Computer keeps freezing...

[Chimera245]

For the last few days, my computer has had the habit of freezing a few minutes after I turn it on. I haven't timed it, but it seems to be about 5 minutes.

This happens every time I turn it on, and it even happens in safe mode. It'll happen whether I'm running programs, or doing nothing at all, and the window of time before it freezes it's always the same.

I've tried some of the basic troubleshooting methods, but nothing has worked yet. For example, Chkdsk won't complete its scan before the freeze, and sfc /scannow says "Windows resource protection could not start the repair service".

It's been doing this for the last 3 or 4 days. But I've been using it pretty much every day for the last couple months with no problem till now. I generally only use it for playing games and surfing the web.

I am running out of ideas of things to try to get it running again. I'm tempted to just reinstall Windows, but I'm afraid of what could happen if it freezes on me mid-install.

My computer is homebuilt, running 64-bit Windows 10, upgraded from Windows 7.

I don't know if it matters, but I've also got some Windows updates ready that keep failing to install, presumably because of freezing mid-install.

Thanks in advance, and any help is appreciated.

 

[Ralston18]

Go into Event Viewer and look through the entries. See if you can find an error message corressponding to the time of the freezes.

E.g., Turn on the computer, open Event Viewer, scroll around a bit and watch carefully for the time of the freeze. Then restart and check the logs.

You can also use "perfmon /res" from the Windows Run bar to watch what your system is doing. Check the processes especially and see if something starts or stops at the time of the freeze.

 

[W Fallon]

Just choose a recovery method and be done with it.

Bill