W10 Keeps Crashing

[doodah]

Strange issue with my main rig. I leave it on a lot and a few times a month I would return to it, it looked fine until I started using it. The mouse moves but clearly something (possible Explorer) has crashed as it doesn't really respond; right clicking on the bottom toolbar shows options and it would let you try and open Task Manager but wouldn't, also cycling through Alt + Tab - the animation works but you can't actually switch. I had to physically reset the PC as a solution and then my PC weirdly cold boots the first time after, boots fine the 2nd time but telling me it shut down in a funny way and finally I reset in POST to boot up normally.

The crashing in Windows always happened when I am away but it just happened whilst using it. Not doing anything strange at the time - browsing, Spotify open. I have just cleared Explorer's history and run sfc /scannow and chkdsk in CMD - no errors. My PC just updated to W10 2004 but the problem existed before the update.

Any ideas?

 

[doodah]

Lol it's just done it again as I read your reply, it's listening!

This time Chrome was unresponsive, I could open and close AnyDesk, Word attempted to open but wouldn't, task manager was accessible and let me force close Chrome, it wouldn't let me sign out or restart the machine though.

Edit - I might be barking up the wrong tree here but wonder if it's hardware related. I remember when I got my 3700X I think I needed to up my SOC voltage slightly, and with a recent BIOS update my settings went back to default. Doing some more digging.

Edit - Event Viewer doesn't show much. It mentions the crash but only after the event, no logs just before or during the crash.

 

[doodah]

Fast boot ?

Que?

Try disabling hardware acceleration in Chrome, Im wondering if nvidia somehow messed up with a driver, which may have caused issues with the 3080 crashing as well. I would try the chrome acceleration and stop any gpu related software, I only use the nvidia drive not the geforce experience

Will give it a go, thanks. Hiliarious if it was that as I still have problems with Chrome on my Note 9 and have done for months.

 

[doodah]

Been using FF for a couple of weeks now and the problem subsided but it's getting worse again. It honestly feels like my rig is sick and getting worse .

I have noticed another symptom, when browsing the internet pages will become unresponsive or slow. On rare occasions I can restart the PC to counteract it but usually, I catch it too late so it blocks me from restarting through Windows.

I will re-install Windows, I just can't be ****.

Edit - for some strange reason, some of these hard restarts cause my Spotify to ask me for log in details again .

 

[doodah]

Are you running any overclocks? If so, remove them initially and see if it's more stable.

No, running at stock at the moment.

 

[doodah]

Have you tried disabling fast startup?

https://www.windowscentral.com/how-disable-windows-10-fast-startup

Get your drives up to date as well as Windows. Hopefully this isn't hardware

Disabled and I reverted all settings to default just in case (only changing the memory speed back to 3600 and stealth mode for the RGB). A new issue seems to have popped up, I am constantly getting the disconnected Windows sound play as if someone is pulling out a device repeatedly. I think that may be more e.g. my mouse cable is damaged etc.

 

[doodah]

Have you tried disabling fast startup?

https://www.windowscentral.com/how-disable-windows-10-fast-startup

Get your drives up to date as well as Windows. Hopefully this isn't hardware

Disabled but had another episode last night. It was after leaving the computer unused for several hours, started using it again and noticed YouTube was stalling/skipping (audio was fine). The screen did that thing again where it dims so instantly realised what it was but it was too late, restart and shut down stopped working.

 

[doodah]

On 2004 now.

Do you use the same extensions on both FF and chrome? Could be a malicious one.

Any resources being hogged in task manager when it crashes/stutters?

Up to date chipset drivers for AMD?

I'm assuming it never actually BSODs?

Yeah, no BSODs. Only installed a couple of ad-blockers on FF and will note down task manager behaviour next time.

Edit - and just installed latest chipset drivers.

 

[doodah]

Will check out ad-blocker(s) and I haven't tried rolling back to 1901 - will have that as a last resort.

Thought I was having another episode again as the forum was acting really weird and it seemed like the 'internet unresponsive' symptom, all fine now and just realised the NDA for the new Ryzen chips has just lifted so that might explain why OcUK was being slow .

 

[doodah]

Why is rolling back your last resort? It is very easy. You go to settings and click on roll back.

you don’t loose any data or programmes and settings.

Because my HTPC **** the bed going to 2004 and then even more so with my subsequent attempts to roll back a few weeks ago. 2004 must have changed or reset my power/sleep settings as the computer now does so, no more episodes either (yet).

 

[doodah]

Got to ask - why on Earth do you leave your PC switched on all the time?

I may be Old School but I reboot my main system at least once every 24 hours - it isn't a server.

As it happens, I almost always switch off my PC before going to bed and my (Linux) server has not been switched off for ages

I use it as a secondary computer whilst working from home and unless I am out on a cycle at the weekend, usually leave it on during parts of the day. It goes off at night/if I am out of the house more than a few hours.

 

[doodah]

A new twist I have discovered. I can't left click/interact with the speaker icon to change the volume on the toolbar. Nor the LAN icon I think, right click works on both. As I type this, the Start button won't respond by a click either (pressing the button on the keyboard works fine).