Question Windows Explorer and Task Bar Freeze Ups

[David_652]

Even when only 8-15% of CPU is in use, or 3-8% of RAM is in use, Windows Explorer and Task Bar can freeze up. Sometimes it happens when I open the Taskbar overflow menu. I restart Windows Explorer, close open programs, and then it's fine, until I open Taskbar overflow menu. Now understand, that when this happens, I have Outlook open, a half dozen tabs of Google Chrome open, and maybe Word. But, it's still only taking up the 8-15% CPU and 3-8% of RAM even with all this. I have a huge hard drive, the PC is only a year old, and I have no signs of any hardware issues. It makes no sense that anything should freeze with this low use of resources. I'm running an intel core i9, 128 GB ram, and terabytes of hard drive space. This is Windows 11 23H2.

 

[KingLoki]

Boot into Safe Mode and see if it happens??

 

[David_652]

Safe Mode took away my internet connection, kept Outlook from opening, and did not present me with a Taskbar overflow menu to test the situation. All Taskbar icons were so small there was no overflow. I'm back in regular mode trying to get my Outlook back to its original settings; it doesn't look the same.

 

[KingLoki]

Safe mode is a windows diagnostic mode that loads minimal drivers/services etc. It gives the user limited use overall to diagnose issues relating to the pc's hardware/software. It is supposed to boot up as usual when the computer is restarted in normal mode. It shouldn't mess with software appearances when back in normal mode. It uses basic graphics drivers, so that would account for the lack of overflow. I couldn't check the problem myself to confirm before suggesting.

 

[David_652]

I understand. Thank you for trying.

 

[KingLoki]

No problem 🙂

 

[johnbl]

Even when only 8-15% of CPU is in use, or 3-8% of RAM is in use, Windows Explorer and Task Bar can freeze up. Sometimes it happens when I open the Taskbar overflow menu. I restart Windows Explorer, close open programs, and then it's fine, until I open Taskbar overflow menu. Now understand, that when this happens, I have Outlook open, a half dozen tabs of Google Chrome open, and maybe Word. But, it's still only taking up the 8-15% CPU and 3-8% of RAM even with all this. I have a huge hard drive, the PC is only a year old, and I have no signs of any hardware issues. It makes no sense that anything should freeze with this low use of resources. I'm running an intel core i9, 128 GB ram, and terabytes of hard drive space. This is Windows 11 23H2.

I would be looking for problems that will hang a GPU. GPUs can hang while the rest of windows keeps running.
the various browser use gpu hardware acceleration, and sometimes some browser extension can hang the GPU.

if you have a Realtek sound driver on your motherboard be sure to update the driver from your motherboard vendor. There was a old version that would corrupt the GPU sound driver and cause the GPU to hang so the screen would not refresh.

you could also, google "how to force a memory dump using a keyboard" make the registry change and the next time the system locks up, try to force a memory dump. I would set the memory dump type to kernel rather than a minidump. Then put memory.dmp file on a server, share it for public access and post a link.

you might also see if your system has any minidumps already recorded.

if you want, you can force a memory dump on a working system and I can take a quick look to see if I see any known problems.

most fixes are the same, update the bios and motherboard drivers from the motherboard vendor.

https://success.trendmicro.com/en-U...hine restarts, wait for disk activity to stop.