Strange Windows 10 Behavior

[bergmen]

I have a Dell XPS 8930 desktop computer bought in the last year or so.

At regular intervals (maybe 1/2 hour apart), the computer "freezes up". Mouse cursor locks in one location and nothing can happen for maybe 5-10 seconds. If I am typing something in an e-mail or whatever, everything is frozen.

Then it frees up and back to normal. Nothing is lost or anything, it is almost like a grand mal seizure or something.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance!

Dan

[Sharxfan]

If you have a hard drive activity light check it when this happens. My old ass Dell will lock up periodically when it starts to offload stuff to the spinning rust HD. If the light is staying on the whole time it kind of freezes HD writes may be your issue.

May want to lis tmore system specs like RAM and maybe hard drive type would help.

[dravnx]

You probably have something running in the background that is corrupted.
Can you correlate the loading of software with when this started? Can you get into the Task Manager when it freezes (control/alt/delete). Check programs and apps to see whats running and if anything is hogging Memory.

[bergmen]

Originally Posted by Sharxfan

If you have a hard drive activity light check it when this happens. My old ass Dell will lock up periodically when it starts to offload stuff to the spinning rust HD. If the light is staying on the whole time it kind of freezes HD writes may be your issue.

May want to list more system specs like RAM and maybe hard drive type would help.

Never thought to look for a drive activity light, the box is on my desk so easy to see, I'll check it out.

Some system specs:

Windows 10
Version: 10.0.18362 Build 18362
System Type: x64-Based PC
BIOS Version: Dell 1.1.12 12/26/2019
RAM: 16 GB
C: Drive - PC601 NVMe SK hynix 256 GB
D: Drive - ST1000DM010-2ZEP102 930 GB

Dan

[bergmen]

Originally Posted by dravnx

You probably have something running in the background that is corrupted.
Can you correlate the loading of software with when this started? Can you get into the Task Manager when it freezes (control/alt/delete). Check programs and apps to see whats running and if anything is hogging Memory.

I haven't loaded any software that didn't come with the computer (except SolidWorks but this was recently and I have not fired it up yet, anomaly started long before I loaded it). Also, printer drivers, PDF Reader, Google Earth Pro, Firefox, normal stuff.

I'll try getting into Task Manager, didn't think of that. I'll see if I can do that.

Stay tuned...

Dan

[Sharxfan]

seems pretty on point for a laptop. I wouldn't expect it to run badly or freeze at all with your specs. I would check task manager like previously suggested or if you do notice you drive light staying lit for way too long then once you run task manager on the performance tab there should be a resource monitor link that will let you see what it writing to the hard drive or using ram a little better than task manager.

Also, some websites are horrible with loading a ton of background ad-pages. also, chrome is bad about using a ton of resources if you keep it open for a while. My system is old and RAM limited and I have to close out of chrome every once in a while to keep it from eating all the RAM. It seems like for every tab it spawns two chrome processes.

[bergmen]

Excellent advice, fellas (and thanks)! Checking Task Manager is a good idea and the point of background ads is something I didn't think about. I only run three web pages out of Firefox full time (Calguns.net, BeechTalk and Photography-on-the-net). I log into BARF now and then but exit after looking around (or posting questions like this).

Thanks again!

Dan

[bosco12]

You're running a poorly built OS which is convinced that it's smarter than you.

I'm pretty sure you don't have all the Windows Updates applied that you could.

Settings -> Updates and Security -> Windows Updates -> Check for Updates

Manually click the check button until there are no available more to apply. You can skip the previews if you want.

[bergmen]

Originally Posted by bosco12

You're running a poorly built OS which is convinced that it's smarter than you.

I'm pretty sure you don't have all the Windows Updates applied that you could.

Settings -> Updates and Security -> Windows Updates -> Check for Updates

Manually click the check button until there are no available more to apply. You can skip the previews if you want.

10-4, doing that right now. Thanks!

Dan

[ctwo]

I get that on my company's Windows 7 machine. I figured IT was taking a screenshot of my activity.

[bergmen]

Originally Posted by bosco12

You're running a poorly built OS which is convinced that it's smarter than you.

I'm pretty sure you don't have all the Windows Updates applied that you could.

Settings -> Updates and Security -> Windows Updates -> Check for Updates

Manually click the check button until there are no available more to apply. You can skip the previews if you want.

All updates have been installed and I'm still getting the same issue, no change.

What is unusual is if anything is going on in the background I usually get the turquoise wheel with the marshmallow stuck to it spinning in cybermud. It doesn't happen here when it freezes up.

I'm beginning to get suspicious of the graphics card...

Dan

[rodr]

Would be good to know if it really is on a schedule. See if you can predict exactly when it will happen, or if it's random. That will help to narrow it down.

[bergmen]

Originally Posted by rodr

Would be good to know if it really is on a schedule. See if you can predict exactly when it will happen, or if it's random. That will help to narrow it down.

It seems to be random but I have not documented it. I should do that, thanks.

Dan

[Cincinnatus]

Unless you absolutely have to have it running all the time, I'd consider only running Google Earth when you need it and closing the program when you don't.

Event Viewer is also a useful tool, keep that running in the background and see if there's a correlation between the freeze-ups and certain programs having issues.

EDIT: for example, in EV, I get an error every hour at 34 minutes past the hour telling me that, "Product: Google Update Helper -- Error 1316. The specified account already exists."

If this is a personal computer, i.e. not a work-provided machine, consider saving off your data and re-installing the OS. If bought used, it's entirely possible that there's a key-logging program tucked away and sending data.

Got kids that use it? Have they installed any games or Torrent?

[bergmen]

Originally Posted by Cincinnatus

Unless you absolutely have to have it running all the time, I'd consider only running Google Earth when you need it and closing the program when you don't.

Event Viewer is also a useful tool, keep that running in the background and see if there's a correlation between the freeze-ups and certain programs having issues.

EDIT: for example, in EV, I get an error every hour at 34 minutes past the hour telling me that, "Product: Google Update Helper -- Error 1316. The specified account already exists."

If this is a personal computer, i.e. not a work-provided machine, consider saving off your data and re-installing the OS. If bought used, it's entirely possible that there's a key-logging program tucked away and sending data.

Got kids that use it? Have they installed any games or Torrent?

I rarely run Google Earth and if I do, only for a short amount of time, then I shut it off.

Never thought to have Event Viewer running. There are many categories, which one should I monitor?

This is a personal computer bought new from Costco. I'm reluctant to re-install the OS, it should be clean from Dell I would assume.

I'm the only user, no kids in the house.

Dan