PC freezes after being left idle for a few hours

Hi and thanks for reaching out. My name is Bernard an Independent Advisor and a Windows fan like you. I'll be happy to help you out today.

I actually have the same problem as before and by following the steps provided below fixed my issue, I hope this works for you as well.

Method 1. Do clean boot:

A “clean boot” starts Windows with a minimal set of drivers and startup programs, so that you can determine whether a background program is interfering with your game or program.

• In the search box on the taskbar, type msconfig and select System Configuration from the results.
• On the Services tab of System Configuration, select Hide all Microsoft services, and then select Disable all.
• On the Startup tab of System Configuration, select Open Task Manager.
• Under Startup in Task Manager, for each startup item, select the item and then select Disable.
• Close Task Manager.
• On the Startup tab of System Configuration, select OK. When you restart the computer, it's in a clean boot environment.

troubleshooting reference: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/929135...

Method 2. Run memory diagnostic tool: Memory diagnostic tool is a RAM test to check if there is any issues with RAM.

• Press Windows key + R then type in mdsched.exe hit OK then restart the device.

Method 3. Set the PC to best performance:

Press windows key + Pause/Break (or go to file explorer and right click This PC and click properties)

click on Advanced system settings> Under Performance click settings> Click Adjust for best performance and click OK

Note: this will reduce all appearance settings you have but will optimize the performance of the PC.

Let me know how does it goes and I hope that helps.

Bernard

Independent Advisor

When it freezes it acts like something I've never seen before with my past computers. When frozen I can still move my mouse, and if I hover over something it shows the little graphic that I've hovered over it. I can move the windows of programs around the screen but I can't exit or minimize. I'm not able to ctrl + alt + delete or esc, I can't open task manager. I can't shut down through the start menu. The only thing I can do is shut it off by pressing the power button on the PC.

All my drivers are up to date and when I troubleshoot it doesn't detect any issues. I've seen a couple threads on here where people describe the same problems I'm having but they are on older PCs so I thought I'd make my own post.

Thanks this is now clear, you need to restore default power configuration so that we can ensure that PC will run after idle

Restore default power options

-Press Windows key + R then type:

powercfg -restoredefaultschemes

-Restart PC and check.

Let me know what happened and make sure you have done all the steps above.

If none will work from the above solution I suggest to do an in-place upgrade wherein it will upgrade the device to the latest version and repair all issues without deleting any files.

Note: before doing this make sure to create a restore point: https://support.microsoft.com/en-hk/help/402753...

1. go to this link: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-downlo...
2. Select Download tool, and select Run. You need to be an administrator to run this tool.
3. On the License terms page, if you accept the license terms, select Accept.
4. On the What do you want to do? page, select Upgrade this PC now, and then select Next.
5. After downloading and installing, it should fix the issue.

Reference: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-downlo...

Note: if you receive error: “This Pc can’t be upgrade, follow the steps below”

Method 1. Go to C:$WINDOWS.~BT\Sources\Panther then delete the file name compatscancache.dat

Then try again or reboot the PC first then try again.

You might not see the folder as it is hidden, make sure to show hidden files first.