PC Locking up

[WAR Corporation]

Hello,

 

(im not sure where to post this, sorry) My computer has been locking up for the past week. Sometimes I'm watching YouTube for example and it just completely locks up for about 3-10 seconds then returns to normal. Today, explorer.exe started popping up every 10 minutes (I'm pretty that could be a different issue entirely but might as well just post it here). I'm not sure what to do next. Also, I have 8GB of memory installed on my PC but as the image bellow shows, it's I'm using 1.5GB of memory so doing the math, I shouldn't be using more than 19% of my memory (and even considering that Windows uses like 20-25% of memory when I boot the PC, it should be max 45% and not 64% with two chrome tabs opened. https://imgur.com/a/5ydFZzZ

 

Here's what I tried:

- Avast (doesn't detect anything);

- Process explorer (i don't see anything unusual).

- Restarting (didn't solve the problem).

 

I've seen that this can be related to software issues like drivers but ?? not sure what to do next. I built the PC about 2 years ago (i5 7400, GTX 1060, 850 evo 240GB)

[Tamesh16]

have you tried reinstalling windows?

 

[WAR Corporation]

1 minute ago, Tamesh16 said:

have you tried reinstalling windows?

 

I really can't do that at the moment...

[Husky]

Simple test to see if it is OS or system drive is to download a Linux distribution (such as Linux Mint) and write it to a USB drive using a tool such as Etcher. Boot off of the USB and run Linux in live mode and use your computer for a bit in Linux. If it doesn't freeze, then it is either your Windows install or your system drive. You can try to open task manager and keep it up in Windows and monitor the Disk usage while using your computer, if it spikes to 100% while it is freezing then your system drive could be dying (seen this happen to a friend before).

[WAR Corporation]

2 minutes ago, Husky said:

Simple test to see if it is OS or system drive is to download a Linux distribution (such as Linux Mint) and write it to a USB drive using a tool such as Etcher. Boot off of the USB and run Linux in live mode and use your computer for a bit in Linux. If it doesn't freeze, then it is either your Windows install or your system drive. You can try to open task manager and keep it up in Windows and monitor the Disk usage while using your computer, if it spikes to 100% while it is freezing then your system drive could be dying (seen this happen to a friend before).

Yeah I've done that, the disk usage remains to 0-5%. I might try linux though

[Husky]

Just now, WAR Corporation said:

Yeah I've done that, the disk usage remains to 0-5%. I might try linux though

Yeah try Linux, then you can completely rule out whether it is Windows or your actual hardware. If it doesn't freeze in Linux then it may be time for a Windows reinstall.