PC Freeze - Applications Open with No Interaction

[RuanSmit]

Do an in-place upgrade.
Download the latest Windows 10 ISO with the Media Creation Tool. Save the ISO.

Double click the ISO to mount it.
Open the ISO in your This PC (it's a virtual drive).

Start Windows Setup.
Do an install which keeps all your Apps and Data.

Update Windows afterwards. Test again.

Thank you, i'll try this as a last resort because I always have the "What if I lose all my photos,everything, pc self destruct etc. I know it wont happen but jees its just always there niggling in the back of my mind. Adding this to my arsenal,thank you

 

[RuanSmit]

Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU) V18.0.3.9 Released.

Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU) V18.0.3.9 Released. ChangeLog: AMD: AMD streaming Audio removal. AMD: AMD Link removal. All: More logs for when the impersonation fail on some process. All: Misc fixes and enhancements to the Interfaces removal. All: Fixed a DDU crash on system with bad registry...

www.wagnardsoft.com

Thank you Ponder, would it be worth it to see what is the most stable version and then just installing that? Ive seen articles where people would say "Dont do the consistent updates, only install the most stable after they've been reviewed"

Once my PC was going batshit crazy so I pulled the plug, pressed the power button about 10 times, plugged it back in again and the MF was right as rain. Some times science is more art than science.

Lol'd so hard at this, so true

Malware farming crypto in the background? Might be worth a check.

Thank you for the recommendation. Installed Malwarebytes and IObit's Malware fighter. 29 positives it found, 27 were Advanced System Care Pro (So disregarding) and then two minor ones (adware) which I removed. Any other software you recommend?

You may have the same problem I recently faced... go to your Event viewer -> System as soon as it happens (restart if you need to)

In my case it was the device - HID Compliant Headset. -> in Device manager go to Events and see if there were issues starting the device up, in my case I just disabled it, no noise since then, also don't need it.

I have disabled this device in Device Manager, no funnyness since then.

Ive been saving my logs but by techiness isn't up to scratch to see anything aside from a few "low warnings" in my opinion.

Would you mind if I uploaded my logs? Are Error screenshots better or exporting the log?

 

[Gozzy]

Thank you Ponder, would it be worth it to see what is the most stable version and then just installing that? Ive seen articles where people would say "Dont do the consistent updates, only install the most stable after they've been reviewed"



Lol'd so hard at this, so true

Thank you for the recommendation. Installed Malwarebytes and IObit's Malware fighter. 29 positives it found, 27 were Advanced System Care Pro (So disregarding) and then two minor ones (adware) which I removed. Any other software you recommend?



Ive been saving my logs but by techiness isn't up to scratch to see anything aside from a few "low warnings" in my opinion.

Would you mind if I uploaded my logs? Are Error screenshots better or exporting the log?

I am not sure what you have tried, there's a cool app though, you can download IOBIT's Driver Booster (Free version), update all your drivers and let us know how it goes.

Driver Booster 13 Free: Official Free Driver Updater Tool for Windows 2026

The best free driver updater for Windows 11/10. Fully detect and update all your old drivers for graphics, USB, audio, display, network, printer, mouse, keyboard and scanner. Free check driver updates now.

www.iobit.com

 

[UrBaN963]

I, personally, would never download anything to boost, update, improve, amend or modify drivers. In my experience they're usually malware, bloatware or some other form of trash I don't want.

 

[Herr der Verboten]

I, personally, would never download anything to boost, update, improve, amend or modify drivers. In my experience they're usually malware, bloatware or some other form of trash I don't want.

Not even scm that just perform driver and/or software updates?
(or) No pacman love from you

 

[UrBaN963]

Not even scm that just perform driver and/or software updates?
(or) No pacman love from you

Yea using Windows to update is fine, but I just manually download the latest driver from the manufacturer. That way I have confidence it's legit and current.

 

[Gozzy]

I, personally, would never download anything to boost, update, improve, amend or modify drivers. In my experience they're usually malware, bloatware or some other form of trash I don't want.

Been using it for years, pretty safe, just make sure you don't install the extra stuff during the setup wizzard... like I say, been using it recently as well, and works the bomb, I do normally uninstall it afterwards but its not really necessary (just don't like apps I use rarely) will install it if I need to again

 

[Gozzy]

Yea using Windows to update is fine, but I just manually download the latest driver from the manufacturer. That way I have confidence it's legit and current.

Windows updates are fine, but in my experience it doesn't always get the graphics card right, it normally lags behind in versions.

 

[UrBaN963]

Windows updates are fine, but in my experience it doesn't always get the graphics card right, it normally lags behind in versions.

Yea GFX drivers should always be kept up to date. I use GeForce Experience, otherwise manual updates.

 

[Gozzy]

Speaking of which...... I have 2 new updates

 

[ponder]

Thank you Ponder, would it be worth it to see what is the most stable version and then just installing that? Ive seen articles where people would say "Dont do the consistent updates, only install the most stable after they've been reviewed"

I update my gpu drivers every now and again when I remember to check, I'm in no rush to get the latest and greatest unless a driver addresses issues for a newly released game I wanna play.

 

[Gozzy]

Thank you for the recommendation. Installed Malwarebytes and IObit's Malware fighter. 29 positives it found, 27 were Advanced System Care Pro (So disregarding) and then two minor ones (adware) which I removed. Any other software you recommend?

So let me get this straight, you try the Malware application made by the same company (IObit) that makes DriverBooster, but you trust the malware app but not the Driver app?

Not so sure if you are that serious about fixing your problem or not

 

[|tera|]

So let me get this straight, you try the Malware application made by the same company (IObit) that makes DriverBooster, but you trust the malware app but not the Driver app?

Not so sure if you are that serious about fixing your problem or not

Advanced System Care is iObit too

 

[shotalot]

90% of the time its a faulty drive, are you using a hdd or ssd?

 

[rambo919]

It's definitely a win10 issue.

I have had the same problem across multiple machines in the past few weeks.

 

[|tera|]

It's definitely a win10 issue.

I have had the same problem across multiple machines in the past few weeks.

So let's diagnose it for fun.
Are all apps unresponsive?
Do you click and nothing happens?
Is it in a frozen state? The entire PC?
Any recent changes to software? Updates? Windows Updates?
Are any external devices connected? Printers? HDD etc?
Can Task Manager be used and what are the resources doing?
Is the PC malware free and does it have Defender or another AV?
Does a reboot fix it?
Does it happen on a Msconfig clean boot? With all services and programs, except Microsoft's disabled?
Does it happen in Safe Mode? Does it happen in Safe Mode with Netwokring?

 

[rambo919]

Everything except the mouse freezes.... you can click and move the cursor but nothing happens.

Though in a few I have noticed the freezing can be progressive where mostly it's almost instant.

In one when I force reset the one HDD was disabled on startup. In the same one the freeze one time happened before I even got to the login screen.

I think it might have something to do with the OS phoning home because it started happening just after a monthly update but of course it could also be related to the micro-stutters I have noticed recently on some PC's.

EDIT: it's not predictable, happens once a week or month randomly

 

[|tera|]

Everything except the mouse freezes.... you can click and move the cursor but nothing happens.

Though in a few I have noticed the freezing can be progressive where mostly it's almost instant.

In one when I force reset the one HDD was disabled on startup. In the same one the freeze one time happened before I even got to the login screen.

I think it might have something to do with the OS phoning home because it started happening just after a monthly update but of course it could also be related to the micro-stutters I have noticed recently on some PC's.

EDIT: it's not predictable, happens once a week or month randomly

I doubt it's a telemetry issue to be honest.
I don't disable telemetry generally (keep it at basic config though, not advanced) and I've setup 10 on a few older systems recently. Which don't have any of these problems mentioned in this thread.

You mentioned a HDD was disabled? Is this the internal, primary HDD or external?
If it's internal, it's not Windows. Windows can't access or change BIOS settings, it's not possible.

 

[rambo919]

I doubt it's a telemetry issue to be honest.
I don't disable telemetry generally (keep it at basic config though, not advanced) and I've setup 10 on a few older systems recently. Which don't have any of these problems mentioned in this thread.

You mentioned a HDD was disabled? Is this the internal, primary HDD or external?
If it's internal, it's not Windows. Windows can't access or change BIOS settings, it's not possible.

Secondary SSD, I had to physically unplug and replug it.

At first I thought it might be my primary HDD because windows sometimes starts to show problems on HDD's that are not primary instead of the actually faulty HDD.

But then similar freezes started happening on other PC's so it' can't be hardware.

 

[|tera|]

Secondary SSD, I had to physically unplug and replug it.

At first I thought it might be my primary HDD because windows sometimes starts to show problems on HDD's that are not primary instead of the actually faulty HDD.

But then similar freezes started happening on other PC's so it' can't be hardware.

Strange, but I've seen stranger with Microsoft products
It would be interesting to know what the common factor is between those PCs you mention.
Like I said, haven't experienced anything like it yet.