Windows 11 Windows 11 - Regular "not responding" message in all apps.

[sidr]

In Windows 10, it all worked fine for 2-3 days, then I get a "not responding" message at the top,
then all apps fail taking sometime to close down, before I can reboot.
I have to reboot 3-4 times in a row else it runs slow.
And these are long reboots ~5 minutes each.
I can understand one reboot, but why 3-4 and why so long?

I upgraded to Windows 11, but still the same problem.

I have also tried numerous other things:
MS Trouble shooter
“Admin Prompt” - sfc /scannow
Checked drivers are up to date
checked Windows updates

Any suggestions?

 

[sidr]

... When I say... I get a "not responding" message at the top,
I mean at the top of various programs, most recently Excel when typing, but on other occasions it was when typing using MS Word or Outlook.

It is very frustrating every 3 days, because I have to wait around 1/2 hour for 3-4 slow reboots to occur. Any suggestions?

 

[kemical]

Hi,
are you running any aggressive anti virus apps?

Try running DISM

Same process as for scannow but type:
dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth

Check your browser extensions and if need be remove or disable.

 

[sidr]

Thanks for 3 lots of advice.

I tried dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth. No errors but I will wait 3 days to see if more "not responding" with Word/Excel/Outlook etc

While waiting...

My anti virus software is Total AV - is that aggressive?

I changed browser from Google chrome to Brave, and still same problem.
My Bravo extensions are Adblock Plus, iCloud Bookmarks, iCloud Passwords, Onetab, Popup Blocker for Chrome
Are any of these risky to PC stability?

 

[sidr]

When I tried dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth, no errors, but very slow re-boot, requiring 3 reboots else PC ran slowly.
So probably not going to the "not responding" errors in 2-3 days time.

 

[sidr]

.... 2nd line should read:
So probably not going to fix the "not responding" errors in 2-3 days time.

 

[kemical]

My anti virus software is Total AV - is that aggressive?

I guess the only way to tell if the AV suite is a culprit is by running with it removed

I changed browser from Google chrome to Brave, and still same problem.
My Bravo extensions are Adblock Plus, iCloud Bookmarks, iCloud Passwords, Onetab, Popup Blocker for Chrome
Are any of these risky to PC stability?

Nothing looks too bad here but again the only way to test is by disabling or removing possible culprits

Have you tried running a repair on the apps which are not responding?
Repair an Office application

 

[sidr]

Thanks. The problem with removing for AV suite for 3 days is I won't have protection for 3 days.
Do I risk it, or use free AV instead eg AVG?
If I remove Browser extensions for 3 days, won't it severely impact on Browser functionality?
I have used Office repair before, but the problem comes back.

 

[kemical]

Thanks. The problem with removing for AV suite for 3 days is I won't have protection for 3 days.
Do I risk it, or use free AV instead eg AVG?
If I remove Browser extensions for 3 days, won't it severely impact on Browser functionality?

Bug hunting is a pain and is basically down to trial and error on what the possible cause could be.

You could see if your AV has a user forum? Maybe other users have experienced the same thing.

 

[sidr]

There may be another cause...
My outlook.pst is 1.6GB, which apparently isn't too large to exceed some limit. However every time I have run scanpst.exe to repair the pst, it has always come up with errors (refer attached) which scanpst repairs, or so it states afterwards. Can an outlook.pst cause instability in any/all open apps causing "not responding" errors?

 

[sidr]

Update: 2 more possible causes:
-max size of pst is 50GB, so my 1.6GB pst should be fine.... however several times in recent months MS Outlook 2019 says I have reached max size, so I keep having to delete emails or their attachments. Why would it say this limit is reached? When I go to DOS and do "dir \outlook" it says:
14/08/2022 03:53 PM 1,651,721,216 Outlook.pst
-I contacted TotalAV, and they kindly did a remote session on my PC, and did a lot of tests, and they concluded TotalAV is not the cause of my "not responding" errors. They suggested it was most likely due to "heavy" apps. While I do have a few apps, the only 4 I use regularly are Word, Excel, Outlook and Brave Brower (I got same error when I used Google Chrome). I provide you with attached screendump to review.

 

[sidr]

Update: Or do I need more RAM? I currently have "8.00 GB (7.72 GB usable)"

 

[sidr]

Attn: Link Removed
Your post failed, could you please report

 

[sidr]

... that's "please re-post"

 

[kemical]

Update: Or do I need more RAM? I currently have "8.00 GB (7.72 GB usable)"

I doubt it..

You could try recreating your page file in case thats become corrupted.. Although I'm unsure if will help at all

Is everything fully updated app wise?

 

[sidr]

MS Office is up to date.
Brave browser was not up to date, so I updated it. I guess I will wait another 2-3 days to see if I get the chronic <app> "not responding" error with my apps.
In the meantime did you check my attachment of Sunday 4:09pm? Is it in order?

 

[sidr]

In attached Sunday 4:09pm, it says Brave Browser consumes 588MB of memory. Is that critically high, enough to cause instability and "not responding" errors?

 

[kemical]

In attached Sunday 4:09pm, it says Brave Browser consumes 588MB of memory. Is that critically high, enough to cause instability and "not responding" errors?

I'm unsure but the link below may help

Brave browser is consuming huge amount of memory and battery

Description of the issue: Brave browser is consuming too much memory and battery without opening any tab on it! Knowing that I have 8 GB of ram. How can this issue be reproduced? Open brave browser with 0 tap opened Go to Task Manager of windows 10 Expected result: Google chrome is...

community.brave.com

 

[sidr]

Thanks. It seems if I can only have a couple of tabs open in a browser, that makes it a near-useless browser.

What about my other issue...
My outlook.pst is 1.6GB, which apparently isn't too large to exceed some limit of ~50GB. However every time I have run scanpst.exe to repair the pst, it has always come up with errors (refer attached) which scanpst repairs, or so it states afterwards.
Can a 1.6GB outlook.pst cause instability in any/all open apps causing "not responding" errors?

 

[kemical]

Can a 1.6GB outlook.pst cause instability in any/all open apps causing "not responding" errors?

Apparently not but I have little experience in this area. If you have a lot of apps installed go through them and remove what you no longer use. Try to run your system as clean as possible that means only using a few third party apps.