Windows goes into a 'state' of nothing loading (not 'not responding')

I have this strange - and annoying - problem at times that I can't exactly pinpoint what's stopping it from working properly; nor can I find any pattern to when this might happen again.

My computer has this what I have started calling it a "mood", where it seems to 'forget' [or 'doesn't care'] to carry out the commands I give my computer. It's different to my PC "not responding" because everything still seems to be working [in that respect] (no graying out of the screen, no mouse busy pointer, no high CPU or memory usage). It's... just.. not.. loading things.

An example then:

When my computer's in this 'mood', I click on my Firefox logo and wait. Nothing happens. I click ctrl+shift+Esc, and it's there in the background - usually around 1,###kb - but it doesn't load it up fully, ever (but I think with Chrome, it loads it up, but the screen's just blank and doesn't load anything else up). I think the same goes for any program I try to load when it's in this 'mood'.

If I've got Firefox open already and I click a new tab/link/bookmark, it 'pretends' it's working but nothing happens (I don't remember if it even does a timeout after a while); the internet's on and working fine, so that's not the problem.

The only way I can solve it is just restart my computer.


Does anyone have any idea what's going on here?

It shows how to resolve repeat errors, utilize system resources, establish a Clean Boot, test your hardware and everything else to go over your system in the Troubleshooting Steps for Windows 7

I did what lehnerus2000 suggested (the same as the screenshot provided), but the last error date shown on mine was on the 14th June - and it's done it more recently than that; so I must be doing something wrong.

Ps. Just so you know, the 2 main error messages I'm getting on them are
1)"The device, \Device\Harddisk0\DR0, has a bad block." and
2)"The driver detected a controller error on \Device\Harddisk1\DR1."
if that makes any difference


I did a chkdsk (but then forgot about it actually) and it disappeared when it finished. How do I get it to stay on so I can see the results [or do I need to?]


Ps. No. 6 of 'Troubleshooting Steps for Windows 7' needs to be changed! You wouldn't want people still installing MSE now, would you.

MSE is still the most recommended AV here by those who know Win7 best.

What is plugged into those Disk #'s at the time of error?

Test your HD with makers diagnostics long CD scan from steps.

Complete all steps not just a few. The skipped step is often the fix

gregrocker said:

MSE is still the most recommended AV here by those who know Win7 best.

1) What is plugged into those Disk #'s at the time of error?

2) Test your HD with makers diagnostics long CD scan from steps.

3) Complete all steps not just a few. The skipped step is often the fix

Sorry for the late reply.

1) I've got a 'WD 5000AAK External USB Device' plugged in

2) My HDD is a Samsung, so according to the link "no Windows diagnostic tests are offered for these drives through Seagate", and the link (if there's no downloads available) goes to a "The page you requested is not available"

3) I think I've used each of those tests (except ones that don't really apply to this situation - eg. the RAM test) at least once at some point in time.

However, doing a 'clean boot' one could be difficult by the fact that this 'mood' doesn't happen very often, and I can't just keep it like that constantly in the hopes that what's booted up is the problem.

Am installing Process Monitor now

The questions/problems from my previous post hasn't been answered yet (sorry)

You should run a Clean Boot at all times for Best Performance. You don't need anything starting with Windows except your AV and sync - all others are freeloaders on your RAM and CPU that spy on you to gather marketing information. You should change your AV back to MSE anyway.

Install CrystalDiskInfo - Software to check the hard drive SMART status. If it's not Good then run the Seagate Seatools test on it. Then run a Disk Check

The actual drive erroring appears to be the external, so run WD Data Lifeguard Windows version on it followed by full Disk Check. Then unplug it to run for awhile to see if the problem repeats.

This is the top tech forums in web history. When we unanimously advise MSE it is based on the best performance for Win7 and the user having enough sense not to click on dodgy downloads. If chronically infected then add Malwarebytes Real Time protection which results in no repeat infections in every case I've seen.