Computer Randomly Freezes on Windows 10? 10 Reasons Why.

A Windows 10 computer freezing is not an uncommon occurrence. It could be that certain Windows elements like the taskbar or certain menus do not respond or, in some situations, the entire operating system becomes non-responsive.

In this article, we address the ten most viable solutions for fixing the problem. Try them out and see which works best for you.

Rollback Windows to a Previous Version

Follow the steps below if you want to do this:

1. Click on the Windows logo in the left section of the taskbar and then on the little settings icon or type “Settings” and click on the link.

2. Once the Settings window opens, click on “Update & Security”.
3. From the left sidebar (section), click on “Recovery”.
4. Look for “Go back to the previous version of Windows 10” and then click on “Get started”. Note, that you can only initiate this rollback if you have only recently updated Windows (no more than 10 days ago).
5. Follow the instructions and restart Windows.

Update Device Drivers

Follow the steps outlined below to check for driver updates:

1. Click on the Windows logo in the left section of the taskbar and type “device manager”. This will open the Device Manager window, listing all the available devices on your PC.
2. Expand each group of devices, right click on a certain device you think may require an update and choose “Update driver”. It is a good idea to try this first with your Display adapters.

3. Choose “Search automatically for updated driver software”.
4. In case Windows finds a more recent version of a driver, install it, reboot the system and see if this resolves your problem.

If Windows fails to find a new driver for your device, you can always check for it on the manufacturer’s website.

Perform a memory check

To diagnose the issue, performing a memory check, follow the steps below:

1. Press the Winkey + R and type in “mdsched.exe”.
2. Press OK and the Windows Memory Diagnostic window will open:

3. Choose the first option and wait for Windows to restart.

The OS will display the progress of the memory check on a blue screen. When the test completes, you will know whether there is an issue with your memory card and whether you will need to replace it.

Check the system for corrupted files

Follow the steps outlined below to perform the system file check:

1. Right-click on the Windows start button and then on Command Prompt (Admin).
2. Type “sfc /scannow” in the newly opened window and execute the command with Enter.

3. Wait until the file verification procedure completes. It will take some time but you can observe the progress. Keep the window open until you see the result of the scan.

Disable CPU states in bios

This, on the other hand, results in a more stable Windows performance, reducing the number of instances in which your system might freeze.

Disabling the CPU states is accomplished with the following steps:

1. Click the Windows logo button on the taskbar and go to “settings”.
2. Click on “Settings” and a new window will open.
3. Find “Updates & Security, click on “Recovery” and find the “Advanced startup” section on the right.
4. Click “Restart now” under the option.
5. The PC will restart and you will be presented with several options. Choose “Troubleshoot” => “Advanced options” => “UEFI Firmware Settings”.
6. When BIOS starts, go for “Advanced” => “CPU Configuration”.
7. Ensure that both “C1E Function” and “Intel(R) C-STATE tech” are with status “Disabled”. Use the up and down arrows to change the status of the options in case you need to.
8. After saving these changes, restart the PC.

Disable Link State Power Management

Some Windows 10 users claim that turning off Link State Power Management has helped them with freezing issues and blank screens, especially in cases related to AMD and NVIDIA graphic cards.

Go through the following steps to turn it off:

1. Press Winkey +R and type in “powercfg.cpl”.
2. Click on the search result and the Power Options window will open.
3. Click on “Change power settings”.
4. In the newly opened “Edit Plan Settings” window, click on “Change advanced power settings”.
5. The “Power Options” window opens. Click on PCI Express => Link State Power Management and set the setting from its current value to “Off” as seen on the screenshot below:

Disable Fast Startup

Go through the steps below:

1. Right-click the Windows start button in the taskbar and then on Power Options.
2. Under “Power & sleep”, click on “Additional power settings” on the right.
3. In the newly opened “Power Options” window, click on “Choose what the power buttons do” in the left pane.
4. Click on “Change settings that are currently unavailable” and then uncheck “Turn on fast startup (recommended)”.
5. Click on “Save changes”.

Turn off apps you don’t use

1. Right-click on the Windows start button in the taskbar and choose “Settings”.
2. Click on “Privacy”.
3. Scroll to the bottom of the left pane and click on “Background apps”.
4. Go through the apps listen in the right pane and disable those you don’t use.
5. Reboot your PC.

Virtual Memory Reset

1. Press the Windows logo button on the taskbar and type “advanced system settings”.
2. A System Properties window will open. From the Advanced tab, click on Settings under Performance.
3. The Performance Options window will open. Go to the Advanced tab and under Virtual memory, click on “Change…” as seen on the screenshot below:

4. Ensure that the option “Automatically manage paging file size for all drives” in the newly opened window is not selected.
5. Choose the drive where Windows is installed (usually C).
6. Click on “Custom size” and set the Initial size and the Maximum size. You can set the Initial size equal to the Current allocated size at the bottom of the Virtual Memory window. The maximum size you can set is 1.5 times your computer’s RAM size. For example, if you have 8 GB of RAM, set the value to 12 GB or 12000 MB. You can increase this value even further but it may cause system problems and lead to yet more issues.
7. When you are done setting the values from point 6, click on “Set” and then on “OK” to preserve your changes.
8. Now you need to run Disk Cleanup. Click on the Windows logo button on the taskbar and choose “disk cleanup”.
9. Select the drive with Windows and confirm with OK.
10. Ensure you mark “Temporary Internet Files” and start the clean up with “OK”.
11. Reboot the PC.

Perform a disk check

1. Open the Windows file explorer with Winkey + E.
2. Right-click on a hard drive and choose Properties.
3. Go to the tools tab and under “Error checking”, click on “Check”. This will perform error checking on the selected hard drive. It is advisable that you close all other programs before running the procedure.

These are 10 fixes that should help you solve your Windows 10 freezing issue. If none of these work for you, refer to the specialized Microsoft forum. However, you will find many of the answers to the problem already given here.