Windows 8.1 Freeze Ups (Disk usage 100%, 0 R/W speeds)

aceroom

New Member
Messages
11
Hey guys. I've been having some major problems with Windows 8.1 (and 8.1 Update) which never occurred to me in Windows 8.

What essentially happens is that the computer completely freezes up and I know that the disk usage goes to 100% as does the active time but the read speed/write speed and average response time are all 0. During this period, i cannot do anything with the machine, not even take a screenshot (And hence to poor quality of the attached picture which shows the scenario).

I've encountered this problem in all of the situations:
  • Upgrade from Windows 8 to 8.1 via Store
  • Upgrade from Windows 8 to 8.1 via flash drive
  • Clean install of Windows 8.1 on to a formatted partition

I've never had this problem with Windows 7 nor with Windows 8 and I've gone through the process of trying to upgrade to Windows 8.1 more than 8 times (literally) on my laptop. I've updated the drivers from the vendor site.

I also encountered this same problem on my desktop once when I performed a clean install on it but I need a stable configuration on my desktop for now for work.

The following are the steps that I've seen online as solutions to this problem and have tried all of them to no avail:
  • Disable superfetch and windows search services
  • Disable Link State Power Management for PCI express
  • Disable live tiles
  • Disable page files

The configurations for the laptop are as follows:
HP Pavilion dv6-7040tx
  • 3rd generation Intel Core i7 3610QM
  • 8 GB of RAM
  • 750 GB SATA harddisk (Currently has three partitions plus the small partition created by windows. This problem existed even when I had a single partition. The reason I re-partitioned was ease of formatting and re-installing the OS alone without clearing my data)
  • NVIDIA GEFORCE GT 630M 2GB graphics card
I do have all the latest drivers from the HP website and the latest updates from windows update. Also, if I check the resource monitor, at these times, the actual disk usage is indeed at very low rates for the different processes. I've attached a snapshot of that as well (had to use a camera then too). Notice the long gap during with the disk active (blue line) is 100% but the speeds (green area) are 0.

It'd be great if anyone has any experience with this problem or can help me resolve it :) cause it's been eating my head for the longest time!

Thanks! :)
 

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My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavilion dv6-7040TX
    CPU
    Intel® Core™ i7-3610QM Processor
    Memory
    8GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GEFORCE GT 630M
    Hard Drives
    750GB SATA
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
So updates on this. I installed Hyper V which was also suggested as a solution. It's on high performance. For some reason, the fingerprint reader is disabled (not my doing) and it appears pretty stable. Oddly when I installed VMware it messed up the confirmation and I had trouble getting it back to normal. I uninstalled it, installed hyper V, and changed to high performance and it didn't return to normal for a bit. At this time, the fingerprint reader was working. After a few restarts, the fingerprint reader isn't working anymore but the system is stable.


This is pretty crazy behaviour and I'll update when I figure out some more about the reasons behind it.

EDIT
Yup. That seems to be true. After a reboot, the usage went back to this 100% stalked state and sure enough, the fingerprint reader was working. I'm not sure if the culprit is the fingerprint reader drivers or if that is just a side effect.
 
Last edited:

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavilion dv6-7040TX
    CPU
    Intel® Core™ i7-3610QM Processor
    Memory
    8GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GEFORCE GT 630M
    Hard Drives
    750GB SATA
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
Still can't isolate the source of the issue or get back to a stable configuration. Anyone have any insights on this? Any tests or data that I can get which would be useful in debugging the problem?

Thanks.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavilion dv6-7040TX
    CPU
    Intel® Core™ i7-3610QM Processor
    Memory
    8GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GEFORCE GT 630M
    Hard Drives
    750GB SATA
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
Sighs. I've tried nearly all the solutions online to no avail. I think I'm just going to revert back to Windows 8 until I find another solution for this.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavilion dv6-7040TX
    CPU
    Intel® Core™ i7-3610QM Processor
    Memory
    8GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GEFORCE GT 630M
    Hard Drives
    750GB SATA
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
I had the same problem after installing the update 1 to Windows 8.1. Disabled onedrive, which I don't use. The problem, for me, was solved.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Other Info
    Use several different computers during a day, so specs are irrelevant.
Last edited:

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavilion dv6-7040TX
    CPU
    Intel® Core™ i7-3610QM Processor
    Memory
    8GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GEFORCE GT 630M
    Hard Drives
    750GB SATA
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
Just had a look at the tutorial. I used the group policy method, but also through the charms bar - settings - change PC settings.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Other Info
    Use several different computers during a day, so specs are irrelevant.
Tried both approaches. Still doesn't work. I'm really surprised as 8 doesn't have issues and both 8.1 and 8.1 update do. I didn't realize that there were such drastic changes in the overall framework.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavilion dv6-7040TX
    CPU
    Intel® Core™ i7-3610QM Processor
    Memory
    8GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GEFORCE GT 630M
    Hard Drives
    750GB SATA
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
Same Problem

I feel your pain!

I am having the exact same problem on a peer to peer network with 20-computers. I would say that about 13 of the 20 computers are experiencing the same exact issues. Laptops, desktops all different manufactures, dell, HP, Gateway and I can't figure out for the life of me what's going on. Also it's happening on both Windows 7 & Windows 8.1, but most of my problems are on Windows 8.1 (only 3 of the 13 are running Windows 7).

I've also tried just about every suggestion that I've found online and NOTHING seems to work. I signed up for eightforums.com just to post this response. I can't figure out if it's a program causing the issue or what, but it started happening on most of the computers in the last 6-8 weeks (but not all at the exact same time). I really hope someone can provide some useful suggestions because this is extremely frustrating!
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win 8.1
When I bought this laptop and upgraded to 8 immediately, I had this same problem. Then I rectified it with that PCI express setting. Try that if that works. I think later updates fixed this issue cause I've long since reinstalled win8 and I don't need that fix anymore.

Also, check if the Intel Rapid Start or Rapid Storage packages are installed. Those (especially the Rapid storage) wreak havoc on my computer. I still haven't resolved it on win8.1 though.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavilion dv6-7040TX
    CPU
    Intel® Core™ i7-3610QM Processor
    Memory
    8GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GEFORCE GT 630M
    Hard Drives
    750GB SATA
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
Hi guys, does anyone have any updates about this?

I just recently found this: hard drive - Windows 8.1 Update 1 Disk Usage 100% - Super User

It suggests disabling both superfetch and prefetch in the registry. If anyone has Windows 8.1 and is experiencing the same problems, could you please give this a try?

I might try it this weekend if I get some free time otherwise.

Thanks.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavilion dv6-7040TX
    CPU
    Intel® Core™ i7-3610QM Processor
    Memory
    8GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GEFORCE GT 630M
    Hard Drives
    750GB SATA
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
I had some free time today so I upgraded. I'm trying both of the two changes. Will report after a couple of days if there are any problems.

@^Thanks
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavilion dv6-7040TX
    CPU
    Intel® Core™ i7-3610QM Processor
    Memory
    8GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GEFORCE GT 630M
    Hard Drives
    750GB SATA
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
Tried both of those two changes simultaneously and still having problems while watching videos on MPC-HC. The video freezes occasionally and so does the PC and I'm not able to do anything with it. VLC on the other hand exhibited a slightly different behavior. The video would stop playing but the sound would loop for the last 5 seconds of the video I was watching. The disk usage does not go to 100% and I can still control my computer but I need to force close VLC. Any other suggestions?

I don't want to have to go back to Windows 8 again :( The formatting procedure takes a day for me to set up the PC back to the my preferred configuration and frankly, I like the changes they introduced in 8.1 update as compared to what was available in 8.

Thanks.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavilion dv6-7040TX
    CPU
    Intel® Core™ i7-3610QM Processor
    Memory
    8GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GEFORCE GT 630M
    Hard Drives
    750GB SATA
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
It seems what's happening with VLC is that it initially buffers a particular section of the video, the disk active time goes up to 100% with 0 Read and write speeds and response time. So I presume that the VLC buffer does not refresh with new data from the disk which is probably the cause. Is it possible that the two fixes above are counter-acting?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavilion dv6-7040TX
    CPU
    Intel® Core™ i7-3610QM Processor
    Memory
    8GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GEFORCE GT 630M
    Hard Drives
    750GB SATA
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
I had the same problem which occurred immediately after upgrading from 8 to 8.1. I spent a lot of time following suggestions but what rescued me was coming across a post, which at first I thought was a company promotion, saying that CCLEANER would solve the problem with their registry clean-up tool. And it's free. I downloaded the software and ran the registry cleaner three times (rebooting each time) and problem solved. My disk usage is running along at 5-10% and no more time wasted. I was just about to the point of buying a new computer but have to thank this company for saving me the time and money. QUICK, EASY & FREE
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
I also ran into this problem (100% disk usage, 0 R/W speeds) in Win 8.1 with the PC essentially frozen/unusable, and it would occur VERY frequently (to the point of making the PC unusable for anything).

I have turned off Windows Defender and the problem has not occurred yet (long enough to convince me that for some reason this was attributing to the occurance). I prefer not to disable something like this, but the alternative is clearly not an option at this time.

To turn off Windows Defender, see:
http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/21962-windows-defender-turn-off-windows-8-a.html

(I guessed at turning it off by observing that "MsMpEng.exe" seemed to have the most memory usage in Task Manager while the problem was occurring.)

(Also a side note for those running as WinToGo: when this issue was occuring, as a 'last resort' to 'unfreeze' the PC, I would sometimes feel it necessary to unplug the USB boot device, wait a second or two, then plug it back in. Windows would display a warning about not disconnecting the drive, but the PC would be responsive again... until the issue occured again). (Note that disconnecting the boot device could lead to loss of data which is why Windows warns not to do this, so be aware if you decide to).

For now I'll go without Defender. It looks to have solved the issue and made the PC usable.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    HP
    CPU
    Intel
    Memory
    8GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel
    Browser
    FireFox
Made me freeze too..

I've the same problem that you're facing with windows 8.1 update1 last few weeks...
But still there is no solution found here. Wish a very early response on this problem.
Please make a solution to retrieve.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    HP ProBook 4430s
    CPU
    Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2450M CPU @2.50GHz 2.5GHz
    Motherboard
    Hewlett-Packard, 167E
    Memory
    4.00 GB
    Browser
    Chrome, Firefox, Opera
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
I'm having the same problem. It's got worse over time. I had to reboot my PC twice yesterday and once today.

Windows Defender was already disabled. I use CCleaner regularly. There was about 135GB on my disk and I'm reducing that now.

It's my work PC, (Packard Bell), and is really affecting my productivity. We use sharepoint one drive for business so I can't really disable it.

Really annoying. Bill Gates is incredibly rich and microsoft are the monopoly. You would think they could fix this... They suck up so much money around the world for a pretty rubbish product.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    win 8.1
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