Question Random lock ups, but only when browsing/idle, NOT when gaming ?

[price_g]

Hey all.
I've been recently having this annoying issue where my computer locks up/becomes unresponsive for 2 whole minutes when I'm just browsing the internet or just going through some folders on Windows. And what makes this annoying and confusing is that this isn't happen when I'm gaming. I get no lag nor stutter whatsoever. I always get a stable framerate.
From what I remember, this started happening out of nowhere. No Windows updates installed or other software.

My temps are pretty normal, around 60ªC CPU and 40ºC GPU. (80ºC-ish CPU and 82ºC GPU when gaming)
I get nothing on Event Viewer during that time, but I've noticed however that my OS SSD spikes to 100% usage after the system becomes responsive again.
On BIOS, the only changes i've done were enabling XMP and setting the ASUS "EZ System Tuning" preset to Fast.

I've ran multiple disk checks and memory checks and both have found no problems. I've been thinking about reinstalling Windows but I'd like to keep that as last resort.

System specs:
OS Windows 11 23H2 (22631.2861)
Intel i7-8700
DDR4 G.Skill Trident Z RGB CL16 32GB (4x8GB) 3000MHz
ASUS PRIME Z370-A
MSI RTX 3070 Ventus 2x
PSU Kolink Enclave 700W
M.2 SATA WD Green 240GB (OS drive)
M.2 NVME ADATA XPG 8200
SATA TLC Crucial MX500 1TB SSD

 

[Ralston18]

You mentioned Event Viewer - that is good. However it is a bit cumbersome and there is a good chance that something will be overlooked.

FYI:

How To - How to use Windows 10 Event Viewer | Tom's Hardware Forum (tomshardware.com)

Also look in Reliability History/Monitor. Much more end user friendly and the time line format may reveal patterns, Look for any error codes, warnings, or informational events just before or at the time the computer goes unresponsive. You can click any given entries for more details. The details may or may not be helpful.

Also use Task Manager, Resource Monitor, and Process Explorer (Microsoft, free) to observe system performance. Use all three tools but only one tool at a time. Leave the tool window open so you can see what happens or stops happening when the system becomes unresponsive. Make take a bit of trial and error to work out the observation process.

FYI:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/process-explorer

As for the drives: how full? Especially the 240 GB boot drive?

 

[puw2]

Does seem like a windows issue to me, i'd suggest reinstalling it as a start and then see if the issue persists.

Could also try resetting bios to default and using your pc like that for a day or so and see if that fixes it if windows reinstall is the last resort on your list as you described.

The issue can also be a faulty/unstable XMP profile. I had similar issues and i downclocked my ram from 3600MHz to 3200MHz and it fixed the issue completely.

 

[price_g]

You mentioned Event Viewer - that is good. However it is a bit cumbersome and there is a good chance that something will be overlooked.

FYI:

How To - How to use Windows 10 Event Viewer | Tom's Hardware Forum (tomshardware.com)

Also look in Reliability History/Monitor. Much more end user friendly and the time line format may reveal patterns, Look for any error codes, warnings, or informational events just before or at the time the computer goes unresponsive. You can click any given entries for more details. The details may or may not be helpful.

Also use Task Manager, Resource Monitor, and Process Explorer (Microsoft, free) to observe system performance. Use all three tools but only one tool at a time. Leave the tool window open so you can see what happens or stops happening when the system becomes unresponsive. Make take a bit of trial and error to work out the observation process.

FYI:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/process-explorer

As for the drives: how full? Especially the 240 GB boot drive?

I've been checking on Task Manager, and the "Process" tab doesn't show anything out of the ordinary, only what I mentioned - the 100% usage of my OS drive when the system becomes responsive again.
I'll make sure to try everything else tomorrow though, thanks!

And BTW, both 1TB drives are half full and the 240GB one has 110GB free.

Does seem like a windows issue to me, i'd suggest reinstalling it as a start and then see if the issue persists.

Could also try resetting bios to default and using your pc like that for a day or so and see if that fixes it if windows reinstall is the last resort on your list as you described.

The issue can also be a faulty/unstable XMP profile. I had similar issues and i downclocked my ram from 3600MHz to 3200MHz and it fixed the issue completely.

I guess I should start getting ready then. I'll look into what @Ralston18 replied and if nothing works then'll move on to reinstalling the OS.

 

[Ralston18]

What is using the OS drive when it spikes or becomes 100% again?

You may need to sort the column headers in the column headers to move a potential culprit to the top of the listing.

Look for the small upward or downward pointing > in the column header.

 

[price_g]

What is using the OS drive when it spikes or becomes 100% again?

You may need to sort the column headers in the column headers to move a potential culprit to the top of the listing.

Look for the small upward or downward pointing > in the column header.

It happened once again and I had the Resource Monitor open. The process "MsMpEng.exe" was the one using most of the drive, so if I had to guess that'll be the culprit.
Found out online that that process has to do with Windows Defender scheduled scan.

Could that be what's causing these freezes?

 

[Ralston18]

Check Task Scheduler to look for anything that may be triggering scheduled scans.

Look in Reliability History/Monitor to discover if some error code, warning, or related informational event was captured.

Then try "dism" and "sfc /scannow" to find and fix any corrupted files.

https://www.windowscentral.com/how-use-dism-command-line-utility-repair-windows-10-image

https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-use-sfc-scannow-to-repair-windows-system-files-2626161

 

[price_g]

Update:

My initial guess, after checking Resource Monitor, was that Windows Defender scans were causing 100% disk usage. Spent half a day with "Do Not Disturb" on and half a day with Windows Defender turned off to test it, but the issue still persisted on both.
I then tried "dism" and "sfc /scannow" as suggested by @Ralston18 but no luck.

Decided to reinstall the OS and it seemed to have fixed it. I guess something went wrong during a previous Windows update.
I'm just glad it wasn't anything hardware related.

And thank you for the support everyone!