This browser is no longer supported.
Upgrade to Microsoft Edge to take advantage of the latest features, security updates, and technical support.
![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(128, 8%, 22%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3EA%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Hi All,
I have an issue with windows 8.1 of which I would like someone to shed some light on for me.
The issue I am having is that every so often since upgrading 8.1 last night it keeps locking up on me for no apparent reason resulting in a a restart by the reset switch, and this never happened with windows 8 but it is annoying how 8.1 is now doing it.
Can anyone help? as I am seriously debating downgrading from windows 8.1 back to 8 as I don't want a system that locks up on me and is unstable all the time due to using my computer to do coursework for college and can't afford to lose any work that has not been saved.
SPECS:
MSI E350DM-E33
AMD E350 X2 @ 1.6Ghz
8GB DDR3
1TB HDD
ATI HD RADEON 6310
Yours Sincerely,
Shane
Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.
since I've done that trick I found the system has been running great. I'll repeat it here and then try to scatter it into other replies. People should be made aware of this trick. Go into Task Manager. Right click on Windows Explorer. Click "restart"... then restart your PC... the PC will take awhile to reboot... the Windows system must be "reinstalling" or something.... this reset everything very well, for me....
It is odd that you couldn't run dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealthhere is a link to the scanner http://www.microsoft.com/security/scanner/en-us/default.aspx If it doesn't work you can search Bing for Microsoft security scanner
Did it give you an error? Maybe it was typed in wrong or you weren't running command prompt as admin. You can copy from here and right click then select paste in the command prompt.
Does dism /online cleanup-image /checkhealth or dism /online cleanup-image /scanhealth run.
One of those will scan the computer for issues and report back if there is anything to fix. The other will the registry and other places to see if Windows set flags which is just its way of marking that there is an issue that needs repaired.
None will try and fix anything but they should run.
I had 8.0 on my new Toshiba & upgraded(down graded)to 8.1. I too got the freezing with the cursor still movable. This started in mid-december. four days ago my computer blue screened and after 20 minutes up popped a message that said windows has a fatal flaw and gave me two choices. 1.) start fresh and save my files. 2.) start fresh and loss my files. I had my files backed up but I choose "save my files option", the computer rebooted itself and popped up in windows 8.0. I checked all the drivers and away we went. So far so good. it saved my files and windows 8.1 is gone and I have not had a freeze. Seriously, for a couple of days I was convinced that MS did it with their weekly update!
Here is a few things I have found dealing with the freezing problem. First realize there are different freezing's problems going back to Windows 7. I am only addressing the ones that started after loading Windows 8.1.
I have been running Windows 8.0 with 2 different computers (MY & Wife) and with patch Tuesday set to automatic, Windows 8.0 never had the freezing problem.
Upgraded My computer to Windows 8.1 using a new HDD anc clean install by first installing Windows 8.0 and no other software then upgrade to Windows 8.1 After several weeks the freezing started.
Wife computer still with Windows 8.0 still never had freezing.
My computer is MSI 890FXA-GD70 with all drivers and BIOS to latest. Wife computer is Gigabyte both with different VGA cards and not all drivers are up to date.
In November upgraded Wife computer (not clean install) to Windows 8.1 thinking MS will soon have this fixed and within a week her computer has started freezing.
The point to all of this is I now believe without a doubt that there is a bug in the software. It does not make any difference the brand, memory, or any other hardware that is installed or clean install or install over your existing OS that you have been using. The thing that makes this bug so hard to find is when it freezes there is nothing in the error log file indicating any problem and while it is in this state the computer does not create any error log making it almost impossible to fix. It may be that the only fix MS has is when they release Windows 9. I would like to see a post where someone has deleted all Tuesday Patches to Windows 8.1 the results. I have a feeling that the computer will not freeze until some Patch is installed. I would also like to see a Post where a clean install back to Windows 8.0 I would bet the freeze problem is gone.
Hope this helps someone.
So anyone out there if you are running Windows 8.0 or older do not upgrade to Windows 8.1
Hey Shane
I have the same problem but I am unable to restore. I received a new laptop at Christmas and on the first of Jan was asked to upgrade to 8.1 and since moment one I have had problems...
Virginia Cunningham
Dear Virginia,
Lots of people seem to have had problems when updating from Windows 8 to 8.1 through the Windows App Store, which is presumably how you did it. It is best to do a clean installation of 8.1, but of course you can only do that if you have an installation DVD, since you will only have a recovery partition for Windows 8 on your Dell.
So you might be interested in the following articles, which tell you how to use your Windows 8 serial key to download an 8.1 ISO, from which you can burn a DVD and then do a completely clean installation. Your freeze-up problems may then completely go away (not guaranteed though!). The disadvantage is that you will lose access to any of the "crapware" programs that come pre-installed on your PC, but usually they are not worth worrying about or you can get them another way.
So here you are, and if this method works for you, please let us know.
http://pureinfotech.com/2013/10/19/download-windows-81-iso-using-windows-8-product-key/
http://mcakins.com/2013/10/19/download-windows-8-1-iso-using-you-windows-8-0-key/
http://www.eightforums.com/installation-setup/33164-how-download-windows-8-1-iso.html
Best wishes,
Martin Ward
UK
