Windows 8.1 Freezing For Some Users

Softpedia points to a Microsoft Community forum post revealing that many users are experiencing system lockups, or freezing, after installing the Windows 8.1 update, which went live on October 17. The affected users have no options other than powering off or rebooting their desktop or laptops.

"I've had Windows 8.1 installed for about a month and it's been working fine. Ever since a day or two ago though, it's been freezing when left idle for a while," reads one post. "The mouse can move but nothing responds to anything. This problem seems to me to have started after installing updates KB2884848, KB2883200, and KB2895219, although I can't be sure of this."

"When the freeze occurs for me that my mouse is responsive as normal and I can move it around the screen but my keyboard stop responding," reads another complaint. "I can click with the mouse but it doesn't do anything. The system doesn't automatically restart, I have to force a power-down or restart by physically hitting the button on my case. No errors seem to show upon restart either."

Both of these reveal that the system isn't completely frozen, that it's accepting mouse input. That leads to another thread with a Microsoft support engineer who believes that users can launch the built-in troubleshooter in the Settings category to detect and fix most of the incorrect settings and performance related errors. To get there, do the following:

a)    Press Windows key +F to bring up the search Charms bar.
b)    Select "Settings" in the drop down menu below search and type "Troubleshooting."
c)    Click on "Troubleshooting" and select the view all option on the left pane.
d)    Click on "Performance troubleshooter" and follow the prompts.

If the Troubleshoot app doesn't solve the problem, then customers are suggested to check the event viewer for any error logs around the time the computer froze recently. To get this information, do the following:

a)    Go to the Start Screen, type in "Event Viewer." This will bring up the Event Viewer tile; Click to open the event viewer.
b)    In the left pane, expand out Windows Logs. Click on Application log, highlight the first event in the log, and use your arrow keys to scroll down.
c)    Most of your event will be Information. You may see Yellow Warnings or Red Errors. If you see any red error, you can double click on it to bring it up        and copy the contents in your reply.

As Softpedia points out, the "locking up" issue with Windows 8.1 could possibly stem from incompatible drivers. Then again, users are experiencing other issues as well, including mouse lag in PC games, that previously weren't present. Given the update has only been out for several weeks, the new build will undoubtedly produce a number of unfortunate, unforeseen bugs that will need to be ironed out.

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  • bigpoppastuke
    In other news, reports say Windows has frozen since the dawn of time
    Reply
  • nbelote
    Cry babies. What would they have done if they lived through Windows ME and its constant stream of BSODs?

    Sissies.
    Reply
  • soldier44
    Should have stuck with Win 7...Just works,
    Reply
  • nevilence
    hahaha windows me was an absolute delight, could never get anything but chipmonk sound on win me, made age of empires very funny
    Reply
  • therealduckofdeath
    slow news day? 8 people reporting "similar" issues since October 18.... I don't think that constitutes for an issue worth reporting about, as the root cause can be just about anything from a buggy torrent app to faulty hard drive or simply malware...
    Reply
  • Matthew Zweig
    @nbelote Completely agree, Growing up with my first computer being on windows ME is what inevitably started my IT career.
    Reply
  • aelfwyne
    I am experiencing this myself.

    For those who are claiming it's due to "buggy apps", "malware" or "faulty hardware" you don't know what you're talking about.

    The article is referring to users whose systems were 100% reliable prior to the 8.1 upgrade, and are crashing and freezing after the upgrade. Hardware hasn't gone buggy. Drives SHOULD have remained compatible. Apps haven't changed.

    There is OBVIOUSLY a problem in Windows 8.1 in certain configurations causing freezing. I've had to stop using Windows on my PC in favor of my backup OS (Linux yech) until this is sorted out or I have time to reinstall back to 8.0.

    Just because you, personally, haven't experienced the issue, doesn't mean it doesn't exist.
    Reply
  • jimmysmitty
    11862783 said:
    Should have stuck with Win 7...Just works,

    I have been running 8 since release and did the 8.1 preview then clean installed 8.1 officially and so far I have had no issues.

    Problem is that people are very bad at maintaining their PCs. What's interesting is that if you search for one of those KBs, I only found articles based on this and nothing directly from Microsoft.

    Normally if you search for a KB article you get a link from support.microsoft.com and these did not come up with that for me.
    Reply
  • vipervoid1
    Here , windows 8.1 user
    I got myself upgrade the OS on the day after launched ~
    And 3 update released on windows update right after upgrade.
    After those updates , I didnt update the Windows Update yet ~
    I didnt experiences any freezing with those update ~
    So I expect those updates probably are the reason why the windows 8.1 freeze ..
    Reply
  • lp231
    11862765 said:
    Cry babies. What would they have done if they lived through Windows ME and its constant stream of BSODs?

    Sissies.
    Windows Me worked great for me, not a single BSOD and it was my very first OS for my very first self build. :)
    Pentium 3 800MHz
    128MB ram
    20GB HDD
    ATi Rage XL 8MB AGP
    Acer 50X CD Rom
    Beige Case with PSU
    Windows Me

    As for Windows 8.1, it doesn't freeze for me, but flash still has problem, but I got 2 systems running the same thing Win 8.1 Pro w/MCE. Netbook works fine, like preview post on Tom's forum works in IE and FF. For my desktop it only works in IE, but not FF. :\
    Reply