Windows 10 Partally Freezes and ALT-CTRL-DEL Won't Work

[burritonator]

I'm having a problem with Windows 10 "partially" freezing up.

Here's an example of what I mean by partially freezing. I have 2 monitors. I was playing a game on one and watching a video on the other. The game locked up. I got the blue spinning circle in place of the mouse cursor when I tried to interact with the game. ALT-TAB and ALT-CTRL-DEL wouldn't do anything. But all the while, the video was still playing just fine. I couldn't interact with it either, though. I could still move the mouse cursor, but nothing happened when I clicked on anything (including the start menu and quick launch icons on the task bar). For all practical purposes, the computer was hard locked - except that the video was still playing.

I've had a lot of similar problems over the past few days. Whether I'm playing a game that pushes my PC to its limits or just using a web browser, this will happen.

Here are some fixes I've tried so far, without success:

* sfc /scannow in Powershell
* System Maintenance Troubleshooter
* Clean Boot
* Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth (also /CheckHealth and /RestoreHealth) in a command prompt
* Changed Sleep settings so that the PC won't go into sleep mode
* I regularly use CPUID HWmonitor and it hasn't shown any problems with with temps, voltages, etc.
* Used a System Restore Point to restore the system to a date before the problem started.

I've been troubleshooting PCs for years, but this is the first time I remember seeing this specific problem. I'm confused as to why some things like videos and audio keep playing, but everything else is locked up and I can't even get CTRL-ALT-DEL to do anything. If I use the reset button on my PC it tries to restart but doesn't go past the BIOS screen. If I power off and back on, it will work for anywhere to a few hours to just a few minutes before the same problem happens again.

Any and all help is appreciated!

[WarmedxMints]

Temps ok?

[burritonator]

Yeah, temps are OK according to CPUID HWmonitor.

[burritonator]

If it helps, I found several of the following entries in the Event Viewer. However, the time stamps don't always match when I experienced a lock up. Also, I've been having this problem for several days, but the only entries in the Event Viewer for explorer.exe are the past 2 days.

Faulting application name: explorer.exe, version: 10.0.10586.494, time stamp: 0x5775e575
Faulting module name: SHELL32.dll, version: 10.0.10586.494, time stamp: 0x5775e651
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x000000000008e2cf
Faulting process id: 0x15f0
Faulting application start time: 0x01d1ed34098be029
Faulting application path: C:\WINDOWS\explorer.exe
Faulting module path: C:\WINDOWS\system32\SHELL32.dll
Report Id: 6878a002-3e23-46c8-ae4e-db6e1a913885
Faulting package full name:
Faulting package-relative application ID:

[_I_]

specs?
is anything overclocked?
psu brand/model?

post a cpuz validation link
http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html
cpuz -> validate button -> submit button
it will open a browser, copy the url (address) and paste it here

[rotNdude]

Try a different keyboard.

[burritonator]

Here's my CPU-Z validation link: http://valid.x86.fr/qfvgvx

The system is overclocked, but Maingear did that for me before they shipped it. I don't know how to view or change overclocking settings personally, so I'll need some help if I need to check that.

[pasa]

Well, first thing I would try to go back to stock 3.5G freq and look if the problem still happens.

[[☥] - CJ -]

With such issues, i tend to go for Drivers, or Faulty RAM.
But yeah, Factory Defaulting the BIOS is a start.

[_I_]

3770k and orig titan is older
try cleaning it from dust

[burritonator]

I'm trying to reset the BIOS to default settings, but the changes won't save. I use the option to load default settings or I change them manually, then choose the option save & reset. But after the restart when I go back into the BIOS, the settings are back to what they were to begin with.

Any thoughts on why BIOS settings changes won't save or what I can do about it?

[burritonator]

Since my last post, I temporarily removed my CMOS battery to force the BIOS to reset to default settings. When I powered my PC back up and went back into BIOS, all settings were set to defaults as expected. But after loading Windows and checking CPU-Z, it showed that my processor was still running at the overclocked target of approximately 4.2 GHz.

As far as I can tell, my BIOS settings are somehow changing back to settings Maingear set up before they shipped my PC. I'm confused as to where those settings are coming from, especially after I reset CMOS. When I'm in BIOS, whether I choose to reset to default values or I manually change the settings, they simply won't save. The Maingear settings always come back.

Any thoughts on this? Am I completely misunderstanding what is happening?

[_I_]

pulling the cmos battery will not reset it, either use bios and set defults, or use the jumper to reset it

[burritonator]

I discovered that if I use the "EZ" mode in the BIOS and choose Power Saving, Normal, or High Performance, it will save those changes. I still can't make detailed changes in Advanced mode, but at least I have 3 default profiles that I can choose. I'm now in Normal Mode, which changed the target processor speed from 4.2 GHz to 3.9 GHz. If that doesn't help, I'll see if I can set the target speed to the processor's native speed of 3.5 MH and see if that helps.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Re-Flash the BIOS

[burritonator]

I discovered that there is an option in my BIOS that lets me change the default BIOS mode from "EZ" to "Advanced". Now the settings changes I make in BIOS are saved. My processor is now running in non-overclocked mode for the first time since I started having problems. Hopefully this will improve systerm stability.