying amount of time ranging from 1-5 minutes. During this time, I can still move the cursor and interact with some windows/applications, though interacting with anything too much causes it to freeze completely. This includes windows explorer. This happens when I am using Chrome almost every time, and everytime it is frozen, chrome says "Waiting for cache..." in the bottom-left. One of the first things I tested is if it happens when chrome is not running, and it very rarely happens in that case, but it has actually happened once or twice without chrome running. So that is worth noting.

My thoughts are that this is disk-related. This seems obvious to me based on what I've observed and tried with the issue for the past months. I'm much more likely to freeze during any disk-intensive activity such as a steam game download, a large read/write operation, etc.

Also I believe the behavior of how some things are interactable until they are frozen can be explained as such; If I were to have a chrome tab open of a video on YouTube and I froze again, then the video continues playing and I can still interact with the player controls. This is true until it has to load/buffer something new, then it freezes. Although sometimes *chrome* itself can freeze but I still have video pre-loaded, in which case I cannot interact with Chrome but the video still plays. Another example is any game. Games will still work just fine, but will be unable to load new resources or information. So anything already loaded into memory or cache is fine, but any new menu/map, etc, cant load until I am unfrozen.

So the short version of that is; I believe that my SSD is "freezing" occasionally. things work fine until they attempt to load more from the disk, then they freeze until unfrozen. My cursor usually stays active the entire time unless I click frantically. Sound always continues to play as long as it's already 'loaded in'. (i.e. Youtube video that is pre-buffered, game sound, etc)

Now, here's what I've tried and also what anyone willing to help me should know. First is that I just reinstalling windows fresh from USB and the issue still persists. Second is that I use no form of antivirus/antimalware, even Windows Defender. In fact, I keep my PC *very* minimal in it's background processes, so this isnt a case of high background activity overwhelming my PC. Third, my SSD is relatively new. I've only had it for about the amount of time I've had this issue in the first place. I did not have this issue on my old HDD. Fourth, before I reinstalled windows, I ran a dual-boot of windows and ubuntu on this SSD as well. The issue still happened on windows but I never experienced it on Ubuntu. This could be for many reasons, a few being: I did not use Ubuntu as my main OS, and thus was not on it for very long at a time. Also I used Firefox as my browser on Ubuntu. Then there's the obvious fact that it's a different OS so that could play a part.

I think that's everything. I tried to include everything important, but do feel free to ask anything relevant and I will answer. I greatly appreciate anyone willing to help me out here, as for most issues I can solve on my own but this one has plagued me for too long.

Thanks. I will be actively responding ASAP and will not be abandoning this.

:)

 

PC Freezing with "Waiting for Cache"

Have you tried some of the suggested fixes from the web for 'chrome waiting for cache'.

 

PC Freezing with "Waiting for Cache"

Oh shoot, that's one thing I forgot to add. I've exhausted everything I could find on the web. Here's what I've done;

* Cleared the cache of Chrome and Windows itself. Also, since this happened after installing chrome onto a freshly installed windows 10, it cant be just that I have alot of built-up cache.
* Edited the control panel's power plan to never put the disk to sleep
* Additionally, one page suggested disabling the setting to write cache to the SSD at all, but it said that would have some drawbacks so I did not try it. I also figured if that was always a cause for this then more people would have this issue with chrome on SSDs.

That's what I can remember of what I've tried that I forgot to mention.

- - - Updated - - -

Why has this been moved to 'Browsers and Email'? It can happen outside of my browser.

 

waiting for cache

I found some suggestions for how o solve the problem with windows updates and th slow browsers saying "waiting for cache" - I am not a computer nerd, so I need a simpler way to solve the problem or someone can show me how to solve it visually. Thanks.

I have recently upgraded to a solid state drive.