Windows 8 Windows 8.1 High disk activity and freezing

[NitroZip]

After an hour or so of normal, or even no use, windows 8.1 becomes unresponsive. I can move the mouse around, but when I click on something, it hangs and the a few minutes later frees up, the freezes again. When I boot into safe mode I don't have the problem. I have done multiple scans with various software, and with Microsoft diagnoses software. All have found and fixed errors, but didn't fix the problem. My hard drive activity shows maxed out constantly once the problem starts, but not much data being transfered. Anyone have any ideas?

 

[Trouble]

Hello and welcome to the forum.
I would suggest, first backing up all your critical data. A system image using something like AOEMI or something similar is a good first step.
Then I would perform a disk diagnostic using the native Check Disk Utility.
Open an administrative command prompt and type.
chkdsk C: /R
and hit enter
Answer "Y" when prompted and reboot.
Let it run all five stages upon reboot.
Examine the results in Event Viewer paying particular attention to any bad bits that are found.
Then I would likely use the native Defrag Utility to optimize the drive, giving it two consecutive rounds with a reboot in between. Feel free to ignore the 0% fragmented information that is generally noted within the tool and manually run it twice anyway.

 

[NitroZip]

I have done all of that. No change.

 

[Trouble]

When I boot into safe mode I don't have the problem

Then perform a clean boot .... instructions here http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929135/
Select your product at the top and follow the instructions.
See if the problem persists in a Clean Boot environment. If not then the work starts by beginning to turn back on various services that you've disabled and then various startup items until you are able to zero in on the offending program(s) and or service(s).

 

[NitroZip]

Thanks, will try the clean boot method when I get back to the computer

 

[NitroZip]

Did a clean boot. After about 20 min. disk activity way up and everything freezes again.
The only time it doesn't happen is in safe mode.

 

[Trouble]

And when you look at task manager, processes tab what are you seeing with respect to what might be consuming the system resources?

 

[NitroZip]

After sitting for awhile, disk usage has climbed to 16% but only shows a few processes using .1 MB/s, CPU usage going from 1-5% memory staying at 13%,. System started freezing. I let it sit awhile longer, disk activity dropped and became stable.

 

[Trouble]

After sitting for awhile, disk usage has climbed to 16% but only shows a few processes using .1 MB/s, CPU usage going from 1-5% memory. System started freezing

That hardly seems remarkable enough to result in system freezing. Are you sure you are showing processes "for all users".
Maybe take a look at the Performance tab and use the link at the bottom to launch "Resource Monitor" then have a look at the CPU, Memory, Disk and Network tabs and see if you can spot anything unusual going on.

I have done multiple scans with various software

Did you install and run MalwareBytes and is it running currently in the system tray. If not please install the free trial version from here https://www.malwarebytes.org/mwb-download/
The trial version runs in real time and might provide some insight into anything that may be happening in the background.

 

[NitroZip]

After the 16% spike, the system settled back down and has been running normal since. I have run malware bytes.

 

[Trouble]

OK, keep an eye on it and keep us posted as to how you decide to proceed.
Another tool that may help you examine, in a bit more detail, what might be going on is called Process Explorer and you can grab a download from here http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx

 

[NitroZip]

So far it has been stable longer than any other time in the past 4 days. I assume I use mschonfig and enable one process at a time and reboot?
And thanks for your help and patience.

 

[Trouble]

yes.... basically the same way you disabled them, only I would suggest starting with the non-microsoft services that you disabled one at a time. Take some time to examine them and use some common sense as to whether or not you really feel you need them running at all in the first place.
Then do the same thing with the start up items.
You will need to reboot after each item you re-enable and then give it some time to appreciate the potential consequence.
Good luck and good hunting.

 

[NitroZip]

Got it, your help is greatly appreciated.