Solved Odd hanging with no clear cause

[SneakyDevil]

Problem: Issue will continue together for from 1-10 minutes averaging at around 3-5.


Build Information:
Win 7 Ultimate SP 1 64bit
ASUS Z97-A
intel i7 4790k
Geforce GTX 1070 Ti
CORSAIR AXi Series AX1200i Digital 1200W 80 PLUS PLATINUM
Ballistix Sport 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600
Kingston Digital 480GB SSDNow V300 SATA 3

Starting a while back the following issues happen in tandem at seemingly random:
-Voice Chat will stop receiving (Discord)
-New Programs won't open
-New tabs won't open/current tab won't load anything new
-Commands wont run
-explorer.exe locks up

HOWEVER
The following works while this is happening:
-Current programs experience no issues
-Current tabs can load and play any video currently on the page
-watching Live streams will operate without issue
-My Streams will continue without issue(audio/video/network)
-any command running before the freeze will operate without issue
-my VC mic will transmit without issue
-any program that supports text communication loads and sends text messages

Attempted solutions:
-restarting
-shutting down for an extended period
-updating audio/graphics/network drivers
-adjusting page file from auto to none to manually managed
-all RAM tested
-prime 95ed my CPU for an hour with RAM tests
-stress tested GPU
-disabling or enabling any tuning software
-factory resetting mobo
-MSE and Malwarebytes both report 0 results on deep scans
-sfc /scannow

explorer.exe is corrupted, as is the version in syswow64, however, these issues persist while explorer.exe is not running.

Another bit of information of note is that my mouse cursor does not lock to my game screen on my dual-screen setup at the same time this started happening.

 

[Megahertz07]

explorer.exe is corrupted, as is the version in syswow64, however, these issues persist while explorer.exe is not running.

Welcome to the Forum

Open a CMD window as administrator and type:
chkdsk c: /f
It will say your disk is in use and if you want to schedule to next start = yes
Restart
Pay attention on the results, specially bad blocks, bad clusters, bad sectors etc

Back to windows open a CMD window as administrator and type:
sfc /scannow

reboot

repeat sfc /scannow + reboot 2 more times.

 

[SneakyDevil]

Hello, thanks for the reply. I ran a chkdsk as well as 4 iterations of sfc with a reboot in between each. No bad file/sectors on the chkdsk sfc consistently reports the same errors without fixing.

 

[Megahertz07]

I suggest you do a Repair Install
Make a data backup before you start.
Run Win 7 install Setup.exe under running Windows. It will reinstall Win 7 keeping your data and programs.
For the updates i recommend you use Single file with all updates - Simplix

 

[file3456]

What did you use to test the RAM and how long did you test the RAM?

Going back to when this problem started, can you remember what software or hardware you may have installed then? Perhaps a software update, a Windows update, a driver or an anti-virus update.

 

[SneakyDevil]

Okay, I have done a repair install and SFC now reports 0 errors instead of the 6 it previously reported. Will report back if any of the listed issues turn up.

F22, I used the inbuilt ram testing windows has, memtest+, and prime95. That was actually what was giving me so much trouble, I hadn't done anything new for the past couple days since I had been bbusy.

 

[Megahertz07]

Did you use Simplix for the updates and turned WU to never check?

 

[SneakyDevil]

Yes, I used the latest Simplix. As far as I can tell my issue shave been resolved.

 

[SneakyDevil]

Update: The issues have resurfaced.

 

[Megahertz07]

Did you turned WU to never check?

Check latest updates after Simplix.

 

[SneakyDevil]

Yes I did both things.

 

[Megahertz07]

Have a look at Device manager.
Is there any yellow alerts?

 

[SneakyDevil]

There are no yellow alerts in my device manager.

 

[Megahertz07]

It's very strange.

How much free space you have on C: ?

Let's see the SSD SMART.
Download and run Crystal disk info (it's a portable, don't need to be installed).

 

[SneakyDevil]

150GB free space on my C:

 

[Megahertz07]

Everything seems to be good.

I suppose you've scanned the drives for virus and malware.

Run msconfig and disable all non MS services and startup programs. See if you still have the issue.

 

[SneakyDevil]

As I said in OP I did multiple deep scans with both Malwarebytes and Microsoft Security Essentials with no results. I've already turned off all third-party services and startups. However, I will temp remark this as solved.

I ended up running startup repair from the installation CD, an issue was detected and resolved and since then I haven't had the problem reappear. The problem fixed was a boot record so... in the end, none of us could actually diagnose the issue or figure out a solution to it. Technology is weird.

 

[file3456]

On its face it sounded RAM related, but I'm wondering if it's perhaps a hard drive issue. You fixed the issue, but the question remains as to why it occurred in the first place? Just for S & Gs, I'd run Hard Drive Sentinel with a read test and see what it says. SMART data is not always indicative of hardware failure. You could have a few bad blocks or sectors here and there or something going on in the flash memory that I have no idea about. So something like a hard disk testing tool may help bring those possible issues to light. And you'd want know this before it's too late.

 

[Megahertz07]

Thanks for the feedback. Good you found the solution.

 

[SneakyDevil]

Well, I should know better than to open my mouth because I've jinxed myself. After two days of high usage, the issue has returned. The only difference between when it wasn't happening and when it was happening was I let Microsoft Security Essentials run a scan. (The scan ran while I was sleeping, not using the computer)

Here is the results from the SSD scan with Hard Drive Sentinel.