PC freezes for minutes!

[pkowalski]

Hi. My PC freezes for minutes on end (even up to 5-6 minutes) during any and all activities. Gaming, browsing the net, watching Youtube, even moving my mouse. This happens 2-3 times a day. The HDD led is glowing permanently. I tried to catch it on task manager and disk usage is 100% without any specific application causing it. I tried formatting and reinstalling Windows and the issue still occurs. During gaming, the games just freeze and other apps like browser etc. all become unresponsive. I looked through many topics on this forum, but have neither found a helpful solution nor an issue in which people report freezes for minutes. Here are my PC specs:

Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-3470 CPU @ 3.20GHz (4 CPUs), ~3.2GHz
Memory: 8192MB RAM
GPU: GeForce GTX 1050Ti
Operating System: Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
HDD: Western Digital Caviar 500 GB


Please let me know if you need any additional details or more specs or w/e. Would really like some help on this one, as it is really frustrating. Thanks in advance.

 

[Peter Martin]

how old is that drive? I would get WD HDD diagnostic utility and see about the health of that hard drive

https://support.wdc.com/knowledgebase/answer.aspx?h=p2&ID=940&lang=en&p=236

 

[SgtScream]

There has to be a task causing it. In task manager when you click processes tab then disk you'll be able to sort by what process is using up all the disk resources. I suspect it is either antivirus, windows updates or both. Especially now if you reinstalled windows and didn't run windows updates.

 

[pkowalski]

how old is that drive? I would get WD HDD diagnostic utility and see about the health of that hard drive

https://support.wdc.com/knowledgebase/answer.aspx?h=p2&ID=940&lang=en&p=236

Honestly, I'm not sure how old it is, I got it with the PC. Could be pretty old I guess.

Anyway, here are the test results:

Test Option: QUICK TEST
Model Number: WDC WD5000AVDS-63U7B1
Unit Serial Number: WD-WCAV9Y700923
Firmware Number: 01.00A01
Capacity: 500.11 GB
SMART Status: PASS
Test Result: PASS
Test Time: 14:37:23, September 20, 2018

Test Option: EXTENDED TEST
Model Number: WDC WD5000AVDS-63U7B1
Unit Serial Number: WD-WCAV9Y700923
Firmware Number: 01.00A01
Capacity: 500.11 GB
SMART Status: PASS
Test Result: PASS
Test Time: 16:35:28, September 20, 2018

SgtScream

There has to be a task causing it. In task manager when you click processes tab then disk you'll be able to sort by what process is using up all the disk resources. I suspect it is either antivirus, windows updates or both. Especially now if you reinstalled windows and didn't run windows updates.

I did sort it like that every time I could open the task manager or it was previously open and honestly, there was no specific process, only 100% disk usage. If there was one I would've said so. I'll try to screenshot it the next time it happens and paste it here.

 

[SgtScream]

how old is that drive? I would get WD HDD diagnostic utility and see about the health of that hard drive

https://support.wdc.com/knowledgebase/answer.aspx?h=p2&ID=940&lang=en&p=236

Honestly, I'm not sure how old it is, I got it with the PC. Could be pretty old I guess.

Anyway, here are the test results:

Test Option: QUICK TEST
Model Number: WDC WD5000AVDS-63U7B1
Unit Serial Number: WD-WCAV9Y700923
Firmware Number: 01.00A01
Capacity: 500.11 GB
SMART Status: PASS
Test Result: PASS
Test Time: 14:37:23, September 20, 2018

Test Option: EXTENDED TEST
Model Number: WDC WD5000AVDS-63U7B1
Unit Serial Number: WD-WCAV9Y700923
Firmware Number: 01.00A01
Capacity: 500.11 GB
SMART Status: PASS
Test Result: PASS
Test Time: 16:35:28, September 20, 2018

SgtScream

There has to be a task causing it. In task manager when you click processes tab then disk you'll be able to sort by what process is using up all the disk resources. I suspect it is either antivirus, windows updates or both. Especially now if you reinstalled windows and didn't run windows updates.

I did sort it like that every time I could open the task manager or it was previously open and honestly, there was no specific process, only 100% disk usage. If there was one I would've said so. I'll try to screenshot it the next time it happens and paste it here.

Does the problem happen in safe mode?

 

[pkowalski]

Does the problem happen in safe mode?

Have not tried, honestly. Will give it a try and post the results

 

[Peter Martin]

Use Resource Monitor and look at Disk tab. Sort by total

You will see everything that’s running using the disk

 

[pkowalski]

Alright, so I checked and it does occur on Safe mode as well.

Also:

Use Resource Monitor and look at Disk tab. Sort by total

You will see everything that’s running using the disk

Here's a screenshot of resource manager and task manager when it happened: https://ibb.co/ihhd9z Literally showing nothing except a huge spike in HDD usage. Apologies for it being in Polish, tell me if anything needs to be translated

 

[Peter Martin]

could be the ram from what I was reading in another thread like this. turned out ram was failing. you can download MemTest86 and create a bootable usb drive and test ram. also on reddit they were saying it could be updating problems. you can check the status of updates

 

[SgtScream]

If it continues to happen in safe mode, RMA the hard drive.

 

[pkowalski]

could be the ram from what I was reading in another thread like this. turned out ram was failing. you can download MemTest86 and create a bootable usb drive and test ram. also on reddit they were saying it could be updating problems. you can check the status of updates

Ran Memtest for 8 passes, everything was passed. Updates are working fine as well.

If it continues to happen in safe mode, RMA the hard drive.

I'm also thinking it's a hard drive issue. I hope it is that and not the GPU failing or something. I was gonna buy an SSD also, so I might just do that and get this drive fixed.

 

[Peter Martin]

there is no fixing bad drives dude. replace and junk it.

 

[pkowalski]

Yeah, I was just reading about how it doesn't make sense to repair it, I'll just scrap it On my way to get an SSD right now, I'll pop that bad boy in, kick the old one to the curb and will report back. Thank you guys for all the help thus far, by the way <3

 

[SgtScream]

Yeah, I was just reading about how it doesn't make sense to repair it, I'll just scrap it On my way to get an SSD right now, I'll pop that bad boy in, kick the old one to the curb and will report back. Thank you guys for all the help thus far, by the way <3

Back up your data first.

 

[pkowalski]

Alright guys, I bought the SSD and it's been 2 weeks of no freezes, so it was the hard drive in the end. Thanks for all the help!

 

[Peter Martin]

if i actually got credit for all my correct solutions i would have all the stupid badges. i diagnosed the hdd failing first dude.

 

[pkowalski]

if i actually got credit for all my correct solutions i would have all the stupid badges. i diagnosed the hdd failing first dude.

Alright man, fine, there you go, sheesh

 

[Peter Martin]

you rock dude