Question Windows 10 PC freezes, maybe due to Update?

[Bsmooth]

Basically my PC very randomly just freezes. Could be fine for a week or maybe only a few hours. Doesn't seem to run any particular pattern. I could be surfing the net or running GPL or Assetto Corsa. Everything just stops and nothing short of a hard shut down will fix it. Mouse freezes, clock stops, even the Hard drive light just stops as well. This is my system:

HD 500G|SEAGATE ST3500514NS %

(Added Samsung SSD 860 EVO 1TB 2.5 Inch SATA III Internal SSD) (2019)


MB ASROCK|P67 EXTREME4 (B3) P67 R


DVD BURN SAMSUNG | SH-S222A BK


VGA ASUS|ENGTX560 TI DCII TOP/2DI/1

Updated to EVGA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti SC GAMING, 4GB 5/7/2018


CPU COOLER CM| RR-B10-212P-G1


MEM 4Gx2|KST KHX1600C9D3K2/8GX


CASE ROSEWILL|CHALLENGER


PSU ANTEC|650W EA650


CPU INTEL|CORE I5 2500K 3.3G 6M


WIN 7 HOME PREM SP1 64BIT ENG (Updated to Win 10)


ASUS XONAR DG 5.1 CHANNELS PCI INTERFACE SOUND CARD

If I could uninstall the Update that was causing it I would. I keep wondering If it was that stupid Edge update.My options left are a full reinstall of Windows 10, or maybe a restore install.
If I need to do a full install clean I may upgrade the motherboard and CPU at the same time since it will be so much work.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated

 

[VirtualLarry]

What does "Reliability Monitor" show?

 

[Steltek]

In addition to @VirtualLarry 's question above, what version of Windows 10 are you now running? Have you installed the 2004 feature update? If so, was the system freezing on Win10 ver 1903 before you installed 2004?

A couple of things to do before going any farther:

1) Reseat your memory modules. Try booting on only one module - if the system freeze still happens again, swap it for the other one. Or, run a Windows Memory Diagnostic.
2) Run SFC/scannow from an elevated command prompt to checkfor system file corruption.
3) Run CHKDSK on your boot drive with no switches. This will run it in read only mode to check for file system corruption - if it finds any, it won't make any changes and may even stop with a message about not being able to continue running in read only mode. Doing it this way will give you a chance to back up important files before you try to fix it with CHKDSK /f
4) Are you running software like HWMonitor to check your system temps? How long has it been since you've blown the dust out of your system (especially the CPU fan, the GPU fans, and the PSU fan)?

If the above tests don't show anything out of the ordinary and you are now running the 2004 version of Windows 10 and the system wasn't freezing before the 2004 feature update was installed, I'd try a Windows repair install. Download the actual installer from the Microsoft website, create an installation media flash drive, and run setup.exe from your Windows desktop to retain your current install and try to fix it.

 

[Bsmooth]

Still running the old version. Originally had Win7 and took the free update to Windows 10 just before the first of the year.
Everything was working fine until a few months ago, but the shutdowns were few and far between ,maybe once a week. But lately sometimes happens 2 times in a 4 hour session, then goes back to every few days.
I regurly clean my system, just had the CPU cooler out about a week ago, at least the upper part and cleaned it thouroughly, as well as cleaning the filter and using a small vacuum and getting most of the dust off. I probably do that about every 6 months, also being careful of ESD as much as possible.
I ran the memory test already and everything was fine.
I did the CHKDSK as well , but I'm not sure what you mean by no switches.

 

[Bsmooth]

Speaking of Windows 10, how do you handle the updates? In Win7 I could pick and choose which updates I would use, but with Win 10 it seems there all automatically downloaded and put into my PC whether I want it or not.
I'm almost positive one of the updates is what screwed up my PC in the first place. I think it was the Edge one.
Whats to say I do a brand new install or repair and restore only to have the update screw it up again ?

 

[Steltek]

Still running the old version. Originally had Win7 and took the free update to Windows 10 just before the first of the year.
Everything was working fine until a few months ago, but the shutdowns were few and far between ,maybe once a week. But lately sometimes happens 2 times in a 4 hour session, then goes back to every few days.
I regurly clean my system, just had the CPU cooler out about a week ago, at least the upper part and cleaned it thouroughly, as well as cleaning the filter and using a small vacuum and getting most of the dust off. I probably do that about every 6 months, also being careful of ESD as much as possible.
I ran the memory test already and everything was fine.
I did the CHKDSK as well , but I'm not sure what you mean by no switches.

If you just run CHKDSK C: from an elevated command prompt it will scan in read-only mode and won't try to fix anything it finds wrong (giving you a chance to back up your important files first). Running it with switches as CHKDSK c: /f or CHKDSK c: /r (the /f or /r are called command switches) will tell it to try to repair any errors that it finds, something you don't want to do until you have important files backed up as CHKDSK run with /f or /r is capable of nuking a damaged file system.

You didn't say whether you found any system file errors with CHKDSK or SFC /scannow, so I'm presuming you didn't.

Did @VirtualLarry 's suggestion about checking Windows Reliability Monitor (search for reliability history in the search box) turn up any specific applications or drivers that keep failing around the time of the lockups? You should be able to tell the specific dates/times of the lockups as each one should have a power failure event in the reliability history (associated with your manual restarts to recover the system).

If nothing turns up, you could try a Windows repair install using your current version of Windows from a flash drive to try to salvage your installation. If you don't have the v1903 Windows installer, you can google how to change the browser agent to allow you to download it from the Microsoft website.

You might also try to reinstall the current version of the motherboard chipset drivers. If that doesn't resolve the lockups, you might need to move on to swapping hardware (beginning with the PSU, especially if it is several years old, as they don't tend to age gracefully).

Speaking of Windows 10, how do you handle the updates? In Win7 I could pick and choose which updates I would use, but with Win 10 it seems there all automatically downloaded and put into my PC whether I want it or not.
I'm almost positive one of the updates is what screwed up my PC in the first place. I think it was the Edge one.
Whats to say I do a brand new install or repair and restore only to have the update screw it up again ?

In Windows 10 Home, you can only delay an update for up to 35 days, then you have to install it. You can't block it. This includes both updates and feature updates (such as Windows 10 version 2004). In Windows 10 Pro, you can delay updates for up to 12 months.

You might be able to disable the Windows Update Service, but that means you won't get any updates which isn't a good idea. You might also be able to change the settings to tell Windows your Internet connection is a metered connection, to delay updates, but you can't avoid them indefinitely.

You can stop automatic driver updates by Windows, which helps some folks given that Windows automatic driver updates is a major source of problems for some systems.