Solved Lost Power abruptly and now explorer.exe hangs

[BelGarion]

So, the story so far. On Christmas eve got a brown out and the computer shut down abruptly. On a reboot the system seemed ok until I tried to access some files and explorer.exe started to hang, other programs started to hang as well, like Chrome, Firefox, etc. So I ran all sorts of tests, chkdsk /f on the C: drive, sfc /scannow , Western Digital's Data Lifeguard on the C: drive (It's a Western Digital drive), etc and no errors found. So I reinstalled Windows 7, after some drama with Windows Update (got that fixed thanks to you guys) I got the system to update finally, started to access the back up files and bam! explorer.exe froze solid for several minutes repeatedly. So once more into the breach this time using Seatools to test all four drives (1 boot, 3 data, 2 WD and 2 Seagate) to see if any of them were failing. Nothing, all four passed an extended test. Don't hear any of them clicking and when it's frozen the drive activity light only flickers on occasion like normal. The last time I had a drive puke the activity light went ballistic and the drive clicked. This time, none of that. So I don't know, this is a fresh install, I backed up and formatted the boot drive before installing Windows 7 again. Anyone might know what is causing explorer.exe to freak out and lock up my system for minutes at a time?

 

[Megahertz07]

Win updates can use a lot of resources.
Try to disable it on services - %windir%\system32\services.msc

 

[BelGarion]

It was before I reinstalled that it started to do this then after a reinstalling Windows 7 and there were no more important updates were left.

 

[GetTheClicker]

I have had that issue and man it's a nightmare... first it was a failing hard drive and then it was a failing PSU. Replaced them both and the hangs went away.

I too ran every single test and checked drive health and everything said my system was ok. No errors. When the hard drive fails your system will check for inconsistencies deleting corruptions and recovering orphaned files after only a few normal reboots. Things stop working, errors everywhere.

When the PSU was failing my system would hang, I'd get bsod about memory management, and random restarts where my boot order was screwed up. BOOTMGR MISSING. Please insert a bootable device. blah blah blah.

 

[BelGarion]

So the tests won't tell me which drive is failing? >.< Oy! Ok. So it's down to elimination rounds, power down, pull the data cable boot up, and access the files and see if it freezes, if so, repeat until the drive is found? Then for certainty swap the data cable and recheck. Right?

 

[GetTheClicker]

yeah disconnect drives one at a time. in this instance though it was my psu. i upgraded today from 850 to 1000 watts then plugged in my suspected failing drive and nothings gone wrong yet. i think i was just demanding too much power and the drives couldnt get enough.

 

[BelGarion]

I'll check that once I figure out where my DMM went. >.<

 

[BelGarion]

Ok, so, two things. In safe mode I don't have Explorer.exe lagging and when I unplug just the data cable of the 4 tb WD Black it doesn't lag neither. I'd expect it to be the drive except the safe mode thing. Thing is that the drive worked with out lagging the system for nearly a year. Now through 3 reinstalls of Windows 7 unless I am in safe mode or have the 4 tb unplugged explorer hangs to the point Windows offers to restart it. So I guess I will swap out the data cable just to be extra sure before I RMA the drive.

 

[BelGarion]

Update, it took a *lot* longer but while playing Minecraft (for the third time in nearly two days) it eventually locked up, Chrome couldn't connect to the web, and for the giggles I tried File Explorer and it was locked. So, again, for the giggles, I ran MemTest86 overnight, nearly two passes and no errors. So I am back to square one. Not drives, though just unplugging the data cable (not power, the drive is still powered up) on the 4tb hdd helps. So far I've reinstalled Win 7 about three times, downloaded all available drivers from the web, so drivers are all up to date. Thanks to you guys the updates from Microsoft are all installed. I've unplugged just the data cables (not power, just so it's pulling the same amount of power) from all four drives, reinstalled Windows 7 onto a lightly used data drive for when I pulled the current primary drive. Tested memory. Tested the power supply, well, the +12 and +5 volt drive rails, the DMM's probes are too big to back probe the 24 pin ATX connector, and that tested fine. So I am at a loss. What next?

 

[GetTheClicker]

Have you checked your event viewer logs?

 

[BelGarion]

Have you checked your event viewer logs?

Nothing that stands out. I'll recheck when I get home. But that was the first thing I checked to see what was erroring.

 

[Megahertz07]

Do you have a hardware monitor that can log temp, voltage etc?
https://www.hwinfo.com/

 

[BelGarion]

Umm, interesting thought. Safe mode only uses a fraction of the system's full capacity which might be why it's ok in safe mode. Let me see if MSI has one.

 

[Megahertz07]

Do you have Chome?

 

[BelGarion]

The web browser? Been using Waterfox for most of the testing. When I started to relax and pull up all my usual tabs I switched back to Chrome, Waterfox is too limited. But yeah, with just Waterfox I was getting explorer freezing which would prompt me to power down, plug the data cable I unplugging previously, and unplug the next one, then power up to test some more.

 

[Megahertz07]

I asked because I've seen some issues related to Chrome.
I don't like Chrome as it uses a lot of memory, and loads a memory resident program when windows boot to spy. Even if it is closed, it's on memory (to spy?)
I use Firefox 64. As it isn't loaded previously into memory, it takes longer to load, but it's very good.

 

[BelGarion]

Yeah but it's better than MSIE. Ok, so, got Control Center from MSI, since my motherboard is an MSI 990FXA-GD80 V2, and so far the 3.3 is floating between 3.303 and 3.343, 5 is steady at 5.043, 12 is steady at 11.875, and temps are 27C for CPU and 37C for system. So all that looks good right now. I'll keep half an eye on it waiting for the next time the system pukes.

 

[BelGarion]

Ok, so, a full day with Afterburner and Control Center and everything seems stable. I plug the 4tb drive in with a different SATA cable and in 5 hours the system locks up. Let me see... Going to be easier if I paste in the Application Log entries into pastebin.

Application Log from 1/1/2017 - Pastebin.com

So, before I fire off the parts cannon at this and get a new 4tb hdd, is there anything else I can do or anything that stands out in the App log ?

Edit: Oh! I just figured out the WEVTUtil command prompt, I have both App and System saved back far enough to cover from before I booted up with the 4tb with the new SATA cable to test if it was a cable issue or not until the current time. If anyone wants those I'll pastebin 'em for you.

 

[Megahertz07]

Skype is crashing. Uninstall it, download a new version from here http://www.skype.com/go/getskype-full and install it.
Uninstall and Reinstall the Nvidia drivers and program.

Run sfc /scannow