Windows 10 freezes randomly

It's funny how I've been seeing more Windows 10 issues on Intel platforms more than AMD, as I have an AMD system and I haven't had one single issue.

One common problem I've seen on Intel platforms that causes system freezes on Windows 10 is the system has issues with the Intel Rapid Storage Technology. I've seen this morely happen on the new skylake platforms but not so much on Z97 systems.

Also system freezes are a lot of times caused by bad CPU settings in the BIOS, such as maybe the voltages and settings aren't properly set if users are overclocking.

On all AMD systems I've built, I've had no issues with Windows 10. It's a shame as Intel is supposed to have a better performance rating, but more stability issues.

Also some Mobos dont have RAID support for Windows 10, so not much driver support on older platforms.

Also as noted, driver issues cause freezes, or faulty hardware.

lmaneke said:

It's funny how I've been seeing more Windows 10 issues on Intel platforms more than AMD, as I have an AMD system and I haven't had one single issue.

One common problem I've seen on Intel platforms that causes system freezes on Windows 10 is the system has issues with the Intel Rapid Storage Technology. I've seen this morely happen on the new skylake platforms but not so much on Z97 systems.

Also system freezes are a lot of times caused by bad CPU settings in the BIOS, such as maybe the voltages and settings aren't properly set if users are overclocking.

On all AMD systems I've built, I've had no issues with Windows 10. It's a shame as Intel is supposed to have a better performance rating, but more stability issues.

Also some Mobos dont have RAID support for Windows 10, so not much driver support on older platforms.

Also as noted, driver issues cause freezes, or faulty hardware.

The issue has less to do with the cpu and bios settings, and more to do with system critical drivers. Users are running upgraded installs and not clean installing, coupled with certain component manufacture's Windows 10 drivers that werent QA'd fully.

True. I guess I can say that I had upgraded from Windows 8.1, but told the installer not to keep anything. I've done other systems with upgrades with no issues, so it must not be related to my platform.

Hope the other users having issues can find fixes

Interestingly I noticed a couple of Win 7 optional updates available this morning that the K articles implied the updates improved the upgrade to Win 10...

I disabled AMD quiet and cool in the BIOS and most of my freezing issues stopped. I believe the remainder were associated with a MS USB 3.0 driver that was not really compatible with my USB 3.0 device. I found the correct driver from the manufacturer and installed it (with great difficulty because the damn MS driver kept re-installing). Once properly installed, the remainder of the freezing stopped as did my WIFI issues (which were connected to a USB 3.0 port). I also disabled any possibility of my computer powering down the USB ports. No freezing since all this was completed and my wireless connection is solid as is my internet connectivity. I am back to being very happy with Windows 10.....until the next major update steps on my working drivers again with incompatible MS drivers....

lmaneke said:

True. I guess I can say that I had upgraded from Windows 8.1, but told the installer not to keep anything. I've done other systems with upgrades with no issues, so it must not be related to my platform.

Hope the other users having issues can find fixes

That doesn't matter... it's still an upgrade. An upgrade, for simplicities sake, is essentially a repair install. All it does is replace files in the win directory, upgrade a few select folders in program files, update the user environment registry, etc. All of your program and drivers are kept, and it's the latter that poses the issue. No system critical drivers, except for the CPU chipset and IMEI drivers, from Windows 8 are compatible with Windows 10. This is why a clean install is necessary, however a clean install isn't simply formatting the partition and reinstalling Windows... there's a specific clean install procedure that must be adhered to, which is:

Disconnect from internet (and do not connect back until after the third step, Windows Updates) -> Windows Install -> System Critical Driver Install. rebooting after each install (Chipset, IMEI, RST, OEM CPU graphics driver [if they offer a Win 10 version], component manufacturer's video driver [i.e. Intel's or AMD's], OEM GPU drivers, component manufacturer's GPU drivers, Audio, LAN, WiFi, BT, Input drivers [i.e. touchpad, integrated webcam, etc.], OEM control software) -> Windows Updates -> Internet Security Software -> Any other software

It must be understood the only reason one must upgrade first is to register the motherboard's hardware ID with Microsoft. It has never been recommended to run an upgraded install because upgrades always cause instability in the system. It may or may not show up right away, but when the issues do occur, and they will occur, you'll be chasing your tail for weeks trying to narrow down what the issue is.... then another issue will pop up, and you'll do the same thing over again. A clean install takes 3 - 4 hours to do right, you take a WIM of the system prior immediately following the Windows update step, saving the image as base.wim, which provides you a way to bypass the clean install procedure in the future. You then take another WIM following the last step, once you've gotten all applications installed and the system settings the way you want them. This offers you a restore image you can restore to should a problem arise that requires a repair install.

AlphaStealthSYS said:

I disabled AMD quiet and cool in the BIOS and most of my freezing issues stopped. I believe the remainder were associated with a MS USB 3.0 driver that was not really compatible with my USB 3.0 device. I found the correct driver from the manufacturer and installed it (with great difficulty because the damn MS driver kept re-installing). Once properly installed, the remainder of the freezing stopped as did my WIFI issues (which were connected to a USB 3.0 port). I also disabled any possibility of my computer powering down the USB ports. No freezing since all this was completed and my wireless connection is solid as is my internet connectivity. I am back to being very happy with Windows 10.....until the next major update steps on my working drivers again with incompatible MS drivers....

It sounds as though the chipset drivers are missing, or were installed, but not as the first driver install, or the BIOS is lacking compatibility with something within Win 10 (have you checked to see if your OEM offers a BIOS update, as that's where I would start). If your OEM doesn't have a BIOS update after 7/28/2015, and your device is still supported by the OEM (build cycle support), I would contact tech support and mention the issue and ask how to submit a bug report to the OEM.

So are you saying that I should do a clean install on my system even though it's running properly?

I've been a computer technician for 10 years, and I never advise any of my clients to do upgrades. I only like doing clean installs of Windows, to avoid potential problems.

Although when I did this upgrade, since I didn't have any issues I just left it alone, although I may do a clean install just to avoid any future issues.

lmaneke said:

So are you saying that I should do a clean install on my system even though it's running properly?

I've been a computer technician for 10 years, and I never advise any of my clients to do upgrades. I only like doing clean installs of Windows, to avoid potential problems.

Although when I did this upgrade, since I didn't have any issues I just left it alone, although I may do a clean install just to avoid any future issues.

I wouldn't recommend anyone who's not having issues to do a clean install, however if one does begin having issues, it's simply far more convenient and efficient for the end user to perform a clean install. It takes a handful of hours to do a clean install, versus the hours someone could spend trying to troubleshoot an issue that's more likely than not tied to the upgrade and left over drivers and still not have any further clue on how to troubleshoot or fix whatever the issue is at the end of several hours.

I do however recommend that when one does do a clean install, to ensure they create the two WIM images mentioned earlier, as doing so prevents a user from ever having to bother with a clean install again. To create a WIM of the system partition, one must boot into WinRE or WinPE and issue the following command:

dism /Capture-Image /ImageFile:Z:\Base.wim /CaptureDir:C:\ /Name:"Windows 10" /Compress:Max /NoRpFix /CheckIntegrity /Verify /ScratchDir:Z:\Temp

• ScratchDir must be set, as WinPE/WinRE only assigns 32MB (IIRC), which is far too small and will cause the capture to fail.
  • Ensure you create the directory named "Temp" on Z:\ prior to issuing the command. You could just specify Z:\, however it's cleaner to assign it it's own directory.
• Z:\ is the drive the image is being saved to
• C:\ is the partition being imaged, and depending on your disk layout and whether your system partition is on HDD0, C:\ may not always be the system partition in WinRE/WinPE. Simply type "notepad", then CTRL+O, to see what drive letter the system partition has been assigned. One could also use DiskPart and issue the command "list vol"

Good to know. Thanks.

I just joined the Forum and am both horrified and depressed, (not by the Forum I hasten to add!) I have finally, after multiple attempts, managed to upgrade my Dell laptop to W10 from W7 and like the look of it. However I am now getting freezes within 3 to 5 minutes of start up. The screen simply freezes, the mouse moves but does not work and the clock stops. Ctrl-Alt-Del does not work and the power button is needed. It then restarts fine. I have now trawled multiple solutions, checked drivers, power management etc. to no effect.

This is maddening as I now find hundreds of posts with the same problem (indeed this one has reached page 37!!) with a similar number of solutions. I can perhaps understand some of these going back to summer 2015 but I have just upgraded in February but not a murmur from Microsoft about any possible issues. Further annoyance is that W7 worked fine on my laptop so I am about to roll back and presumably the only sensible way to get W10 is to do a complete install which means starting from scratch. If that is the solution then, subject to funds, I may as well upgrade to a new laptop with W10 and be done with it!