Switch 3 Freezes

jmsantos

Hello everybody. It started freezing some 2 weeks ago when watching vídeos on VLC. VLC has a problem with heavy files and I thought that was the reason. But now it started freezing also doing all kinds of other stuff, like reading pdfs, for instance. When it happens I have to do a hard reboot. I thought it could be a Windows 10 background update but have scheduled them for later in the night and it still freezes. Any ideas on how to overcome this greatly appreciated, Thanks!

billsey

It's likely a recently installed or updated app. You could roll back to before the updates then do them manually to see which causes it.

jmsantos

Thanks! But how can i do it?

billsey

Click on the Start Menu and type "system restore". It will give you the option to create a restore point. That opens a new window where you can follow the prompts to restore to a previous state, based on the dates updates occurred. Just pick a date that's old enough and let it do it's thing. If the problem was caused by the update having issues it should fix it.

jmsantos

thanks - will try

billsey

Let us know how it turns out.

jmsantos

Unfortunately it appears this option was not activated...

jmsantos

I deleted one Windows update made 2 months ago. Lets see if that does the trick.

jmsantos

it didnt - still freezes

billsey

OK, let's try to eliminate some possibilities. Will it freeze when it's just sitting around without you actually doing anything? If so try booting in Safe Mode and check for the same freezing. If it's still there boot into the BIOS and let it sit, does it still freeze? If so it's likely a hardware issue.

jmsantos

So i tried safemode a couple of days. Never froze. Means its software right? I thought about doing a reinstall of Windows - theres an option for it in the recovery menu

billsey

Yup, it pretty much has to be third party software then. You can disable all third party driver in the startup section of msconfig, then gradually add them back in until the problem reappears. How long do you think you'd have to test each configuration before seeing a freeze? I'd actually test for 150% of that time to be safe, and enable your most useful apps first. Once you know where the problem lies you can decide to contact them for a fix or just bag that app.

jmsantos

Hello. Sorry to bother you after all this time, but something strange happened, I tried removing some apps but could not pinpoint a culprit. However, I noticed that, whenever I restarted the tablet in safe mode, it would not freeze for about a month! And the next time it freezes, all i need to do is a simple safe mode restart, and it's good for some weeks again. It's as if there was some kind of buffer that fills with activity and somehow gets cleared with a safe mode reset. Very strange… Any idea what this might be? Thanks a lot, Jorge

billsey

Boy, I can't think of anything that booting in safe mode would do that affects the next normal boot... There shouldn't be any logfile clearing or temporary data removed.