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#1
Post-boot freeze at desktop; can't figure out
I've been trying to install Windows 10 on an SSD; for ~2 weeks I've been occasionally getting a frozen computer just after boot at the desktop. I've had to clean install Win10 at least half a dozen times. I haven't figured out what causes it, but once it happens the cycle never stops without a whole new clean install. Repairs don't work. The computer can boot to a safe mode without freezing, but then freezes again if you come back to normal.
This morning, it froze and I forced a shutdown via power button, quickly used msconfig before the freeze hit, hid all MS services, disabled the 7, disabled 7 startups in Task Manager - lo and behold it came back to normal, so I thought I was narrowing it down. I re-enabled a few services (~3-4) [not startups] (one at a time, restarting the computer each time) and no problem. I re-enabled the entire remainder of services (~3-4) and it froze. I disabled those few again, runs fine without freezing, I'm thinking "ok, has to be one of these couple remaining." Then one-by-one I re-enabled and restarted + shutdown (yeah, both, because I'm worried about something like fastboot making the restart different than the shutdown) after each one (Skype Updater, Macrium Reflect Image Mounting Service, Google Update (gupdate & gupdatem). No freeze.
I enabled all 7 startups as well, msconfig is back to "normal startup", now it's not freezing. That's good it's running, but I can't narrow this down until it freezes again.
I used to think it was the event 10016 that I was finding in the event viewer, went through the steps to fix permissions in regedit and component services. Still had freezes after that. Looked at some other event #s, am not convinced overheating or a battery / power issue are causes since the computer is on right now the longest it has been all day (so it's currently pretty hot) and not freezing.
BIOS is most-recent (2013), NOT trying to auto-overclock, AHCI mode for the SSD (ADATA SP550), drivers all seem fine (no error messages, everything but this freeze operates correctly).
I wonder if it could be related to my external HD - Western Digital My Book Essential USB. For a bit, I thought maybe it was related to accidentally leaving it plugged in when the computer restart / shutdown, but I have tried to recreate that now that the freezing is gone and it won't recreate.
Then I thought it was maybe because that external drive was automatically captured by Defrag. But defrag doesn't show it when unplugged and I have not disabled that drive from the schedule right now. So it's still "in" defrag's list but it's not freezing, so I don't think that's it. I can actually run a defrag on it no problem. I want it to defrag monthly.
I wonder about Windows Defender - I read somewhere about it maybe being a problem. I tried to use the msconfig bootlog but there was no difference in bootlog_not_loaded files from freezing to not freezing. dxgkrnl.sys listed 4 times and wdfilter.sys, those don't change as I change services or startups. I thought maybe wdfilter.sys was a cause (that's Defender), but the computer froze even when it was _not_loaded. I have a screensaver that Defender says is suspicious, but I go in and "allow" it - I can forcibly start Defender, update definitions, run a quick scan, and not freeze.
I've wondered about Windows Update, but I updated last night at midnight (successfully, no errors nor hangups) and had installed a few things since, it was several hours of computer-on time since Windows Update when the freeze occurred.
Back at the beginning of this install I disallowed SSD indexing, I also disabled fast startup in power options and set it to never hibernate. In the past I have disabled hibernate through command and deleted hiberfile.sys; didn't prevent freezing back then; leaving it alone except for never hibernating through power options and it still froze today, so doesn't seem to be the issue.
The last thing I can think is either the Skype updater or the two Google Updaters. But I can't see how I'm going to get rid of them since I need to use Chrome and Skype. I do have LastPass and Chrometana extensions in Chrome - perhaps there's a chance that allowing Chrome to run as a background app for Chrometana purposes could be a problem, so I've given up on that, removed the extension, and disallowed background apps when Chrome is closed - only time will tell if I get another freeze.
Any other ideas on what the problem could be, or how to narrow this down? I am really not tech savvy, I only used msconfig or regedit or those things by searching for hours and following exact directions from this and other windows forums. I'm not even sure I properly attached the files I was supposed to in this thread:)
I know it's a long post, but I wanted to make sure you understand how many different things I've tried already.