Solved Random Freezing after startup but resumes after 30 seconds

sk808

New Member
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My specs are:

I5 4670k
MSI g45 z78 mobo
16 GB G.Skill 1866
samsung 840 evo SSD
toshiba 2 TB HDD
EVGA GTX 760

i have completely installed a clean win 8.1 install and still have this freezing issue. It happens after i login and after my bitdefender internet security loads fully i try to click on the desktop icons but they are frozen. My mouse moves and i can click on the taskbar and startbutton and CRTL+ALT+DELETE as well. It freezes the desktop icons for 30seconds max. I have booted into safemode and it occurs there as well.

I have ran multiple malware and antivirus scans, sfc/scannow, DISM /Online/Cleanup-Image/RestoreHealth, checked my event viewer for any errors, ran chk dsk, bcdedit /set disabledynamictick yes, i cant figure it out. All drivers are up to date, i disabled my lan adapter since i am using wifi. Windows updates are updated, defragged the harddrives, and i been reading through forum after forum but i have not seen this exact problem before. Also this is on stock BIOS no overclock, i also monitored the cpu and memory usage during the time of freezing and it nothing out of the ordinary usage, cpu is kept within 5% and memory is at 20% or less.

thanks,
Steve
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    windows 8.1
Hi sk808,

You certainly have done all the right things up to this point and your hardware looks quite capable so I cannot offer much else in the way of something you might have missed because your statement "I have booted into safemode and it occurs there as well" has me perplexed as well. [DEL]However, you might want to check your event viewer for any warnings or errors that are time-coincident with your temporary freezing situation.[/DEL] One other thought might be that, if you are using a fast UEFI boot option (the one that claims a boot to desktop in about 1 second), this might be why those icons are unclickable for an extended period because the full boot process is not actually completed at the point the desktop becomes visible. Now, I don't know if you are aware of this event log, but there is one that identifies the true boot time (and shutdown time) as well. It is located here in the event logs:

Screenshot (100).png

Now in my particular case, my desktop is visible in about 9-10 seconds but my total boot time was 20 seconds for my last boot and during a portion of that extended boot time, my desktop icons are slow to respond (at times). So, I'm just trying to give you some food for thought as you continue your efforts. If you need me to do any compares for you, I'm here.

BTW, are you using that Samsung Magician software and do you have the option set to use a RAM drive (or whatever they call it)? Maybe that has something to do with your delay? The reason I'm asking is because I have the same drive and I have opted not to use that option.


Good luck to you.

SpringUpdate
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1.1 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
hey spring,

thanks for the speedy reply. yes i am using the samsung magician rapid option but it occurred even without the software. I didn't know about the event viewer diagnostics performance. TY for that! Looking into that area, alot of warnings but here is something at caught my eye

Event ID 501:

The Desktop Window Manager is experiencing heavy resource contention.
Reason : CPU resources are over-utilized.
Diagnosis : A sharp degradation in Desktop Window Manager responsiveness was observed.

Event ID 500:

The Desktop Window Manager is experiencing heavy resource contention.
Scenario : The Desktop Window Manager responsiveness has degraded.


does this have something to do with the freezing ?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    windows 8.1
If you get those event logs on a consistent basis (ie, every boot), then there is possibly an issue. I have only received that combination 1 time since migrating to a clean install of 8.1.1 and it has never returned.

Maybe its time to try some other magic? Now, without rhyme or reason, have you tired disabling hibernation via powercfg -h off? This automaticlly disables the fast startup option as well and it would be interesting to see if that has any affect on your issue. You can turn it back on via powercfg -h on (elevated command prompt) after a test.


UPDATE: I have to leave the forum now. Hopefully, you will have made some progress when I return tomorrow. There are many bright minds here that may have other good ideas for yo to try.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1.1 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
the 500 and 501 event id's do not occur everytime. I have never enabled fastboot before but i did the powercfg -h off. It didn't help withe the freeze, its roughly between 15-30 sec long. if i login to windows and double click a folder in my desktop it will freeze the icons almost immediately. but it also occurs if i just wait it out and hover my mouse over the icons to see if they highlight or not.

ive completely ran out of ideas. everything works great on the computer but that irritating freeze issue is my only gripe. Its not possible for the hardware to be booting windows too fast that it will cause a delay with the desktop is there? I dont understand how everything else works but the desktop. I can open up the browser, open a program in start menu, open bitdefender in taskbar, etc.
 
Last edited:

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    windows 8.1
ok after more fiddling with the comp, i found it that if i click on recycle bin or my comp which is on my C: (SSD) drive it doesnt freeze while other things like my folders which are located in my D: (HDD) drive freeze briefly. It seems like my HDD cannot keep up with the speed of the computer and the SSD. Does this sound correct to you guys? It is a normal 7200rpm HDD which is partitioned in two sections but one partition is much larger then the other. There is no way to fix this problem without replacing the HDD with a SSD is there? or putting the files to the SSD instead? TY in advance
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    windows 8.1
It looks like HDD is not waking up fast enough. Did you try setting Power Saving feature to Off for disks ?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home made
    CPU
    AMD Ryzen7 2700x
    Motherboard
    Asus Prime x470 Pro
    Memory
    16GB Kingston 3600
    Graphics Card(s)
    Asus strix 570 OC 4gb
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 960 evo 250GB
    Silicon Power V70 240GB SSD
    WD 1 TB Blue
    WD 2 TB Blue
    Bunch of backup HDDs.
    PSU
    Sharkoon, Silent Storm 660W
    Case
    Raidmax
    Cooling
    CCM Nepton 140xl
    Internet Speed
    40/2 Mbps
    Browser
    Firefox
    Antivirus
    WD
Hi CountMike,

if you mean by power options > HDD turn off after X amount of minutes, yes i have put it to never turn off.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    windows 8.1
Hi CountMike,

if you mean by power options > HDD turn off after X amount of minutes, yes i have put it to never turn off.
Yes, that's what I meant. There must be something else, I have 2 more large HDDs (and they are slower ones too) beside SSD and have a slight delay 2 -3 seconds on boot only. What I noticed before is that windows placed some system boot files on secondary disk and delay was much longer. Now I always disconnect other drives while installing windows and have much shorter delay while accessing them, fraction of a second but it's there.
Other things I did are: stopped System protection for them, stopped sending files to Recycle Bin, automatic defragmentation and Indexing. AV (in my case Avast) is not allowed to do any checking while booting and only while copying files from external source.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home made
    CPU
    AMD Ryzen7 2700x
    Motherboard
    Asus Prime x470 Pro
    Memory
    16GB Kingston 3600
    Graphics Card(s)
    Asus strix 570 OC 4gb
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 960 evo 250GB
    Silicon Power V70 240GB SSD
    WD 1 TB Blue
    WD 2 TB Blue
    Bunch of backup HDDs.
    PSU
    Sharkoon, Silent Storm 660W
    Case
    Raidmax
    Cooling
    CCM Nepton 140xl
    Internet Speed
    40/2 Mbps
    Browser
    Firefox
    Antivirus
    WD
how do i stop system protection to my HDD? is that safe to do ? I dont see any scan files when booting option in bitdefender. Does it matter if the HDD is formatted to MBR instead of GPT? My SSD is GPT UEFI but i dont really think the HDD matters right?

I left the HDD connected when i installed windows 8.1 on the SSD but i dont see any windows files in the HDD. Should i reinstall windows again and disconnect the HDD? this is frustrating :confused:


im not sure if this is an issue but there is no driver of software at all for this HDD . Toshiba DT01ACA200 . the current driver is dated from 2006
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    windows 8.1
System protection (system restore) is completely safe to turn off for all the drives other than Boot/OS drive, I think it's turned off on Win 8 by default too. Win8 does not fragment disks a lot, so auto defragment is not necessary either. GPT is required for UEFI so it shouldn't be an issue on secondary drives. Do you maybe have or had OS on the HDD ?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home made
    CPU
    AMD Ryzen7 2700x
    Motherboard
    Asus Prime x470 Pro
    Memory
    16GB Kingston 3600
    Graphics Card(s)
    Asus strix 570 OC 4gb
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 960 evo 250GB
    Silicon Power V70 240GB SSD
    WD 1 TB Blue
    WD 2 TB Blue
    Bunch of backup HDDs.
    PSU
    Sharkoon, Silent Storm 660W
    Case
    Raidmax
    Cooling
    CCM Nepton 140xl
    Internet Speed
    40/2 Mbps
    Browser
    Firefox
    Antivirus
    WD
like my folders which are located in my D: (HDD) drive freeze briefly

It seems like my HDD cannot keep up with the speed of the computer and the SSD.

Now you are on to something specific! That differentiation was never mentioned before. I have seen hard drives that are extremely slow to initialize; however, that is more recognizable when it is installed as a primary boot drive. In fact, I had one that would sit on the BIOS splash screen for about 30 seconds (how coincidental) and then just continue to boot as if nothing had gone wrong. The problem was corrected when I replaced the hard drive. BTW, the drive in question also exhibited the same behavior when placed in an external enclosure. I would get the notification that something had been inserted and about 30 seconds later, the drive would appear in explorer (as usable). Anyway, I just wanted to check in with my opinion on that newly discovered issue. I see that Count Mike has offered some very good ideas.

Good luck,

SpringUpdate
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1.1 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
Yeah, that reminded me of something, did you check that HDD for any problems ?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home made
    CPU
    AMD Ryzen7 2700x
    Motherboard
    Asus Prime x470 Pro
    Memory
    16GB Kingston 3600
    Graphics Card(s)
    Asus strix 570 OC 4gb
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 960 evo 250GB
    Silicon Power V70 240GB SSD
    WD 1 TB Blue
    WD 2 TB Blue
    Bunch of backup HDDs.
    PSU
    Sharkoon, Silent Storm 660W
    Case
    Raidmax
    Cooling
    CCM Nepton 140xl
    Internet Speed
    40/2 Mbps
    Browser
    Firefox
    Antivirus
    WD
I installed HD tune pro but wasnt quite sure which tests i needed to run. Health status was good. Ran the quick scan of the bad sector test. do i need to run benmark ?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    windows 8.1
I installed HD tune pro but wasnt quite sure which tests i needed to run. Health status was good. Ran the quick scan of the bad sector test. do i need to run benmark ?
Sure run the benchmark too, will not hurt. You have extended test too. In SMART report look for "Relocated" sectors, that shows history of eventual bad sector problems.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home made
    CPU
    AMD Ryzen7 2700x
    Motherboard
    Asus Prime x470 Pro
    Memory
    16GB Kingston 3600
    Graphics Card(s)
    Asus strix 570 OC 4gb
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 960 evo 250GB
    Silicon Power V70 240GB SSD
    WD 1 TB Blue
    WD 2 TB Blue
    Bunch of backup HDDs.
    PSU
    Sharkoon, Silent Storm 660W
    Case
    Raidmax
    Cooling
    CCM Nepton 140xl
    Internet Speed
    40/2 Mbps
    Browser
    Firefox
    Antivirus
    WD
Sounds like you are making progress with Count Mike; however, I forgot to mention two important items regarding my previously described issue (which sounds much like yours):

1. My hard drive only exhibited that behavior after a long "power off" duration.
2. All diagnostics revealed no issues. SMART data was clean as well.

So, if you end up in the same boat (as above), try this:

Do three consecutive "cold boots." See if the first one fails and one of the next two work fine. BTW, does this also happen on a restart?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1.1 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
My SMART data seems to check out ok, here are some pics of the tests that were completed via HD Tune Pro. Yes, this does happen on a restart... Does GPT have any advantage over MBR for secondary hard drive? Do you think it would have any effect to reformat the secondary hard drive?

24-April-2014_05-15.png24-April-2014_05-18.png24-April-2014_05-20.png24-April-2014_05-22.png24-April-2014_15-37.png
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    windows 8.1
Hdd looks just fine to me.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home made
    CPU
    AMD Ryzen7 2700x
    Motherboard
    Asus Prime x470 Pro
    Memory
    16GB Kingston 3600
    Graphics Card(s)
    Asus strix 570 OC 4gb
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 960 evo 250GB
    Silicon Power V70 240GB SSD
    WD 1 TB Blue
    WD 2 TB Blue
    Bunch of backup HDDs.
    PSU
    Sharkoon, Silent Storm 660W
    Case
    Raidmax
    Cooling
    CCM Nepton 140xl
    Internet Speed
    40/2 Mbps
    Browser
    Firefox
    Antivirus
    WD
Do you think it would have any effect to reformat the secondary hard drive?

I thought the desktop icons in question were actually pointing to locations on that secondary hard drive. However, if I read incorrectly, why not just unplug that secondary drive for a test. That should prove something.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1.1 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
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