PC freeze problem · DIGIT-ARC

This started just 4-5 days back and has become really irritating. I cannot use my laptop at all. I am posting some screenshots. Let me know what else I need to do.

The task manager screen doesn't always look like that but Disk Usage is always 100% now. And I am quite sure that is the reason my laptop is freezing very often.
Also, one the thing I noticed, when I disconnect from internet, the disk usage decreases as well and comes to 10% or so depending upon usage. Most of the time I see system process using disk but sometimes I see Disk usage 0.0MB/s for all the processes but still Disk Usage stays at 100%.

I have already cleared all the junk files from the system. Increased Page file size , Initial-1024MB and Maximum-2048MB. I have 6GB RAM though.

Going to do a scan from Malware Bytes and 360 Total Security tomorrow, will post results too if something comes up. Please tell me what all I need to do.

i5 3210, 6GB RAM, 1TB HDD is the configuration.

Thanks in advance.

Are you on Windows 10? System update running in background might be a reason for your high disk usage while connected to internet.

UPDATE : I am sorry. The disk usage was 100% even when PC was not connected to internet. Noticed it after posting the main post.
The OS is Windows 10.
Yesterday I scanned it through 360TS but results were normal. NOthing found. Will scan with malwarebytes tonight and update again.

The PC is really not usable now. HardDisk might be the culprit?? CrystalDisk Info shows normal Pending Sector count - 1. What else I need to see??

please provide more info..

share screenshot of disk usage in these.

Task manager > performance > Disk

Users> Disk usage (descending order)

TheSloth said:
UPDATE : I am sorry. The disk usage was 100% even when PC was not connected to internet. Noticed it after posting the main post.
The OS is Windows 10.
Yesterday I scanned it through 360TS but results were normal. NOthing found. Will scan with malwarebytes tonight and update again.

The PC is really not usable now. HardDisk might be the culprit?? CrystalDisk Info shows normal Pending Sector count - 1. What else I need to see??

Try limiting your Windows Update Bandwidth, and turn off P2P updates. One source (from google)

How to Stop Windows 10 From Using So Much Dat

Google is your friend

^The bold part clearly says PC freezes even when it is not connected to internet. Also, the problem is Disk Usage is 100% even when I am not doin anything, connected to internet or not.

TheSloth said:
^The bold part clearly says PC freezes even when it is not connected to internet. Also, the problem is Disk Usage is 100% even when I am not doin anything, connected to internet or not.

please provide more info..

share screenshot of disk usage in these.

Task manager > performance > Disk

Users> Disk usage (descending order)

TheSloth said:
^The bold part clearly says PC freezes even when it is not connected to internet. Also, the problem is Disk Usage is 100% even when I am not doin anything, connected to internet or not.

The P2P update part will increase disk usage *regardless* of whether your internet is connected or not., as it keeps trying to read & write to the disk(s) continuously. This is not like a torrent client. I've experienced it in person in a LOT of PC's at work., which are not connected to the net. Turn that setting off.... It will help your system performance.

Pirated Windows ? Could be possible something was already there in the ISO.

Thanks alot everyone for replying. I am unable to post any screenshot as the PC is working fine now and Disk Usage is low. But I will post the screenshot soon, as this problem is recurring. And sorry for the late reply.

- - - Updated - - -

PS : P2P update was already off and I have set my Wifi connection as metered one just 2 weeks back.

And I have original OS

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Disable unnecessary startup softwares.
Uninstall all AV's/Malwarebytes etc. Let Windows Defender handle your system for a bit.
Update your drivers once the system is usable.
Uninstall chrome.
Are you on Creator's update? If yes then say goodbye to battery life.
Are you using Home version?
Kindly list your system's specs.

1. That is done already.
2. I don't trust Windows Def, 360TS and MWBytes seems to be working fine for me.
3. Doesn't windows auto update everything in backgroud if needed?
4. I reinstalled it though, Firefox doesn't doesn't support Hangouts and I am too lazy to reset my password in Skype.
5. Not yet, Let's see. Seems we can't stop it from being updated.
6. Yes.
7. Laptop with i5-3210. 6GB DDR3, 1TB HDD.

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TheSloth said:
1. That is done already.
2. I don't trust Windows Def, 360TS and MWBytes seems to be working fine for me.
3. Doesn't windows auto update everything in backgroud if needed?
4. I reinstalled it though, Firefox doesn't doesn't support Hangouts and I am too lazy to reset my password in Skype.
5. Not yet, Let's see. Seems we can't stop it from being updated.
6. Yes.
7. Laptop with i5-3210. 6GB DDR3, 1TB HDD.

2. Don't trust them, trust me and remove them just for zeroing down the root cause.
3. Not all drivers are auto updated.
4. Uninstall that crap.
7. Which lappy? I hope it's not from Harassement-Packard.

billubakra said:
2. Don't trust them, trust me and remove them just for zeroing down the root cause.
3. Not all drivers are auto updated.
4. Uninstall that crap.
7. Which lappy? I hope it's not from Harassement-Packard.

LOL. This is internet.
2. Apart from that, I am satisfied with them. Also, I know those two softwares aren't the culprit of 100% disk usage, otherwise they would be listed at the top in task manager.
3. Ah, I need to update things this weekedn then.
4. I know its a RAM hog but I need that crap.
7. Samsung

TheSloth said:
LOL. This is internet.
2. Apart from that, I am satisfied with them. Also, I know those two softwares aren't the culprit of 100% disk usage, otherwise they would be listed at the top in task manager.
3. Ah, I need to update things this weekedn then.
4. I know its a RAM hog but I need that crap.
7. Samsung

Try safe mode next time.. and find which causes problem..

@TigerKing , Yes I will post here If I come across same problem again. Now it is happening for just 1 mins or so which seems normal. When I posted this new thread, PC was unusable for almost 4 days.

use perfmon from task manager
MBAM is good.
apart from CCleaner also use GlaryUtilities Glary Utilities | Glarysoft (one of the best cleaning app I use now a days)
occasionally check system events manager for any errors/warnings (eventvwr)

Ok everything was fine until today morning. I was taking backup of some of my game setups from my D:/ to my external HDD. At the sametime I typed a folder name in HDD's explorer's search bar to find it. PC froze immediately and after waiting for more than 15mins, I forced stopped copy operation, but eventually had to restart the PC assuming it will work normally

Since I did a cut paste, I lost the original data and very less data was copied to external HDD.

But cause I stopped the copy operation and then restarted the PC. My PC is super slow. Now it isn't even showing the empty/fill bar status for D: drive.

Everytime I restart I get this screen which says Repairing D drive. It takes more than 20mins to come to that screen.

Sorry I didn't create another thread as I feel it the same issue. Last time I was able to check task manager for the high disk usage but this time I am unable to do that. Since this all happened after the failed data transfer operation I am guessing it's my HDD again.

Please help me find a solution soon.

PS : my new WD external HDD gives only 19Mbps speed of data transfer. Is there any problem?? This whole issue might be cause of my external HDD??*uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170910/1fdf41b31141dbf8cf950e9a39f11b25.jpg

TheSloth said:
Ok everything was fine until today morning. I was taking backup of some of my game setups from my D:/ to my external HDD. At the sametime I typed a folder name in HDD's explorer's search bar to find it. PC froze immediately and after waiting for more than 15mins, I forced stopped copy operation, but eventually had to restart the PC assuming it will work normally

Since I did a cut paste, I lost the original data and very less data was copied to external HDD.

But cause I stopped the copy operation and then restarted the PC. My PC is super slow. Now it isn't even showing the empty/fill bar status for D: drive.

Everytime I restart I get this screen which says Repairing D drive. It takes more than 20mins to come to that screen.

Sorry I didn't create another thread as I feel it the same issue. Last time I was able to check task manager for the high disk usage but this time I am unable to do that. Since this all happened after the failed data transfer operation I am guessing it's my HDD again.

Please help me find a solution soon.

PS : my new WD external HDD gives only 19Mbps speed of data transfer. Is there any problem?? This whole issue might be cause of my external HDD??*uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170910/1fdf41b31141dbf8cf950e9a39f11b25.jpg

1. Is it a Desktop or Laptop?
2. What is your External HDD model?
3. Check your internal and external HDD health using Crystaldiskinfo or other available tool after you are able to login. Do post screenshot for that one. If possible, use some de-fragmentation tool like Defraggler for D: drive.
4. And 19Mbps transfer rate is super slow for modern type HDD. Try with another PC or Laptop for checking transfer rate.

Yes I am thinking to claim warranty for this after checking it well.
But first I need to start my system. I don't have a bootable Linux OS. Now I can't create one either.
Have a bootable windows 10 pen drive though, but it seems pointless. Tried several times.

I finally managed to start my system after 3hrs of wait. I have taken following snapshots. Notice that D:/ doesn't work . I can't open it. It says invalid parameters.

Guys I need data from that drive. Also I need my system back in working condition asap. I can buy a new harddisk if nothing is gonna work. May be I can get a case for the internal HDD and transfer data to new Internal HDD through Linux live OS if this faulty HDD responds correctly.*uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170911/233635e6db2e6d25eab7c165c912867d.jpg*uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170911/211d72a7150357ae5d604ca91dd22164.jpg

Now the disk usage is 50% in idle state.

W

Most likely your hdd is dying.Also in task manager always check windows processes to find out reason of high disk usage.Just for future reference,always delete/edit your hdd serial number whenever posting screenshot about hdd health.

First you need to copy any important data off this hdd to another hdd.Once that is done,the problem remains is of D drive.For that,first run this in windows command prompt: chkdsk D: /f & if this doesn't work then try these free partition recovery tools:
Free Partition Recovery Software - EaseUS Partition Recovery.
Free Partition Recovery Tool | MiniTool Software Solution
If the above too fail then last option is to use recuva to try to recover individual files but that may be a very long & tedious process.

I already checked the usage of apps. Nothing was suspicious as I have seen in 4mbps download the disk usage didn't cross 50%.

Now its stuck at 50%. Also, I am unable to use PC. It tskes 30mins to just to reach password screen. If I touch explorer then problem starts again as D: isn't working.

Taking backup is impossible as I can't go to even Settings , forget starting an app. Also, I doubt that Linux live distros will help me as the problem is the harddisk and not the OS.

Its been 3 days now and I can't open other drives too cause if this. Now I sm just waiting for the password screen to come for past 1hr.

Only way to take backup seems like I need to take it out and then connect HDD to some other harddisk.

Planning to order an internal HDD , confused between brand and models. I need my lap in working condition asap. Once I can start my laptop, I will take backup of everything. I did take half backup earlier. But if my whole HDD gets corrupted then I will loose a big chunk of data. That remaining data amounts to around 150GB.

PS: I can't find my HDD serial number in the screenshot posted by myself . Where is it??

W

In crystaldiskinfo top portion,below firmware,there is a box for serial number.Get WD Scorpio Blue 1TB 2.5" laptop hdd.Also always keep backup of your important data in another hdd.There is no 100% reliable hdd in world.

G

TheSloth said:
IAlso, I doubt that Linux live distros will help me as the problem is the harddisk and not the OS.

No !!

Linux live distro will help you a great deal..

use puppy Linux .. all you need is a pen drive/sd card with just 300mb space.. and comes with many softwares pre installed..

download tahr 64 6.0.6 ( 285 mb ) from here

Index of /puppylinux/puppy-tahr/iso/tahrpup -6.0-CE/

The OS will run entirely in your Ram .. , your hard disk won't be needed at all and after booting up , you can even take out the pen drive as well..

you just need to create a bootable pen drive .. do this on your friend's pc/laptop , if not available go to a cybercafe and make bootable pen drive there .. hardly takes 10 minutes if you have the OS file..

once booted up , just copy all the data from your internal hard drive to external hard drive..

you can even use this or any live OS as your "main OS" with a Save file/persistent file that will be saved on pen drive once you shut down
without the need of hard disk .. just requires a bigger pen drive .. such a great OS

W

I think he meant that if hdd is faulty then even live linux will not help because to recover data any OS must successfully read the hdd first which seems doubtful here.In any case there is no harm in trying but it is just that using this hdd as secondary hdd in another windows system is a better idea as there one can use partition/data recovery softwares easily which are relatively much easier to use compared to their linux counterparts.

I am in difficult situation right now. Don't have extra pendrive to create Linux bootable pendrive. Don't have friends nearby too. I have office daily and can go to friends' home only on weekend.
I was thinking I will order the new HDD today so that I can fix my laptop atleast by this weekend.

Also, whitestar said exactly what I meant. HDD seems unreadable. Even other OSes will hang cause of that, and unless we disconnect the drive, OS won't resume to normal. Have been in this situation before with pendrive and DVDs.

Thanks alot for suggesting the HDD. Is this the one?? Western Digital WD 1 TB Laptop Internal Hard Disk Drive (WD10JPVX)
Western Digital WD 1 TB Laptop Internal Hard Disk Drive (WD10JPVX) - Western Digital : Flipkart.com

Also, Scorpio name is only for blue lineup?? I see only imported one, blue 1tb, on Amazon, which is costly

W

Yes,on amazon it seems WD Blue 1TB 2.5" hdd is not available at usual price.If you are in a major city like delhi,mumbai,chennai,bangalore,kolkata etc then better get it from your city's major PC market as all these cities have one.Another reason for this is I don't trust packaging/handling of internal HDD by online selling/shipping companies in India.I would rather get it from a big shop & then carry it home in a bag after placing it inside surrounded by some protective material(like some clothes,newspaper stack etc).

^^ (not read all pots.)
You can try Hiren's boot cd and run windows xp from cd or pen drive (cd, pen drive - where you will install hiren's boot cd), which runs on RAM.
after that try to copy all contents.

Download Hiren's BootCD 15.2 | HBCD Fan & Discussion Platform
Filename: Hirens.BootCD.15.2.zip
Filesize: 592.5 MB (621283886 bytes)
ISO MD5: 7EFC81ADBBD551D56F6021C439C6837C
ZIP MD5: D342BBD6BF7554ABA24A376E41675DBF

if not worked..
then try this,
MiniTool Partition Wizard Pro Ultimate 10.2 BootCD
158AFE0EF165D2CA7FD5D74FB7B6BCBE958B3CF9

this will help you.

Thanks everyone for all the suggestions. I have finally fixed my laptop. Bought new HDD as suggested by whitestar. struggled a bit with installation as in office I can't create bootable pendrive neither can download big files, that's why took so much time. No nearby friends to help too. But finally i completed it.

Also, I was worried if I Win10 will be activated or not as I was changing the HDD but it got activated without any issues.

Now only thing remains is taking backup from the old HDD. Need to buy external case for it. Confused between quantum zero and transcend brand.

Thanks again for the all the help.

W

Use crystaldiskinfo free to regularly check your hdd.Also if your laotop has usb 3.0 port then buy a usb 3.0 case,it is costlier but worth it.Transcend is a bigger brand.Also just found this which has a unique design as far as usb cases are concerned:
*www.amazon.in/transparent-external...coding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=VJQEE30T3EGKCQ8J81TV
ORICO 2.5 inch Transparent USB3.0 Hard Drive Enclosure (2139U3)_2.5'' HDD Enclosure_Classic Storage_Computer Peripheral_ORICO - USB Storage Adapters, Chargers, Hubs, and More

Win 10 activation is saved on MS servers so once a win 10 is activated on any system,as long as hardware(more specially,motherboard of system) remains same you can reinstall win 10 on that system as many times as you want & it will be automatically reactivated after connecting to internet & getting activation info from MS servers.

I was thinking about this one.QuantumZERO QZ-HD01 USB 3.0 SATA Hard Drive Dock Docking Station for 2.5"/3.5" SATA I, II, III HDD/SSD/Hybrid drives up to 6TB, Supports UASP *www.amazon.in/dp/B011RFMOAK/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_9goYzbA74FEVA

Can be used in future with my future desktop.

And when I buy new system, I need to buy win10 again? Can't use the current one Even if I am using it only on one PC?

W

You can link your current win 10 activation to your MS Live account & after that you can simply transfer the license from one device to another by first removing older device from your MS Live account & then logging in with your MS account on new system.Once it is activated/license is transferred you can disable MS account on win 10 & go back to using only local account.

It is my opinion that using "closed" hdd dock is not a good idea especially in India because of the hot climate.A 2.5" hdd is alright but a 3.5" hdd is a big no.When I used one such "closed" dock for transferring some data from a 3.5" internal hdd I had to place the dock in front of water room cooler otherwise temps would have exceeded 55C easily.Even my laptop hdd easily reaches 50C in summer in room if water cooler is not running & only ceiling fan is running.It is better to go for a "open" type dock which at least allow heat to dissipate more compared to "closed" docks.
*www.amazon.in/ORICO-Dual-Bay-Docki...TF8&qid=1506341100&sr=1-47&keywords=sata+dock

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whitestar_999 said:
Use crystaldiskinfo free to regularly check your hdd.Also if your laotop has usb 3.0 port then buy a usb 3.0 case,it is costlier but worth it.Transcend is a bigger brand.Also just found this which has a unique design as far as usb cases are concerned:
*www.amazon.in/transparent-external...coding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=VJQEE30T3EGKCQ8J81TV
ORICO 2.5 inch Transparent USB3.0 Hard Drive Enclosure (2139U3)_2.5'' HDD Enclosure_Classic Storage_Computer Peripheral_ORICO - USB Storage Adapters, Chargers, Hubs, and More

Win 10 activation is saved on MS servers so once a win 10 is activated on any system,as long as hardware(more specially,motherboard of system) remains same you can reinstall win 10 on that system as many times as you want & it will be automatically reactivated after connecting to internet & getting activation info from MS servers.

What parameters do we need to check regularly in crystaldiskinfo? Are these parameters same for internal and external hdd's?

W

Most important parameters are reallocated sector count,current pending sector count,uncorrectable sector count.These are common for all hdd.However some external hdd may not display many of the usual parameters.e.g.latest WD Passport portable 4TB(& likely other capacity models too in this series) show only 4 parameters because WD has marked all other parameters as "hidden" in their hdd firmware(the values can still be extracted after following a complex procedure which I would not recommend to an inexperienced person as there are chances of data loss/hdd damage).

You can also check load/unload cycle count as this is also important.e.g.many laptop hdd & desktop hdd with power saving feature(usually 5400/5900 rpm models) have this aggressive setting because of which load/unload cycle count increases at a very high rate(3-4 times in a minute) which is not good as at this rate even with modest usage this value will cross 300000 mark quite easily.One can disable the power saving feature in such hdd by using crystaldisk info to set APM(advance power management) to max performance but you may have to do it at every boot/restart as some hdd forget/ignore this setting after a restart/reboot.

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whitestar_999 said:
Most important parameters are reallocated sector count,current pending sector count,uncorrectable sector count.These are common for all hdd.However some external hdd may not display many of the usual parameters.e.g.latest WD Passport portable 4TB(& likely other capacity models too in this series) show only 4 parameters because WD has marked all other parameters as "hidden" in their hdd firmware(the values can still be extracted after following a complex procedure which I would not recommend to an inexperienced person as there are chances of data loss/hdd damage).

You can also check load/unload cycle count as this is also important.e.g.many laptop hdd & desktop hdd with power saving feature(usually 5400/5900 rpm models) have this aggressive setting because of which load/unload cycle count increases at a very high rate(3-4 times in a minute) which is not good as at this rate even with modest usage this value will cross 300000 mark quite easily.One can disable the power saving feature in such hdd by using crystaldisk info to set APM(advance power management) to max performance but you may have to do it at every boot/restart as some hdd forget/ignore this setting after a restart/reboot.

Thanks. What are the normal values for those parameters?

W

There are 3 values for each parameter:current,worst,threshold.The last column is raw values(aka number of times that particular parameter happened & different from current & worst value.e.g.if sectors are reallocated 3 times then raw value is 3 but current & worst value may be 240 each,threshold value remains constant). When raw value increases,the current & worst value decreases & when current & worst value comes closer to threshold value it means hdd is dying.When any parameter current or worst value falls below threshold value,the hdd fails the SMART test.

Ideally the raw values of any sector count parameter should be zero,even a raw value of 1 should be taken seriously(though hdd may still take anywhere from a few weeks to few months to even year to fail with raw value of 1 for any sector count parameter depending on your luck).

I was about to update here but forgot. Sorry.

So I have finally fixed my PC. Took sometime. Bought new WD HDD as suggested by whitestar above.

I struggled alot to get a bootable Win10. First I installed Ubuntu and then used this guide to create a Win10 bootable pendrive

Make a bootable Windows USB from Linux · One Transistor

First read the guide and then proceed otherwise you might face some difficulties like a faced.

After that I installed Win10, which was also great pain as I didn't know I could create only 4 primary partitions on a HDD. Since Ubuntu was already on primary partitions, I couldn't allocate windows partition/drives as I wanted.

Installed Win10 with 2 partitions, then changed other drive to logical and then created other rest of the partitions, with the help of EaseUs partition manager free, I usually keep. This all was after some hit and trial method

Since I knew I will lose Ubuntu cause of Win10, I deleted it while installing Win10. I again installed Ubuntu though.

So, important thing, did I lose my data? No! Yay! I ordered external case for the HDD, Orico, link is above in posts. Connected and transferred important data to my External HDD, speed was decent 29Mbps which I usually get with any other external HDD. The old HDD which created this whole mess was working fine too, I didn't face any transfer problem while copying data, loading was delayed in win explorer though, may be cause it's a 1TB HDD with 4 partitions. I am not sure.

I remember correctly, I have transferred files on USB 3 with around 90Mbps transfer speed with my friend's external HDD . Don't know why I am not getting it now. May be I need a large file, probably 5GB+.

Anyway, thanks alot for all the help and suggestions. Especially to @whitestar_999.

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I am just a noob and I created a bootable windows 10 pen drive in under 5 minutes. Thanks to rufus. Glad that your system is up and running.

W

@TheSloth did you bought the orico one I posted & if yes then for how much you got it,i think its price is now increased.Yes you are right about needing large files to achieve good sequential speeds but a couple of files above 2-3gb should be fine.Also not all desktop hdd are same rpm,7200rpm drives are always faster while 5900rpm drives area bit slower.Also a nearly filled hdd usually gives slower speeds compared to a hdd which is just half filled or even less.

I bought it for Rs.720.

I got those 90mbps speed on my current laptop with old HDD, though it was 5yrs back but I remember well about those speeds, since I never witnessed it before. That time also my HDD was filled around 500gb I guess. I Wasn't a data hog in those days. But I need to transfer some big files using external case to check speeds and will also use some benchmarking tool. Will update those transfer rates here.

@whitestar_999 . Though I have already made the purchase, I want to know one more thing about the HDD I bought.

Western Digital WD 1 TB Laptop Internal Hard Disk Drive (WD10JPVX) - Western Digital : Flipkart.com

I want to know what's the difference between this WD blue and Seagate below :

Seagate 1TB Laptop HDD SATA 6Gb/s 128MB Cache 2.5-Inch 7mm Internal Hard Drive ST1000LM048 *www.amazon.in/dp/B01LY3Q201/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_ZjC7zb62QWXYK

The Seagate has 128MB cache but WD has only 8MB cache. Why such a huge difference? How much impact it has on performance?

W

Cache on laptop hdd will not make that much significant difference in overall system performance so don't worry too much about it.Always give more importance to reliability than performance when it comes to hdd.No amount of cache on any hdd will bring it even near to ssd performance which is what one should be aiming for in today's time when talking about overall system performance.