Windows Explorer hangs after login, works in safe mode.

[bowzerman]

Hey guys. I am just stumped with this one. I was having issues a long while ago, where seemingly randomly, my computer would stall, continuously trying to load Windows Explorer or some other program. If I was watching a movie or using some other program, that program would run just fine until the end, but then would freeze, and become unresponsive. I have had some trouble with my graphics card when it isn't updated to its newest release, however this doesn't seem to be the case now.

I'm not sure if I am having a driver issue, hardware issue or something else. However now, I am not able to boot normally. It will either hang at the Windows starting screen, or most often will load all of my startup programs and the like, appear to be fine for about 15 seconds (I can use some programs, and sometimes navigate with explorer) but then will eventually hang, and say that windows explorer has become unresponsive. Cursor still moves, yet nothing will launch, including system processes, or cancelling any programs.

Here is a grab during safe mode. Hopefully this will shed some light. I am sure that I need a good overhaul of a few things, however do not know where to begin.

 

[Thedoctor44]

Does it blue screen at all?
Because freezing issues are extremely difficult to solve, I have had personal experiences with them and they are incredibly frustrating. This is because freezing generally doesn't say why Windows crashed. There's little indication as to what caused it. If you don't get any blue screens then I would like you to do in safe mode because you said windows will not boot normally.

You need to set windows to create dump files. Please follow these instructions, also whilst following these instructions you will see a tick box that says "automatically restart" untick that.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/174459-dump-files-configure-windows-create-bsod.html

Then I recommend you to enable driver verifier which will force a BSOD when it detects a bad driver.
Follow these instructions on how to enable driver verifier.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/101379-driver-verifier-enable-disable.html

 

[peebee]

I will also suggest installing Windows Performance Recorder. You can find it here: Download Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit (Windows ADK) for Windows 8.1 from Official Microsoft Download Center

Once it's installed, start it and select:

First Level Triage

Performance scenario: Boot
Detail: Verbose
Logging: File
Number of iterations: 1

The file will be large. Upload it to a file sharing site, dropbox, etc. and we'll take a look.