Hey everyone, I'm having a frustrating issue with my computer where it freezes every 5 minutes after startup when I'm in normal mode. I can't figure out any specific task that leads to the freeze; it just happens randomly. There's no error message, and I have to force shutdown to recover. However, when I boot into safe mode with networking, everything works perfectly fine without any freezes, even after hours of use. This started happening out of the blue yesterday, and I haven't changed anything in my setup in the last 8 years. I've already tried several things, including a clean boot, GPU driver reinstall, disabling the video card driver, and running a system file checker without success. I'm really at a loss here and could use some help!
2 Answers
A few things to think about:
1. When the PC freezes, are you running any browsers? If so, which one? Try running without the browser or in incognito mode to see if that helps.
2. You could try logging in using the Administrator account. Just activate it through the command prompt and see if the issue persists when logged in as Admin. If it doesn’t freeze, that might indicate a problem with your profile rather than the OS itself.
3. If your PC is still freezing, consider using System Restore to roll back to a point before the problem started. Unfortunately, if you don't have restore points, that option won't be useful for you.
Have you tried using the DISM tool followed by another sfc scan? That might help. Also, consider backing up your important files and doing a clean reinstall of Windows. If the freezing persists afterward, there might be a hardware issue. To check if it's hardware-related, you could remove your GPU and see if using the motherboard output makes a difference. Testing your RAM by using one stick at a time can also help verify if one of them is faulty. Don't forget to reset your BIOS or see if there's an update available!
Thanks for the tips! I did try the DISM and sfc again but it didn't fix the freezing. I'm definitely considering a clean reinstall next.
Thanks for the ideas! I had everything closed, and it still froze at the same time. I checked on the guest account too, and it did the same thing. I also found that I don't have any restore points, so I can’t use that option.