Windows 8 File Explorer Freezing

Yeah I read it was a problem in the Release Preview and fixed in the final release. But I thought it couldn't hurt to try it, I mean if it's not that then what is causing it?

EDIT: I also read many comments saying the hotfix does not work and that they had to disable it again, see below:

Alif • 4 months ago
installed the update, restart, re enabled dynamic tick, restart.
but i still have the random freeze,
i guess i need to keep it disabled for now.

João Gala Louros • 4 months ago
Installed Windows 8, installed all Updates to date (Jul-15) and I still got random freezes on a Mac Book Pro 2009. Turned off ticks and everything is working as it should!

HankBarber • 4 months ago −
same here on MB Pro mid 2010. No probs with ticks turned off for me so that's where I'm staying for now...

Andrew • 4 months ago −
I think this issue isn't totally fixed by the update.
After installing today's update and undoing the bcdedit workaround, I encountered the freezing issue aging.
Afterward, I applied the bcdedit workaround again to avoid the problem...
 
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Thanks for the follow up Cody. I'll keep my fingers crossed :)
 
Well, the issue has decided to return again. Keep in mind I am using a completely clean installation with fully up to date drivers for all my devices along with the newest BIOS for my motherboard.

It seems to be the same issue that was in the Release Preview where any media application (not sure if this applies to videos) will freeze after a long time if it plays in the background. It occurred with Windows Media Player and iTunes for me. If I let them play music for an hour or 2 and have no further interaction it will freeze. If I occasionally skip a song of pause it for example then it will not freeze.
 
Did you try windows update as there is the hotfix update for freezing?
 
I have all the available Windows Updates. From what I understand there was a hotfix for it in the Release Preview and the issue should be completely gone in the full release. But me and many other people still have it. The hotfix can't be installed on the full release and the manual workaround is supposed to be using bcdedit /set disabledynamictick yes but that doesn't help either.
 
You could try booting into safe mode and see if the freezing continues. If it does then it's likely a hardware issue if not then something is awry on the software side of things...
 
This being 100% the same hardware I used under Windows 7 I doubt it is necessary to spend 2 hours+ in safe mode to come to the conclusion that it's software based.

EDIT: I guess this is something only Microsoft can fix, unless it is somehow caused by secondary software. All I know is that it only happens when playing music, it has happened both in iTunes and Windows Media Player. Also as I said before if I interact with iTunes every so often (pause/play the music for example) then it doesn't freeze, I have not tried this in WMP because I never use it.

Seeing as the issue was in the Release Preview and it's something only Windows 8 causes, I will have to place the blame on Microsoft.
 
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Could I possibly get any clues from the Event Viewer? If I check for errors around the time that it freezes and post them here? I have no clue what they mean or where exactly to look so it's useless for myself.

It froze at about 19:53 (because I left iTunes untouched for 1-2 hours) so I used the Reset button and this is all I can find in Event Viewer:

19:53:06 Critical - The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly.

19:53:11 Error - The previous system shutdown at 19:49:02 on ‎2-‎12-‎2012 was unexpected.

No entries at all before that until 14:20:55 which has nothing to do with it.

I do however notice 1 Error and 1 Warning that are listed almost every single day:

Error - A fatal alert was generated and sent to the remote endpoint. This may result in termination of the connection. The TLS protocol defined fatal error code is 51. The Windows SChannel error state is 900.

Warning - Intel(R) 82579V Gigabit Network Connection
Network link is disconnected.

My internet was down once yesterday but these 2 messages are listed almost every day when I am sure I had internet. However no freezes have occurred for a while, before today my last one was on the 29th (also 28, 27, 26, 25).
 
It's newer than the one I had so I'll give it a try. I got most of my drivers from the ASUS website actually, I'll see if I can update any others from the vendors directly.
 
I always update from the manufacturer as apposed to going by Gigabytes almost up to date versions..
 
I might have found a lead as to why the system freezes. It just froze up at around 01:18 and at 01:28 it unfroze again. I check the Event Viewer and found tons of warnings in here about disk0 (I assume this is my C drive) and one error. Screenshots below:

http://s14.directupload.net/images/121204/5bswvy3f.png
http://s14.directupload.net/images/121204/ea8jtnle.png
http://s1.directupload.net/images/121204/8mwt4ui8.png

The error in the first picture appeared only once.
The warning in second picture is the same every time but the block address changes in every listing, it's the one with disk as source.
The warning in the third picture is exactly the same every single time, it's the one that has iaStorA as source.

The reset warning from the third picture is only listed once or twice on other days randomly but during the freeze I just experienced it was listed 11 times from 01:18:31 until 01:28:31, not that this is EXACTLY 10 minutes.

Another thing I noticed is that when I the freeze occurred I also had a game opened, this game (like all my others) is installed on a secondary SSD (my D drive) and this game continued to respond without any issues. See below:

http://s7.directupload.net/images/121204/wjhu4kjv.png

You can see that the sidebar on the right is frozen in place and the preview thumbnail is also frozen. Nothing would respond at all aside from the League of Legends client screen that you see in the middle.

This leads me to believe that the issue is definitely something on my C drive, the question is what. It contains windows and all my applications, only my games are installed on the secondary drive.
 
Well I know iaStorA from doing bsod's and relates to this: event id 129 iastora (Intel Rapid Storage driver/AHCI). Try updating that driver or the firmware of the drives themselves.
 
I used to have the Intel Rapid Storage Driver installed and I recently removed it reverting back to the Intel AHCI drivers, the computer has experienced freezing with both drivers. The very last thing I can think of is updating the firmware on my C drive, but seeing as both my C and D drives are the same and run on the same firmware I find it strange that only the C drive has freezing issues, and only when running Windows 8.

EDIT: After doing some googling I have found out that Event ID 129 is related to system freezes but I can't find a solution anywhere yet.
 
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Yeah I was seeing the same thing.. I'd at least try updating the firmware, what have you got to lose?
 
Just my 2¢ (sorry for butting in here)...

Make sure that you don't have an SSD connected to a controller with outdated drivers (for SSD's anything that isn't from 2012 is considered outdated). In particular (with Asus boards) are the Marvell controllers as the latest drivers date from 2011.

And, FYI, an error due to a hard drive on one controller can actually affect the entire system - that's why (at work) we test all hard drives when we suspect a hard drive issue.

I didn't read the entire topic, but if you can remove the SSD(s), then do so for testing purposes. If the OS drive is on an SSD, leave that test to last - and then put a temporary copy of Windows on a platter based hard drive to see if that fixes it.
 
As far as I know I know motherboard doesn't even have a Marvell controller and I heard they are extremely bad.

Regarding the drivers, when I check on the ASUS website I find 2 different entries under SATA.

ASUS - Motherboards- ASUS Rampage IV Extreme

It shows Asmedia AHCI Driver V1.3.4.0 for Windows 8 32bit & 64bit.(WHQL), from what I can tell the only newer one is 1.3.8.0 however I cannot find anything official from Asmedia themselves.

And

Intel(R) Rapid Storage Technology enterprise Driver Software V3.5.0.1092 for Windows Vista/7 32bit & 64bit.(WHQL)
Intel(R) Rapid Storage Technology enterprise Driver Software V3.5.0.1096 for Windows 8 32bit & 64bit.(WHQL)
Intel(R) AHCI/RAID Driver for Windows Vista/7/8 32bit & 64bit.

I have used the Intel Rapid Storage Technology Enterprise Driver before but only from ASUS, if I try to download it from Intel the installation tells me that my hardware does not support it. The second one, the Intel AHCI/RAID Driver I can't even find on the Intel website so I am using whatever version windows has found.

From what I know my computer has experienced freezing with both drivers and ONLY with Windows 8. I could check to see if my SSD drives have a loose connection anywhere or maybe I could try a different port, but I have no idea if that would help.

EDIT: I have checked the manual and my SSDs are connected to the Intel X79 Serial ATA 6GB/s connectors. Nothing is connected to the Asmedia ones.
 
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So I have installed the Intel(R) Rapid Storage Technology enterprise Driver Software directly from intel, which had a slightly newer version to see if anything changes. Turns out there is a difference between enterprise and non enterprise which is why I could never find the correct one.

If this doesn't work my last hope is to update my C drive firmware as well, but this firmware version existed long before Windows 8 if I recall correctly which is why I don't think it will help. It could be that the drive itself is failing (I have heard a few bad things about the OCZ Vertex 3) but personally I think it's simply an issue within Windows 8 and I will revert back to Windows 7 if I really can't solve it.
 
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