[SOLVED] Sudden onset of freezing

[garthblack199]

So, yesterday while watching YouTube my computer started to lock up. I would be able to mouse over objects on the screen freely but when trying to interact it would take up to 40 seconds to respond before allowing me to do anything. This occurs everywhere from the login screen onward. It does not occur in the BIOS. I tried resetting, that got stuck at about 30% for 5+ hours. I managed to laboriously navigate to and download the windows 10 install media tool. That very, very slowly ticked up to 99% and stopped.

I tried troubleshooting startup, running chkdsk /f /r on both drives. No issues apparently. Then I decided to unplug the power supply for ten minutes and plug it back in.

And the problem has vanished. So this isn't really a question of how to fix the problem, but what the hell happened, and can I prevent it from happening again?

 

[onespeedbiker]

What usually happens is corrupt data ends up in your RAM, and the RAM is not cleared The corrupt data remains in the RAM until the residual power is drained, by unplugging the power, which clears the RAM. It works best if you also press the power button after unplugging your PC, as it drains the the power faster (you will see the CPU fan spin and then stop).

 

[garthblack199]

What usually happens is corrupt data ends up in your RAM, and the RAM is not cleared The corrupt data remains in the RAM until the residual power is drained, by unplugging the power, which clears the RAM. It works best if you also press the power button after unplugging your PC, as it drains the the power faster (you will see the CPU fan spin and then stop).

I see. I put memtest86 onto a flash drive, haven't run it yet. If it is the RAM is that indicative of a problem with the sticks that will reoccur or is it just something that happens from time to time?

 

[onespeedbiker]

The issue is not with the RAM, the RAM is simply a vessel that holds data; it's the data that is the problem. You may want to turn off Fast startup https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/4189-turn-off-fast-startup-windows-10-a.html as it stops data from being cleared from the RAM. As far as the cause, it's a hiccup in the system, and may never happens again; for some reason it is more common in laptops.

 

[garthblack199]

The issue is not with the RAM, the RAM is simply a vessel that holds data; it's the data that is the problem. You may want to turn off Fast startup https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/4189-turn-off-fast-startup-windows-10-a.html as it stops data from being cleared from the RAM. As far as the cause, it's a hiccup in the system, and may never happens again; for some reason it is more common in laptops.

Fast startup disabled. I was really worried there for a second, as there was no preliminary symptoms at all, it just happened and almost all my parts being new I thought they were crapping out on me already. Thanks for the help.