Computer freezes on normal tasks

Winver: 20H2 OS build 19042.804

Since about 2 weeks ago, my PC started freezing while I'm browsing, opening a folder, opening a desktop app like Skype or Slack, or anything really.

This happens randomly. I could have a day without any issue, but more often than not, I'll have a freeze at least twice a day.

For example, I can have a company meeting using Hangouts and I'll try to open a folder or an app and then the mouse and keyboard are no longer responsive, the cam of the other people in the chat is frozen but the voice chat is still active. I can hear them but I didn't check if they can hear me.

Since this happened too many times, I decided to seek help and ask here if anyone can please help me figure out what's wrong.

I attached logs.

Thank you.

GIL-PC-(2021-02-15_19-14-52).zip
systeminfo.zip

Hi, forgive the obvious questions:
- what changes, if any, preceded this?

No changes at all.

Any
- hardware change? No

- change of environment? No

- any update? (See your Update History) Windows update

- any installation/uninstallation? After windows update, I had to reinstall my SoundBlaster Z series driver.

Are you overclocking? Yes. The PC is OC for 8 years now, same clocks, fully custom water-cooled. No temp issues.

Is all your RAM identical and appropriate to your desktop? Yes. Using Corsair Vengeance. All matching. Using XMP profile. Not OC. I pass Prime95 24 hours stability test.

Have you had any unexpected power outages or shutdowns? No power issues. BSODs that required reset button

Do you normally shut down your PC in an approved manner? Always

Have you run hardware diagnostic checks on disk and RAM?
Didn't run Mem86 yet, but SSD check, Checkdsk, Malware-bytes and NOD32 scans. Clean.

----

I'll address the rest of your instruction after I have enough time applying them.

As for: "You appear to have a great many frequently crashing programs:"

I know and I have no idea why it happens and if those crashes appear during the PC freeze.

Also, SFC and DISM commands are all good, no errors.

dalchina said:

Thanks.
For test purposes recommend you don't overclock (run out of spec). That's a change- which update? Consider uninstalling it at least for test purposes.

These are the updates:



I used system restore to roll back the updates. At the end of the restore I got BSOD.
I did a reboot which resulted in subsequent BSOD where Windows forced me to try and resolve the problem due to multiple failed boots.

I then used my Macrium Reflect USB rescue media and used a back up which dated prior to the Windows update.
I keep 2 full backups which run once a month. 10 diff backups which run once a week and an incremental backup that runs daily.

After a successful restore and boot, I didn't update windows for 3 days where another freeze happened. This led me to believe the PC freeze is not due to Windows update, therefore, I decided to update Windows again, which is where I am at now.

"After restoring an image, do you also see as many program crashes?"

I don't get program crashes at all. Maybe windows reports on backend programs/services crashing, but nothing that I can see on the UI myself. Unless these crashes align with the computer freeze.
I think it's better if I clean the event viewer, do as you instruct me to, although it's going to be hard as I need this PC for work purposes, and wait for the next freeze and run diagnostic collection tool again.

Does Reliability History have any entries covering the freeze events?
In the search box,type in---dxdiag--- and check for any reports.On the Display page,note the driver version and the visit the maker's site only and download the driver,or a later version if available.
If you can,then use Display Driver Uninstaller [DDU] in Safe Mode and install the new driver.Often the driver package contains components which might not be applicable and can be left out.
Also have a look in Device Manager for any indications,in particular the Display Adapter.,which is often a cause of intermittent freezing via the Timeout Detection and Recovery [TDR].
The default setting is 2 seconds and can be checked in ---hklm\system\current control set\control\graphics drivers

joeandmarg0 said:

Does Reliability History have any entries covering the freeze events?
In the search box,type in---dxdiag--- and check for any reports.On the Display page,note the driver version and the visit the maker's site only and download the driver,or a later version if available.
If you can,then use Display Driver Uninstaller [DDU] in Safe Mode and install the new driver.Often the driver package contains components which might not be applicable and can be left out.
Also have a look in Device Manager for any indications,in particular the Display Adapter.,which is often a cause of intermittent freezing via the Timeout Detection and Recovery [TDR].
The default setting is 2 seconds and can be checked in ---hklm\system\current control set\control\graphics drivers

Dxdiag comes up fine. I need to update my GPU drivers, which I will do soon.
I'm very familiar with TDR from historical reasons, but this time around I don't have that entry under GracphicsDrivres.
I do have GracphicsDrivres\TdrWatch that is set to TDR_RECOVERY DWORD 1.

I need to manually add the value TdrDelay to GracphicsDrivres

- - - Updated - - -

Hi.

so I have been 3 days without a PC freeze until now.
I am still not able to separate OS from HW because of work needs, so I don't expect support. I still would like to provide my attached log collector, just in case and someone can see a leading cause.

The freeze happened while writing an email.

I saw this post and wanted to share my opinion since i am in (almost) the same situation.

I had my Desktop in which after 3 years i started to have these random freezes like the OP wrote. Official windows always up to date.
Started once in week but after some time went to two times per day. No event log at all. Could happen in idle too.

I was thinking of changing pc so i bought another in Christmas. i9-10900k, Asus Maximus XII etc.
Was working flawlessly and then a week ago it happened again.
I saw that KB4023057 was installed that day. This is the last update that OP has in his screenshot.
I was lucky enough to make a full system backup the day before. I restored it and stopped Windows updates for a month.
I do not know if this is the case since i am still searching but a week after (which is today) nothing has happened.

If anyone has another idea please let me know.