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Category How to, Windows

[SOLVED] Windows 10 Freezes Randomly

Author Aditya Farrad Published on February 17, 2021 11 min read
reviewed Reviewed by Aditya Farrad
Resolve Windows 10 Freezes Randomly Issue

Fix Windows 10 Freezes Randomly: If you have recently upgraded to Windows 10 from an earlier version of the Microsft OS then it might be possible that you may experience your Windows 10 freezes randomly without any load on the PC. This will happen frequently and you will have no other option to force shutdown your system. The issue occurs because of the incompatibility between hardware and drivers, as they were designed to work on your earlier version of Windows and after upgrading to Windows 10 the drivers become incompatible.

18 ways to Fix Windows 10 Freezes Randomly

The freeze or hang issue mostly occurs because of the graphic card drivers being incompatible with Windows 10. Well, there are other issues which can cause this error and is not limited to graphic card drivers. It mostly depends on users system configuration as to why you see this error. Sometimes 3rd party software might also cause this issue as they are not being compatible with Windows 10. Anyway, without wasting any time let’s see how to actually Fix Windows 10 Freezes Randomly issue with the below-listed troubleshooting guide.

Note: Make sure to disconnect all USB extension or connected devices to your PC and again verify if the issue is resolved or not.

Contents

  • [SOLVED] Windows 10 Freezes Randomly
  • Method 1: Update Graphics Card Drivers
  • Method 2: Run Netsh Winsock Reset Command
  • Method 3: Run Windows Memory Diagnostic
  • Method 4: Run Memtest86+
  • Method 5: Perform a Clean Boot
  • Method 6: Increase Virtual Memory
  • Method 7: Disable Fast Startup
  • Method 8: Run SFC and CHDKSK
  • Method 9: Turn Off Location Services
  • Method 10: Disable Hard Disk Hibernation
  • Method 11: Disable Link State Power Management
  • Method 12: Disable Shell Extension
  • Method 13: Run DISM (Deployment Image Servicing and Management)
  • Method 14: Update BIOS (Basic Input/Output System)
  • Method 15: Run CCleaner and Malwarebytes
  • Method 16: Disable Your Dedicated Graphic Card
  • Method 17: Update your Network drivers
  • Method 18: Repair install Windows 10

[SOLVED] Windows 10 Freezes Randomly

Make sure to create a restore point just in case something goes wrong.

Method 1: Update Graphics Card Drivers

1.Press Windows Key + R then type “devmgmt.msc” (without quotes) and hit enter to open Device Manager.

devmgmt.msc device manager

2.Next, expand Display adapters and right-click on your Nvidia Graphic Card and select “Update Driver Software.“

update driver software in display adapters

3.Select “Search automatically for updated driver software” and let it finish the process.

search automatically for updated driver software

4.If the above step was able to fix your problem then very good, if not then continue.

5.Again select “Update Driver Software” but this time on the next screen select “Browse my computer for driver software.“

browse my computer for driver software

6.Now select “Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer.”

let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer

7.Finally, select the compatible driver from the list for your Nvidia Graphic Card and click Next.

9.Let the above process finish and restart your PC to save changes. After updating Graphic card you may be able to Fix Windows 10 Freezes Randomly Issue, if not then continue.

10.First of all, you should know what graphics hardware you have i.e. which Nvidia graphic card you have, don’t worry if you don’t know about it as it can be easily find.

11.Press Windows Key + R and in the dialog box type “dxdiag” and hit enter.

dxdiag command

12.After that search for the display tab (there will be two display tabs one for the integrated graphic card and another one will be of Nvidia’s) click on the display tab and find out your graphic card.

DiretX diagnostic tool

13.Now go to the Nvidia driver download website and enter the product details which we just find out.

14.Search your drivers after inputting the information, click Agree and download the drivers.

NVIDIA driver downloads

15.After successful download, install the driver and you have successfully updated your Nvidia drivers.

Method 2: Run Netsh Winsock Reset Command

1.Press Windows Key + X then select Command Prompt (Admin).

command prompt with admin rights

2.Type the following command into cmd and hit Enter after each one:

netsh winsock reset
netsh int ip reset reset.log hit

netsh winsock reset

3.You will get a message “Successfully reset the Winsock Catalog.“

4.Reboot your PC and this will Fix Windows 10 Freezes Randomly.

Method 3: Run Windows Memory Diagnostic

1.Type memory in the Windows search bar and select “Windows Memory Diagnostic.“

2.In the set of options displayed select “Restart now and check for problems.“

run windows memory diagnostic

3.After which Windows will restart to check for possible RAM errors and will hopefully display the possible reasons as to why Windows 10 Freezes Randomly.

4.Reboot your PC to save changes.

Method 4: Run Memtest86+

Now run the Memtest86+ which is a 3rd party software but it eliminates all the possible exceptions of memory errors as it runs outside of the Windows environment.

Note: Before starting, make sure you have access to another computer as you will need to download and burn the software to the disc or USB flash drive. It’s best to leave the computer overnight when running Memtest as it sure likely to takes some time.

1.Connect a USB flash drive to your system.

2.Download and install Windows Memtest86 Auto-installer for USB Key.

3.Right-click on the image file which you just downloaded and select “Extract here” option.

4.Once extracted, open the folder and run the Memtest86+ USB Installer.

5.Choose your plugged in USB drive to burn the MemTest86 software (This will format your USB drive).

memtest86 usb installer tool

6.Once the above process is finished, insert the USB to the PC in which Windows 10 not using full RAM.

7.Restart your PC and make sure that boot from the USB flash drive is selected.

8.Memtest86 will begin testing for memory corruption in your system.

Memtest86

9.If you have passed all the test then you can be sure that your memory is working correctly.

10.If some of the steps were unsuccessful then Memtest86 will find memory corruption which means Windows 10 Freezes Randomly because of bad/corrupt memory.

11.In order to Fix Windows 10 Freezes Randomly Issue, you will need to replace your RAM if bad memory sectors are found.

Method 5: Perform a Clean Boot

Sometimes 3rd party software can conflict with System and therefore the System might not shut down completely. In order Fix Windows 10 Freezes Randomly Issue, you need to perform a clean boot in your PC and diagnose the issue step by step.

Perform Clean boot in Windows. Selective startup in system configuration

Method 6: Increase Virtual Memory

1.Press Windows Key + R and type sysdm.cpl in Run dialog box and click OK to open System Properties.

system properties sysdm

2.In the System Properties window, switch to the Advanced tab and under Performance, click on Settings option.

advanced system settings

3.Next, in the Performance Options window, switch to the Advanced tab and click on Change under Virtual memory.

virtual memory

4.Finally, in the Virtual memory window shown below, uncheck the “Automatically manage paging file size for all drive” option.Then highlight your system drive under Paging file size for each type heading and for the Custom size option, set the suitable values for fields: Initial size (MB) and Maximum size (MB). It is highly recommended to avoid selecting No paging file option here.

change paging file size

5.Select the radio button which says Custom size and set the initial size to 1500 to 3000 and maximum to at least 5000 (Both of these depends on the size of your hard disk).

6.Now if you’ve increased the size, a reboot is not mandatory. But if you’ve decreased the size of the paging file, you must have to reboot to make changes effective.

Method 7: Disable Fast Startup

1.Press Windows Key + R then type “powercfg.cpl” and hit enter to open Power Options.

type powercfg.cpl in run and hit Enter to open Power Options

2.Click on Choose what the power buttons do in the top-left column.

choose what the power buttons do usb not recognized fix

3.Next, click on Change settings that are currently unavailable.

4.Uncheck Turn on Fast startup under Shutdown settings.

Uncheck Turn on fast startup

5.Now click Save Changes and Restart your PC.

Method 8: Run SFC and CHDKSK

1.Press Windows Key + X then click on Command Prompt(Admin).

command prompt with admin rights

2.Now type the following in the cmd and hit enter:

Sfc /scannow
sfc /scannow /offbootdir=c:\ /offwindir=c:\windows (If above fails then try this one)

SFC scan now command prompt

3.Wait for the above process to finish and once done restart your PC.

4.Next, run CHKDSK from here Fix File System Errors with Check Disk Utility(CHKDSK).

5.Let the above process complete and again reboot your PC to save changes.

Method 9: Turn Off Location Services

1.Press Windows Key + I to open Settings and then click on Privacy.

From Windows Settings select Privacy

2.Now from the left-hand menu select Location and then disable or turn off Location Service.

From the left hand menu select Location and turn on the Location service

3.Reboot your PC to save changes and this would Fix Windows 10 Freezes Randomly Issue.

Method 10: Disable Hard Disk Hibernation

1.Right-click on Power icon on system tray and select Power Options.

Power Options

2.Click Change plan settings next to your chosen Power plan.

USB Selective Suspend Settings

3.Now click Change advanced power settings.

Change advanced power settings

4.Expand Hard disk then expand Turn off hard disk after.

5.Now edit the setting for On battery and plugged in.

Expand Turn off hard disk after and set the value to Never

6.Type Never and hit Enter for both of the above settings.

7.Reboot your PC to save changes.

Method 11: Disable Link State Power Management

1.Press Windows Key + R then type “powercfg.cpl” and hit enter to open Power Options.

type powercfg.cpl in run and hit Enter to open Power Options

2.Click Change plan settings next to your chosen Power plan.

USB Selective Suspend Settings

3.Now click Change advanced power settings.

Change advanced power settings

4.Expand PCI Express then expand Link State Power Management.

Expand PCI express then expand Link State Power Management and turn it off

5.From the drop-down select OFF for both On battery and plugged in power settings.

6.Reboot your PC to save changes and see if you’re able to Fix Windows 10 Freezes Randomly.

Method 12: Disable Shell Extension

When you install a program or application in Windows, it adds an item in the right-click context menu. The items are called shell extensions, now if you add something which might conflict with the Windows this could certainly cause the Windows 10 Freezes Randomly issue. As Shell extension is part of Windows Explorer hence any corrupt program could easily cause this problem.

1.Now to check which of these programs are causing the crash you need to download a 3rd party software called
ShellExView.

2.Double click the application ShellExView.exe in the zip file to run it. Wait for few seconds as when it launches for the first time it takes some time to collect information about shell extensions.

3.Now click Options then click on Hide All Microsoft Extensions.

click Hide All Microsoft Extensions in ShellExView

4.Now Press Ctrl + A to select them all and press the red button in the top-left corner.

click red dot to disable all the items in shell extensions

5.If it asks for confirmation select Yes.

select yes when it ask do you want to disable the selected items

6.If the issue is resolved then there is a problem with one of the shell extensions but to find out which one you need to turn them ON one by one by selecting them and pressing the green button on the top right. If after enabling a particular shell extension Windows 10 Freezes Randomly then you need to disable that particular extension or better if you can remove it from your system.

Method 13: Run DISM (Deployment Image Servicing and Management)

1.Press Windows Key + X and select Command Prompt(Admin).

command prompt with admin rights

2.Type the following command in cmd and hit enter after each one:

a) Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth
b) Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth
c) Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

DISM restore health system

3.Let the DISM command run and wait for it to finish.

4. If the above command doesn’t work then try on the below:

Dism /Image:C:\offline /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth /Source:c:\test\mount\windows
Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth /Source:c:\test\mount\windows /LimitAccess

Note: Replace the C:\RepairSource\Windows with the location of your repair source (Windows Installation or Recovery Disc).

5.Reboot your PC to save changes.

Method 14: Update BIOS (Basic Input/Output System)

Performing BIOS update is a critical task and if something goes wrong it can seriously damage your system, therefore, an expert supervision is recommended.

1.The first step is to identify your BIOS version, to do so press Windows Key + R then type “msinfo32” (without quotes) and hit enter to open System Information.

msinfo32

2.Once the System Information window opens locate BIOS Version/Date then note down the manufacturer and BIOS version.

bios details

3.Next, go to your manufacturer’s website for e.g in my case it’s Dell so I will go to Dell website and then I will enter my computer serial number or click on the auto detect option.

4.Now from the list of drivers shown I will click on BIOS and will download the recommended update.

Note: Do not turn off your computer or disconnect from your power source while updating the BIOS or you may harm your computer. During the update, your computer will restart and you will briefly see a black screen.

5.Once the file is downloaded, just double click on the Exe file to run it.

6.Finally, you have updated your BIOS and this may also Fix Windows 10 Freezes Randomly Issue.

Method 15: Run CCleaner and Malwarebytes

1.Download and install CCleaner & Malwarebytes.

2.Run Malwarebytes and let it scan your system for harmful files.

3.If malware is found it will automatically remove them.

4.Now run CCleaner and in the “Cleaner” section, under the Windows tab, we suggest checking the following selections to be cleaned:

ccleaner cleaner settings

5.Once you’ve made certain the proper points are checked, simply click Run Cleaner, and let CCleaner run its course.

6.To clean your system further select the Registry tab and ensure the following are checked:

registry cleaner

7.Select Scan for Issue and allow CCleaner to scan, then click Fix Selected Issues.

8.When CCleaner asks “Do you want backup changes to the registry?” select Yes.

9.Once your backup has completed, select Fix All Selected Issues.

10.Restart your PC to save changes and this would Fix Windows 10 Freezes Randomly Issue, if not then continue with the next method.

Method 16: Disable Your Dedicated Graphic Card

1.Press Windows Key + R then type “devmgmt.msc” (without quotes) and hit enter to open Device Manager.

devmgmt.msc device manager

2.Next, expand Display adapters and right-click on your Nvidia Graphic Card and select Disable.

Disable your Dedicated Graphic Card

3.Reboot your PC to save changes.

Method 17: Update your Network drivers

1.Press Windows key + R and type “devmgmt.msc” in Run dialogue box to open device manager.

devmgmt.msc device manager

2.Expand Network adapters, then right-click on your Wi-Fi controller (for example Broadcom or Intel) and select Update Driver Software.

Network adapters right click and update drivers

3.In the Update Driver Software Windows, select “Browse my computer for driver software.“

Browse my computer for driver software

4.Now select “Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer.“

Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer

5.Try to update drivers from the listed versions.

6.If the above didn’t work then go to manufacturers website to update drivers: https://downloadcenter.intel.com/

download driver from manufacturer's website

7.Install the latest driver from the manufacturer’s website and reboot your PC.

By reinstalling the network adapter, you can Fix Windows 10 Freezes Randomly Issue.

Method 18: Repair install Windows 10

This method is the last resort because if nothing works out then this method will surely repair all problems with your PC and will Fix Windows 10 Freezes Randomly Issue. Repair Install just uses an in-place upgrade to repair issues with the system without deleting user data present on the system. So follow this article to see How to Repair Install Windows 10 Easily.

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That’s it you have successfully [SOLVED] Windows 10 Freezes Randomly but if you still have any questions regarding this post then feel free to ask them in the comment’s section.

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Aditya Farrad
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Aditya Farrad

Aditya is a skilled tech writer with 10 years of experience in the field. He has a strong background in Troubleshooting, and has a talent for simplifying complex technical concepts for a general audience. He has worked with a variety of clients in the technology industry, creating user manuals, technical documentation, and instructional materials. With his combination of technical knowledge and writing talent, he is able to create clear, accurate, and engaging content that helps users get the most out of their technology.

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3 Comments

  1. Avatar photo CBParker
    April 19, 2018 at 5:34 pm

    Had the same problem over and over again, after a Google crash and new re-installation, , I forgot to enable my Google Ad blocker extensions. Since then my PC is not freezing n WiN 10 !

    Check it out

    Reply
  2. Avatar photo Mike Ice
    February 22, 2019 at 7:45 pm

    SKIP ALL THIS , and just replace thermal paste between cpu and heatsink. I’M SAVED

    Reply
  3. Avatar photo Vaibhav
    December 17, 2020 at 6:43 am

    Great post Aditya! I have summarized the post.
    When dealing with Windows 10 Freeze, you start to get annoyed by wild glitches, lags, and system brakes.
    Here are some cases and solutions-
    1. Use Effective Antivirus For The System
    2. Update your drivers with various programs—popular driver update software DriverPack and Driver Booster.
    3. Disable unnecessary programs in the task manager in the Startup tab.
    4. Change the thermal paste on the processor or video card.
    5. If you use your PC under heavy load, more than it should be according to the technical definition, the computer will freeze.
    6. Among other problems, BIOS modification can cause the computer to freeze. When you overclock your system processor or RAM, you can quickly run into stability problems. Try to avoid making any changes (if you haven’t already). Resetting the BIOS to default can fix your freeze problem.
    7. Remove all USB devices, flash drives from the ports of your computer or laptop.
    8. Remember which application you installed last. Try to find and remove it.
    9. Remove unnecessary, unreliable programs.

    Reply

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