Over the past couple months I have had some really weird issues with Windows, and I'm not really sure what could be the cause. I've never seen anything like this.
The issue seems to manifest itself in two different ways:
The issues originally only happened once every few days, but recently it has been getting worse. Lately, #1 usually seems to happen 2-3 hours after starting Windows, and #2 happens about 50% of the time after logging in. (Although never twice in a row; the first restart always fixes it.)
Also worth noting, around the same time I started noticing these issues, I also noticed that my hard drive write speed has decreased significantly. It's a RAID 5 setup, and the write speed is hovering around 10-15 MB/s. However, this is NOT the drive where Windows is installed, so it's probably a separate issue, but I figured I'd throw that in there.
So far I have tried:
MSI X79A-GD45 Plus
Intel i7-4820k
NVidia GTX 970 x2 SLI
16GB RAM
128GB SSD for WIndows
3x1TB HDD in RAID 5 for everything else
Anyway, this has been quite frustrating and I have no idea what would cause problems like this. Has anybody seen something like this before? Any troubleshooting ideas?
The issue seems to manifest itself in two different ways:
■ The taskbar and all Windows apps stop working. At the same time, I lose all sound, and any online videos that are playing will get the typical "buffering" circle, although they seem to keep playing without any problems. (Apart from the missing sound of course.) Restarting Windows explorer just breaks the taskbar. (It loads with no app icons and is unresponsive, same as #2 below.) I have not found a way to fix this outside of restarting the computer.
■ This one only happens immediately after logging in: The login process takes noticeably longer than usual, and when it finishes, the taskbar shows no apps or shortcuts and is completely unresponsive. I'm not sure if I have sound at this point or not, because I can't launch anything that would normally make sound. This one also requires a restart to fix.
The issues originally only happened once every few days, but recently it has been getting worse. Lately, #1 usually seems to happen 2-3 hours after starting Windows, and #2 happens about 50% of the time after logging in. (Although never twice in a row; the first restart always fixes it.)
Also worth noting, around the same time I started noticing these issues, I also noticed that my hard drive write speed has decreased significantly. It's a RAID 5 setup, and the write speed is hovering around 10-15 MB/s. However, this is NOT the drive where Windows is installed, so it's probably a separate issue, but I figured I'd throw that in there.
So far I have tried:
■ sfc /scannow: No issues were found
■ Virus/malware scan: Nothing found
■ chkdsk /r: On the Windows disk, no issues found. On the RAID array, it gets to 32% and then gets stuck. I let it go for almost 24 hours before giving up on it.
■ Most of the solutions here (not sure if I did #2 or #5).
MSI X79A-GD45 Plus
Intel i7-4820k
NVidia GTX 970 x2 SLI
16GB RAM
128GB SSD for WIndows
3x1TB HDD in RAID 5 for everything else
Anyway, this has been quite frustrating and I have no idea what would cause problems like this. Has anybody seen something like this before? Any troubleshooting ideas?
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram