Windows 10 freezes randomly

JW0914 said:

You don't have to purchase Windows 10 if you had a legitimate key for Windows 7/8. You can download the ISO via the Windows 10 media creation tool, which will also create a bootable usb if you select to do so. As long as you upgrade first and verify Windows 10 shows activated in Settings, you can perform a clean install.

You can try the steps I listed earlier, as they may work. There are people who have upgraded to Windows 10 and are running the upgrade without issue, albeit I've only found two who have successfully done so, and I believe both were utilizing new[er] hardware. I'm not sure how you're using the device as an AV Center, however if you were previously utilizing media center and liked it, you'll need to stick to either 7 or 8.1 since media center was retired with Windows 10...albeit with Windows apps now seamlessly built into the OS, I think AV/HT PCs benefit more from Windows 10 (or you could get the best of both worlds and use the free edition of VMware to run Windows 10 in one VM and *nix OS/FreeNAS/Android in another VM

Well I have learned an immense amount in two days! I must say that here in the UK, having read a multitude of computer magazines about upgrading to Windows 10, I have never once seen the suggestion that one must make a subsequent clean install to make it work properly. Definitely I have never seen any Microsoft info on this. I appreciated the need to upgrade to ensure the windows key is registered into W10 but did not realise the next steps. If this had been made clear (or I had researched it) I would probably never have started but now I am here I will press on.

In practice I suspect most non-literate users will stick with what they have, after all many still use XP. My final annoying postscript is an Australian friend who only really know how to switch his laptop on told me two weeks ago that he has Windows 10 now but does not quite know how he got it and it seems to work...............must be the Ozzie sun!

Thanks to everyone for their help and wise counsel.

Spig10 said:

Well I have learned an immense amount in two days! I must say that here in the UK, having read a multitude of computer magazines about upgrading to Windows 10, I have never once seen the suggestion that one must make a subsequent clean install to make it work properly. Definitely I have never seen any Microsoft info on this. I appreciated the need to upgrade to ensure the windows key is registered into W10 but did not realise the next steps. If this had been made clear (or I had researched it) I would probably never have started but now I am here I will press on.

In practice I suspect most non-literate users will stick with what they have, after all many still use XP. My final annoying postscript is an Australian friend who only really know how to switch his laptop on told me two weeks ago that he has Windows 10 now but does not quite know how he got it and it seems to work...............must be the Ozzie sun!

Thanks to everyone for their help and wise counsel.

It is rather unfortunate it's left out that due to the previous iterations system critical drivers being copied over, it's recommended to clean install... or something to that effect.

The issue isn't Windows 10, as Windows 10 will function perfect when upgraded from Windows 7 or 8, and you can demonstrate this by installing Windows 7 or 8 in a VM and then upgrading the VM to Windows 10, as VM's don't require drivers to function in the fashion most users are familiar with. The problem arises from drivers, as all of the previous Windows version's drivers are copied over to the new windows directory. To simplify this, when an upgrade is performed it's around 75% new OS, 25% old OS. If you bring up my profile and click on my previous posts, scroll back to some of the first posts I made after I registered, as many explain this.

Almost all who've had issues are under the impression it's because of Windows 10 and they often state they never had this problem on Windows X. Essentially, drivers are programs that allow hardware to communicate with the OS... in other words, they're critical to the user experience. Without drivers, you not only wouldn't be able to interact with the OS, you wouldn't be able to see the OS. Windows 7/8 system critical drivers [drivers for anything attached to the motherboard] are not compatible with Windows 10 and when Windows 10 is forced to run with them installed, instability and wonkiness follows.

For any user to take the stance they should remain on a prior OS iteration has either been massively misinformed, or has not taken the time to fact check what they've been told. Again, Windows 10 is not the problem... users' failures to educate themselves on the proper way to install Windows are. I pity anyone still running XP as I will guarantee if one is, and they don't have a corporate contract, they've been hacked and any personal information and photos have been siphoned. Windows XP is insecure and has been since April 2014. Windows updates don't just fix bugs and exploitable code... they point a big red arrow at how to exploit a PC running any Windows version that hasn't applied the patch yet.

When I was assembling this PC I had considerable problems with it. The first mobo had a badly corrupted BIOS and it's USB drivers where so screwed up I could not fix it. Amazon sent me a new one. Part of the problem was the BIOS for some odd reason would not recognize the Samsung EVO 850 250GB SSD which I intended to use as the boot disk. I like having a hard copy of an OS. except for this occasional freezing things seem to be working fairly well. Right now I am in the innards of a 1952 RCA-Victor Strato-World radio I'll address this PC after I get this vintage portable refurbished. Frankly I use my iPad more then this PC. Most of AV duties have been taken over by the Apple TV, and Roku. but I still have 9TB's of stuff on HD's.

JW0914 said:

I can understand your point of view, however the most likely reasons for Microsoft to not address this are twofold: first, it's not their responsibility and second, they assume end users will take the 15 - 30 minutes to research how to install an OS. Microsoft spent millions doing this for users with Windows 8, and, like any profit driven business, need to justify such an expenditure. It would be different if Microsoft was charging users for Windows 10, but they're not.

Windows 10 is far better OS than Windows 8.1 and is vastly improved to work efficiently on both old to new hardware. Windows has always been meant to be installed as a clean install, and has always been recommended to do so. Technically, you can upgrade to a new version of Windows and not experience issues, however it requires tens of hours to do so, as you would need to manually comb the entire OS for the sys and dll files for previously installed system critical drivers. In comparison, it takes ~4 hours to perform a clean install properly and reinstall all drivers and software.

• It really comes down to a simple question: Would an end user rather spend ~4 hours to do an install the right way, or would they rather do it the easy way and then spend hours troubleshooting the resulting problems they're almost guaranteed to have.
  
  • In other words, it's simply far more efficient, and less of a headache, to reinstall Windows and do it properly.

Your issue is a result of not clean installing, or if you did, not doing it properly.

You can try the following, but if it doesn't solve it, you're going to need to clean install, following the proper clean install procedure.

1. Go to the component manufacturer's website and download the full, offline version of the installer for your GPU. Once it'd completely downloaded (should be a package exceeding 250MB in size, and if it's only a few MB, then you've downloaded the online installer)
2. While booted into Windows, non-safe mode, open up device manager, select the graphics card, select uninstall and tick the box at the bottom that states to uninstall the installation files.
   
   • Prior to rebooting, disconnect fully from the internet (if you use wifi, disable it, if using a LAN cable, unplug it)
   
   
3. Once rebooted, open up device manager and verify it shows only a basic microsoft video driver and wait ~5 minutes, as you need to verify Windows isn't going to auto install it's own drivers again (which shouldn't occur if you ticked the box to delete the install files).
4. Once you've verified Windows is not going to auto reinstall the drivers, open up the offline installer you downloaded and reboot once the install has completed.

If that doesn't solve your issue, you're probably going to need to clean install. Also, F8 during POST hasn't functioned since Windows 8 due to the lag it causes. You can enable it via bcdedit, but you will lose the ability for fast boot.

I believe Nvidia offers a cleanup utility.... if not, google "Nvidia cleanup utility" and see if someone's made one. Removing registry entries isn't advised as it doesn't guarantee the files have actually been removed, only the registry entries to those files have been removed. This is problematic since the dll's could still be loaded, even without registry entires.

This really got my attention.. So I followed the above advice.. to the letter... even ran driver uninstaller after the entire uninstall process and it found more files and deleted them ... BUT !!! When I went to reinstall the current version of the NVIDEA drivers from the stand alone package ver 361.75 ... there was an error message indicating THE DRIVER SOFTWARE WAS NOT COMPATABLE WITH THIS VERSION OF WINDOWS..... then aborted the install !! The only way for me to get the drivers in was to reconnect to the internet, install G Force experience and download and install the drivers through that program.... VERY INTERESTING... wouldn't you say??

Ramoats said:

This really got my attention.. So I followed the above advice.. to the letter... even ran driver uninstaller after the entire uninstall process and it found more files and deleted them ... BUT !!! When I went to reinstall the current version of the NVIDEA drivers from the stand alone package ver 361.75 ... there was an error message indicating THE DRIVER SOFTWARE WAS NOT COMPATABLE WITH THIS VERSION OF WINDOWS..... then aborted the install !! The only way for me to get the drivers in was to reconnect to the internet, install G Force experience and download and install the drivers through that program.... VERY INTERESTING... wouldn't you say??

You didn't download the correct OS or architecture version... redownload the drivers and ensure you double check for which OS and which architecture

Hi,

I am having too many freezes and all sorts of errors that are beyond my capabilities. It has also mucked up my Brother MFC 490CW printer and I have tried to upload drivers again. It works and not works; moody.

Microsoft Outlook is also not changing my password and every time I change it and apply, it does not work.

REAL SHIT WINDOW 10.

Could Microsoft technician sort out my affairs please? I had help from Microsoft 2010 online chat and I handed over my computer for more than half an hour, she could not sort it out and told me to buy the repair/technical help package.

The lady was CHAN CHAN P and it was yesterday around 1600 hours. She was good for nothing but to lure people into buying the technical help package. Did she work for a private company or microsoft?

In the past, microsoft did help me sort out the programme. Let us see if they will this time. I am 83 years old.

I'm an idiot. . Your right... However.. because I followed your steps I still got a clean install of my graphics drivers.. Thank You...

nijjhar said:

Hi,

I am having too many freezes and all sorts of errors that are beyond my capabilities. It has also mucked up my Brother MFC 490CW printer and I have tried to upload drivers again. It works and not works; moody.

Microsoft Outlook is also not changing my password and every time I change it and apply, it does not work.

REAL SHIT WINDOW 10.

Could Microsoft technician sort out my affairs please? I had help from Microsoft 2010 online chat and I handed over my computer for more than half an hour, she could not sort it out and told me to buy the repair/technical help package.

The lady was CHAN CHAN P and it was yesterday around 1600 hours. She was good for nothing but to lure people into buying the technical help package. Did she work for a private company or microsoft?

In the past, microsoft did help me sort out the programme. Let us see if they will this time. I am 83 years old.

Are you receiving any send/receive errors, such as an error that states "to many devices synced"? If not, please proceed below.

As to the outlook password issue, I would double check your microsoft account on account.live.com, click on Security & Privacy, then under Account Security click on More Security Settings, and scroll down to two step verification. If it's enabled, you need to generate an app password and use that password in Outlook.

If you do not have two step verification turned on, verify you're entering the password correctly. I don't remember if Outlook provides the ability to show the password as you're typing, however if not, type out the password in a draft email, cut, and then paste it into the password box. If the password is still be denied, it's probably a firewall issue (albeit it could be a corrupt PST/OST, however I've never heard of a corrupt outlook profile preventing login).

As to the printer, it sounds like incorrect drivers are installed, especially if it worked on a prior Windows version and doesn't now. This exact issue, with incompatible drivers, is why it's recommended to clean install Windows 10 once a PC is upgraded and the user has verified it shows as activated under Settings

Hi Brethren,

This re-install took away Office 2010 files away too. I can't find my task data. It is supposed to be in .pst file. Anyone knows how to copy that file please in case I want to have a clean re-start?

I think, it will save me a lot of headache.

Anyone interested in Gnostic Christianity of living God?

Ramoats said:

So doing the repair reinstall won't achieve the same results as a clean install.. Correct ?

nijjhar said:

Hi Brethren,

This re-install took away Office 2010 files away too. I can't find my task data. It is supposed to be in .pst file. Anyone knows how to copy that file please in case I want to have a clean re-start?

I think, it will save me a lot of headache.

Anyone interested in Gnostic Christianity of living God?

This is not a religion forum, please do not discuss religion on this forum. There are forums for religions and the religious... this is not one of them. Please edit your comment to remove your last question.

The PST file should be located within your documents folder, and I believe it defaults to the folder of Documents\Outlook Files. I haven't used 2010 since 2013 was released, so there is a possibility the default location was different... you should be able to ascertain the default location of PST files on google. OST files are a different story however (OST files are for any free services, such a outlook.com/hotmail.com/live.com gmail, etc.), and these are stored in C:\Users\UserName\Local\Microsoft\Outlook