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System lag & multiple program crashes

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1K views 17 replies 3 participants last post by  OldGrayGary 
#1 ·
Alright, so I'm running what I believe to be the most recent version of Windows 10 (not sure how to check but I've installed all the latest updates and everything) and over the past night. Or rather, over the past few hours, I've been having a lot of problems with my operating system.

Problems in the vein of multiple programs either crashing or lagging (such as Paint Tool Sai and Steam) as well as simple actions like opening the task manager and emptying the recycle bin have sometimes made Windows Explorer crash entirely.

I even had one issue where after "shutting down" my computer, my actual tower continued being on until I forcefully turned it off. And after that I had to run a startup repair to get it working again.

Now, about three days ago I installed an SSD into my PC and put Windows 10 on it so that my OS would run faster. And it's been working a charm... Right up until tonight.

A bit earlier tonight I tried downloading a few things and found that the downloads (which were .rar files) weren't extracting properly. And one of the files didn't even download properly. When I tried to move one of the files to an external USB, the problems began.

Fast forward to about now and I've restarted my system a few times, run Start-up repair and am running a full, thorough Malewarebytes scan: It's currently at Heuristic Analysis and has found nothing so far. And I ran a standard scan previously and found nothing, then, either. But I don't know what else could be happening.

I also physically checked both my main HDD and the new SSD. There doesn't seem to be anything out of the ordinary with those. But then again I wouldn't know what to look for. I've moved the PC a few times recently to plug in some headphones, but it was gentle, easy-going movement and it's hardly the first time.

Also, I just tried to run DxDiag, and got some error messages telling me that it had trouble reading things in the "Input" section. I have no idea what this means.

Anybody got any ideas? Because I'm at my wits end here. I can't run half my programs for more than 10 minutes without them either locking up, lagging or just straight up crashing.
 
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#2 ·
If everything was still working just after the Dec. 8 updates (a fairly major update for Windows 10), and you have a system restore point from the time after those updates installed OK and the time the new trouble started: give System Restore a go.

I imagine you already know how to run System Restore, but in case you haven't had to navigate to it in Windows 10, here's how:
1) tap or left-click on the Windows Start button
2) select Settings
3) select Update & Security
4) select Recovery
5) select Advanced Startup
6) select Restart Now
7) you'll see a Choose an option menu, select Troubleshoot
8) select Advanced Options
9) select System Restore
10) select a system restore date from before the recent trouble began.

Hope it works (it's the quickest fix)
 
#5 ·
Quick update: After a day or two of no problems, this issue has risen it's head again and uninstalling/reinstalling my graphics driver isn't fixing it.

Anybody got any ideas? I don't think the system restore will work, either. I don't want to risk losing everything by going back. to the last point, because i'm pretty sure the last point was before December last year.
 
#9 ·
Quick update, and some bad news:

It seems installing the new SSD on my computer has wiped all my old restore points so I can't do a system restore.

If the problem persists I might just reinstall windows 10, although any other ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks for the continued help!
 
#10 ·
Sorry to hear that your system is misbehaving again....

If things were perfectly fine before you upgraded (less than 30 days ago)
If it is only recently that your system has struggled with errors/crashes/lock-ups - was it perfectly fine just before upgrading to Windows 10?

Some older systems aren't as well supported by their vendors for Windows 10 as others - this is especially true for laptops. Especially problematic for older computers are utilities for things such as power savings, remote support, hardware monitoring, etc. --- some of these utilities can prove unnecessarily redundant and cause conflicts with corresponding utilities built-into Windows 10 (especially if the manufacturers don't update the utilities).

If everything was working great before upgrading to Windows 10, and it has been less than 30 days since you upgraded, you have the option to return to your previous version of Windows. Your old system is saved in a flle ("Windows.old"). And you can restore things with just a few clicks:
1) Click or tap on the Windows Start Menu
2) Select Settings
3) Select Updates & Security
4) Select Recovery
5) Select "Go back to Windows 7" (or Windows 8 / 8.1)
You don't lose your personal data (docs, pics, music, etc.) ... it simply restores the operating system.

If nothing else, this gives you a working system again. And if trouble shows up in this previous version of Windows as well, then you know you are likely looking at a recent hardware issue.

Same as the above = but beyond 30 days:
If you made a system image before upgrading, you can use it to restore your previous system .... but you'll have to save any data added since then - and restore that data afterwards.

For both of these scenarios, you can still upgrade for free to Windows 10 until July 29, 2016. By then, if your error situations were caused by Windows 10 drivers' "growing pains", working drivers might be more widely available, and more "known issues" solved.
_______________

Clean install
If your system was not an upgrade, but a clean install: the amount of errors you experienced are a bit of a red flag. If your system is not self-built, visit the support website of the manufacturer, and see what the Windows 10 compatibility situation is for your exact model.

Diagnostics
And, laptop or desktop, it wouldn't hurt to run some diagnostics. You can create a Live CD with diagnostics & test some basic components ... the UBCD is a popular free tool ... MemTest 86+ is a good memory test ... and to test your hard drives, you'll use a diagnostic from each drive's manufacturer.

Several ways to go: I imagine you might have more questions: ask away if anything goes haywire.
 
#11 ·
Sorry to hear that your system is misbehaving again....

If things were perfectly fine before you upgraded (less than 30 days ago)
If it is only recently that your system has struggled with errors/crashes/lock-ups - was it perfectly fine just before upgrading to Windows 10?

Some older systems aren't as well supported by their vendors for Windows 10 as others - this is especially true for laptops. Especially problematic for older computers are utilities for things such as power savings, remote support, hardware monitoring, etc. --- some of these utilities can prove unnecessarily redundant and cause conflicts with corresponding utilities built-into Windows 10 (especially if the manufacturers don't update the utilities).

If everything was working great before upgrading to Windows 10, and it has been less than 30 days since you upgraded, you have the option to return to your previous version of Windows. Your old system is saved in a flle ("Windows.old"). And you can restore things with just a few clicks:
1) Click or tap on the Windows Start Menu
2) Select Settings
3) Select Updates & Security
4) Select Recovery
5) Select "Go back to Windows 7" (or Windows 8 / 8.1)
You don't lose your personal data (docs, pics, music, etc.) ... it simply restores the operating system.

If nothing else, this gives you a working system again. And if trouble shows up in this previous version of Windows as well, then you know you are likely looking at a recent hardware issue.

Same as the above = but beyond 30 days:
If you made a system image before upgrading, you can use it to restore your previous system .... but you'll have to save any data added since then - and restore that data afterwards.

For both of these scenarios, you can still upgrade for free to Windows 10 until July 29, 2016. By then, if your error situations were caused by Windows 10 drivers' "growing pains", working drivers might be more widely available, and more "known issues" solved.
I'm afraid I don't have any way to do this, to my knowledge. I have an old Windows 7 disk lying around somewhere, but the last time I tried the downgrade/upgrade tactic, it caused a solid two days of issues (which ended up being related to my harddrives.)

I'd rather not risk that again. But thanks for the advice on this!

Clean install
If your system was not an upgrade, but a clean install: the amount of errors you experienced are a bit of a red flag. If your system is not self-built, visit the support website of the manufacturer, and see what the Windows 10 compatibility situation is for your exact model.

Diagnostics
And, laptop or desktop, it wouldn't hurt to run some diagnostics. You can create a Live CD with diagnostics & test some basic components ... the UBCD is a popular free tool ... MemTest 86+ is a good memory test ... and to test your hard drives, you'll use a diagnostic from each drive's manufacturer.

Several ways to go: I imagine you might have more questions: ask away if anything goes haywire.
These might be my last option, however, I do have some more information:

These issues appear to be concentrated when I try to download large files, specifically over Steam. For instance I just tried installing Dark Souls 2. I got to the "Allocating space" part before my windows explorer and steam both stopped working.

I've reinstalled steam, but to no avail.
 
#12 ·
Hi again

I'm still not clear how Windows 10 arrived on your computer. Is it a new computer that came with Windows 10? (If that's true, then nevermind the "Go Back" idea).

If your system was upgraded to Windows 10 from an earlier system, don't worry you don't need to fuss with finding an install DVD, everything the "Go Back" function needs is already present on your hard drive ... in the Windows.old folder I mentioned. All Windows 10 in-place upgrades create that folder. The "Go Back" is only available for 30 days after the upgrade.
_______________

If you wish to try everything you can to fix the system as it is now, I still recommend trying some diagnostics, so that you don't waste time trying for software solutions to a hardware issue.

If the diagnostics give your hardware a clean bill of health, your next steps might be to go through your drivers, one by one, and try for updates. Especially check that your network device drivers are up-to-date (since some of the trouble happens with heavy network traffic). Check the virtual memory settings for your computer too, and the free disk space.

After that, if the problem still persists, you can try checking on the system files. From a command prompt with administrator privileges ("run as administrator"), type sfc /scannow

Another method is using a DISM method ... here's a link to a guide with screenshots on using that tool in Windows 10:
How to Use DISM in Windows 10

Have a go, and let us know if you've any discoveries/questions
 
#13 ·
This computer was built recently (middle/late last year) and I believe it was built with Windows 10 as the basic OS. Recently (beginning of Jan) I put in an SSD and reinstalled the OS onto that to increase the speed. But I was having no issues up until the last few days.

It seems like it's tied directly to Steam and steam's downloading process. I just did a repair on steam and I've had some lock-ups but no crashes yet.

I also neglected to mention that I recently got a new modem. I'm getting much faster download speeds with it, but that's also around the time my PC started having lock-ups. Do you think there's a connection there?

Also, thank you a tonn for continuing to look into this. If the steam repair doesn't work I'll look into running that diagnostic. I'm starting to get really frustrated with these problems. I appreciate you taking the time to help out.
 
#14 ·
It would be nice if it's just a problem with Steam, since that's fixable.

If it doesn't work, have a look in EventViewer (Control Panel, Administrative Tools), and see what is listed (click the top item in the options tree on the left to see the categories of information, and view "Critical" events and "Error" events ... you can also view the "Warning" events (mostly looking for "disk" warnings such as "the operation was retried".

You'll be looking for events corresponding to times when the system crashed or froze - or generally misbehaved :)

SSDs pretty much need the diagnostics from the manufacturer ... I haven't tried any "generic" tools yet on an SSD. I'm sure there will be some eventually, and might be a few already -- I just haven't used any yet.

If you suspect your modem at all, and if it is rented from your Internet provider, you can have them check it remotely. If you bought the modem, one way to see if it is the problem is to temporarily put your previous modem back to work for a bit [if it is still in working condition]. I don't expect the problem to be the modem, but it seems nice and thorough to check it anyway.

And... I've probably mentioned it already, but check the driver for your network card, and if necessary, uninstall/reinstall the driver to reset it's settings.

Good luck!
 
#15 ·
Alright, I've definitely isolated the problem to steam.

Ran some other checks and tests and the core of the problem is steam - specifically, steam's downloading.

Since repairing steam, I'm still experiencing major crashes when it tries to download anything, sometimes at complete random. Other times it downloads stuff without a hitch. But when it crashes, it renders itself impossible to close, even from the task manager. Attempting to end the process tree from the "details" tab brings up an error saying that it cannot find the specified file.

When this happens, everything else seems to work fine, but I can't shut down my computer anymore. Clicking the "shut down" button literally just does nothing so I'm forced to hard shut down from the PC power button, which I don't like doing.

So now I'm paranoid about downloading anything through steam. I've disabled auto-updates and I'm keeping a close eye on it but sometimes it downloads stuff whether or not I tell it to and locks up my computer.

I mean, it's a step up from literally crashing windows explorer (which is what it was doing before) but it's still a pretty major issue.

Going to try a full, fresh, re-install of steam and update on whether or not that fixes the issue.
 
#16 ·
I'm going to guess that the earlier problems with utilities and screen issues were fixed when you updated your graphics drivers.

Since your games aren't crashing on Steam (for that you could run the game in Steam's compatibility mode for Windows 8 or 7), but are rather crashing only during the time when it is downloading --- your removing/reinstalling Steam has a decent chance of success.

If it doesn't fix things, a reasonable next step would be to check on your network drivers and settings (assuming that you've already checked that your gateway/modem/router is OK).

Intel network drivers
If you have an Intel network device, try either the latest Windows 10 driver you can find, or try rolling back to a Windows 7 or 8 driver (temporarily ... until Intel provides a better Windows 10 driver). [It's a little complicated, but can be done ... you have to download a MS tool to temporarily stop Windows Update from constantly reinstalling a problematic driver ... the tool is called the Windows 10 "Show or Hide Updates" Troubleshooter Package (http://download.microsoft.com/downlo...owhide.diagcab).]

For any other networking device, go with the most recent available Windows 10 driver.

I also like to recommend a change in the Windows Update settings. Start Menu > Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update > Advanced Options > Change how updates are delivered > and turn Off the option for "Updates from more than one place" .... things are complicated enough without updates arriving from other PCs on your LAN or WAN ... especially if any malware is present. I don't like to overwork my antivirus unnecessarily. I prefer lower-risk where possible when networks are concerned.

If you haven't tried a diagnostic for your new SSD, I still recommend it (IF you can find one from the manufacturer) ... Your new drive is probably fine ... my experience with SSDs to this point is that they work wonderfully well when healthy, and fail spectacularly when not.

If you've been running 32-bit Steam, when you reinstall, give the 64-bit version a go.

Seems like things might resolve here soon....
 
#17 ·
Alright, so... New news: Steam isn't the problem after all.

I installed Steam onto my new SSD and to test, downloaded a game to that instead of my old harddrive. No issues whatsoever.

However, the moment I tried to move the already downloaded files to my old harddrive, suddenly I experience the same lock-ups and windows crashes that I've been suffering through recently.

I ran a disk check and found no errors. Also ran troubleshooting and again found no problems. My computer even ran a disk check on my old HDD and that apparently did nothing, either.

I even physically opened up my PC and double checked the wiring on my Hard drives and, once again, zilch.

I have no idea what the problem is but it's starting to worry me. All of my old files are on that HDD and it seems that every time I transfer something to or from it I run the risk of crashing my entire operating system to the point where I can't even shut down correctly.

I don't know if this is related: But every time I start up my computer, multiple programs insist on updating over. Even if I just updated them. Notably Navar Line, Steam and Malewarebytes (which, by the way, also detected no issues)

Any clue what the hell's wrong with my HDD?
 
#18 ·
Hi again

Sorry to hear the troubles are still being troublesome ... they do that, sometimes. No fun.

Diagnostics
Just to rule out trouble with the hardware, find & run diagnostics for each hard drive from their manufacturer's websites. The disk checking utilities in Windows aren't as thorough as the diagnostics from the manufacturer's.

Try a run of MemTest 86+ on the system memory, too. It's included in the free bootable CD tool "UBCD" (based on open-source Linux and freely available tools) Ultimate Boot CD - Overview

EventViewer
Did you see anything in the EventViewer logs?

Download Settings
Since in the past Steam is rather sensitive to download interruptions, were you able to change the setting so that when Windows Updates run, they don't download from multiple computers? (and so that your computer isn't constantly being used to download updates for other users) -- this setting is one of the first I turn off on all my customers' Windows 10 computers.

Drivers
New operating systems often have issues the first few months with drivers. For all sorts of devices. Since your worst issues are happening with large data transfers, double-check for updates for your BIOS, chipset, network, hard drive controllers ... etc. the works. There might be one we've missed earlier on, might as well make sure.

Let us know how the diagnostics & EventViewer go, especially.
 
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