Random Freeze/Hang (NO BSOD)

This freeze/hang has been going on randomly for months (I believe setting in after the Fall Creators Update; I'd deferred that one but it forced itself through 1/13/2018). Keyboard and mouse stop functioning, and music stops playing too. I can only get it back up and functioning by hitting the reset button on my case and letting it boot up again from there.

Only thing that stands out within the hour in Event Viewer is the unclean shutdown.

Although, it appears, to some degree, to possibly be related to Windows Updates downloading but I cannot be absolutely certain of that either. What I mean, is that they appear to coincide by log data (the unclean shutdown entry in Event Viewer and the Updates log not long before. As well as, occasionally, the updates applying before launching back into desktop from the reboot initiated from the reset). So far that is the only solid clue I've managed to gather.

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I HAVE: Manually checked every driver in Device Manager (also checking for newer drivers on ASUS). And tried running all Windows Troubleshooters. Nothing was found in either case.

I HAVE NOT: recently run ChckDsk and nor have I run a memory diagnostic either (I have had ONE hardware failure in 15 years; a janky OEM laptop HDD. This system ran beautifully under Win7. I am 99.9% certain this is SOFTWARE).

I AM running a slightly outdated BIOS [2201. Newer: 2301 and 2501]. Leery about flashing it.

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What may also be some relation, I have caught that at some point, the "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power" was checked on all USB hubs as well as all devices in Device Manager as well as within Power Options. I have since unchecked them all.

So far, I haven't had another episode but I must doubt that was the primary cause because music stops playing too (Motherboard > stereo on auxiliary: 3.5mm to RCA). Fairly certain that's unrelated to USB.

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As this may well also be related, I have had another longstanding issue (from day 1 of Win10): 100% Disk for 20-120 minutes after initial boot (occasionally also 100% CPU and 100% RAM). But not each and every single time, most of the time though. The culprit is always Antimalware Service Executable (Windows Defender Antivirus Service). I have tried absolutely everything, seems like, to no avail of resolution. MS Support is absolutely mum about it. No help nor information whatsoever. BUT, usage is normal otherwise and preceding this freeze/hang (I keep Task Manager open). I have also, repeatedly, run Windows Defender AND Malwarebytes and neither finds anything malicious. Although I haven't yet 'clean booted'/safe mode to scan. I really don't think this is malware, nothing else unusual is going on.

PS: My Win10 is the free version that installed itself over my Win7. I have yet to resort to a Clean Installation (considering it but not imminently), If that's any help.

As this section is for BSOD events you may get more help posting in other sections (General or Performance) of the forum.

I can comment on the 100% Disk, RAM and CPU usage. Most systems when starting will show elevated usage of system resources because such a lot of checks are going on in the background. On my system it usually last for about 5 mins but does not actually interfere very much - things just take a little longer to load.

You would actually benefit quite considerably from a clean install, of course to do this you would be wiping your hard disk and starting from scratch so you will need to have backups of all your data and programs.

It wasn't the fragmentation. Continued after.

Apparently this is likely due to the damn Meltdown and Spectre patch (see this thread; perfectly described). That barged into my rig on January 13th too (with the deferred Fall Creators Update). Guess there's no fixing it.

Would uninstall, but HA-HA! It'll just pop right back on. Anyway... =/