SOLVED Windows 10 Acer Aspire 5733 constantly freezing

[Negonsie]

My Windows 10 Acer Aspire 5733 laptop constantly freezes. When I logon for the first time it will take almost 30 minutes not responding to any keystrokes. After that itwill respond for some moment and then goes again freezing for quite a long time, almost 20-30 minutes. I can't figure out the problem. Actually I can't do any task quickly i.e. I mean pressing buttons quickly, that makes it freezes. Trying to open applications or programs quickly also makes it freeze. May someone help!

 

[Trouble]

Hello and welcome to the forum.
Looking at some fundamental specs on that machine it looks like an older Core i3 2.5 Ghz with 4 gigs of RAM, so......
While it will never be a rocketship, it certainly shouldn't be behaving that poorly.
I'd recommend you backup all your critical data and after you are certain your data is safe.....
I'd suggest you use the native Check Disk utility to determine if there are any issues with the hard drive.
Right click the Start Button and choose Command Prompt (Admin) and in the command prompt window type
chkdsk C: /R
hit enter
answer Y (yes) when prompted
type exit
hit enter
reboot and let it run. It'll likely take a long time, do not interrupt it and when complete it will auto reboot your machine. Check the results in the Event Viewer log.

 

[Negonsie]

Hello and welcome to the forum.
Looking at some fundamental specs on that machine it looks like an older Core i3 2.5 Ghz with 4 gigs of RAM, so......
While it will never be a rocketship, it certainly shouldn't be behaving that poorly.
I'd recommend you backup all your critical data and after you are certain your data is safe.....
I'd suggest you use the native Check Disk utility to determine if there are any issues with the hard drive.
Right click the Start Button and choose Command Prompt (Admin) and in the command prompt window type
chkdsk C: /R
hit enter
answer Y (yes) when prompted
type exit
hit enter
reboot and let it run. It'll likely take a long time, do not interrupt it and when complete it will auto reboot your machine. Check the results in the Event Viewer log.

Hello Trouble

Thanks for the valuable response. I did run the check disk tasks as you suggested, I ran the task twice, however I can't read much of problem in the results. I'm sending the results with this reply so that you can help me interpret the results. First scan results are labelled "Results for first scan" and the second scan labelled "Results for second scan".

Results for first scan
"Log Name: Application
Source: Microsoft-Windows-Wininit
Date: 2016/07/29 20:29:31
Event ID: 1001
Task Category: None
Level: Information
Keywords: Classic
User: N/A
Computer: ############
Description:


Checking file system on C:
The type of the file system is NTFS.
Volume label is Acer.

A disk check has been scheduled.
Windows will now check the disk.

Stage 1: Examining basic file system structure ...
424448 file records processed.

File verification completed.
11861 large file records processed.

0 bad file records processed.


Stage 2: Examining file name linkage ...
516162 index entries processed.

Index verification completed.
0 unindexed files scanned.

0 unindexed files recovered to lost and found.


Stage 3: Examining security descriptors ...
Cleaning up 907 unused index entries from index $SII of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 907 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 907 unused security descriptors.
CHKDSK is compacting the security descriptor stream
Security descriptor verification completed.
45858 data files processed.

CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal...
The USN Journal entry at offset 0x4732b6000 and length 0xee457529 crosses
the page boundary.
Usn Journal verification completed.

Stage 4: Looking for bad clusters in user file data ...
424432 files processed.

File data verification completed.

Stage 5: Looking for bad, free clusters ...
52348396 free clusters processed.

Free space verification is complete.
Correcting errors in the master file table's (MFT) BITMAP attribute.
Correcting errors in the Volume Bitmap.

Windows has made corrections to the file system.
No further action is required.

293592063 KB total disk space.
83532248 KB in 233296 files.
162540 KB in 45861 indexes.
0 KB in bad sectors.
503691 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
209393584 KB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
73398015 total allocation units on disk.
52348396 allocation units available on disk.

Internal Info:
00 7a 06 00 d8 41 04 00 f8 02 08 00 00 00 00 00 .z...A..........
52 1d 00 00 12 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 R...............

Windows has finished checking your disk.
Please wait while your computer restarts.

Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
<System>
<Provider Name="Microsoft-Windows-Wininit" Guid="{206f6dea-d3c5-4d10-bc72-989f03c8b84b}" EventSourceName="Wininit" />
<EventID Qualifiers="16384">1001</EventID>
<Version>0</Version>
<Level>4</Level>
<Task>0</Task>
<Opcode>0</Opcode>
<Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime="2016-07-29T18:29:31.770556200Z" />
<EventRecordID>177397</EventRecordID>
<Correlation />
<Execution ProcessID="0" ThreadID="0" />
<Channel>Application</Channel>
<Computer>Negondeni-PC</Computer>
<Security />
</System>
<EventData>
<Data>

Checking file system on C:
The type of the file system is NTFS.
Volume label is Acer.

A disk check has been scheduled.
Windows will now check the disk.

Stage 1: Examining basic file system structure ...
424448 file records processed.

File verification completed.
11861 large file records processed.

0 bad file records processed.


Stage 2: Examining file name linkage ...
516162 index entries processed.

Index verification completed.
0 unindexed files scanned.

0 unindexed files recovered to lost and found.


Stage 3: Examining security descriptors ...
Cleaning up 907 unused index entries from index $SII of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 907 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 907 unused security descriptors.
CHKDSK is compacting the security descriptor stream
Security descriptor verification completed.
45858 data files processed.

CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal...
The USN Journal entry at offset 0x4732b6000 and length 0xee457529 crosses
the page boundary.
Usn Journal verification completed.

Stage 4: Looking for bad clusters in user file data ...
424432 files processed.

File data verification completed.

Stage 5: Looking for bad, free clusters ...
52348396 free clusters processed.

Free space verification is complete.
Correcting errors in the master file table's (MFT) BITMAP attribute.
Correcting errors in the Volume Bitmap.

Windows has made corrections to the file system.
No further action is required.

293592063 KB total disk space.
83532248 KB in 233296 files.
162540 KB in 45861 indexes.
0 KB in bad sectors.
503691 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
209393584 KB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
73398015 total allocation units on disk.
52348396 allocation units available on disk.

Internal Info:
00 7a 06 00 d8 41 04 00 f8 02 08 00 00 00 00 00 .z...A..........
52 1d 00 00 12 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 R...............

Windows has finished checking your disk.
Please wait while your computer restarts.
</Data>
</EventData>
</Event>

Results for second scan
"Log Name: Application
Source: Microsoft-Windows-Wininit
Date: 2016/07/30 00:06:02
Event ID: 1001
Task Category: None
Level: Information
Keywords: Classic
User: N/A
Computer: ###########
Description:


Checking file system on C:
The type of the file system is NTFS.
Volume label is Acer.

A disk check has been scheduled.
Windows will now check the disk.

Stage 1: Examining basic file system structure ...
424448 file records processed.

File verification completed.
11860 large file records processed.

0 bad file records processed.


Stage 2: Examining file name linkage ...
516248 index entries processed.

Index verification completed.
0 unindexed files scanned.

0 unindexed files recovered to lost and found.


Stage 3: Examining security descriptors ...
Cleaning up 23 unused index entries from index $SII of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 23 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 23 unused security descriptors.
Security descriptor verification completed.
45901 data files processed.

CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal...
3560592 USN bytes processed.

Usn Journal verification completed.

Stage 4: Looking for bad clusters in user file data ...
424432 files processed.

File data verification completed.

Stage 5: Looking for bad, free clusters ...
52356311 free clusters processed.

Free space verification is complete.

Windows has scanned the file system and found no problems.
No further action is required.

293592063 KB total disk space.
83496912 KB in 233420 files.
162592 KB in 45902 indexes.
0 KB in bad sectors.
507315 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
209425244 KB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
73398015 total allocation units on disk.
52356311 allocation units available on disk.

Internal Info:
00 7a 06 00 7f 42 04 00 7c 04 08 00 00 00 00 00 .z...B..|.......
53 1d 00 00 12 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 S...............

Windows has finished checking your disk.
Please wait while your computer restarts.

Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
<System>
<Provider Name="Microsoft-Windows-Wininit" Guid="{206f6dea-d3c5-4d10-bc72-989f03c8b84b}" EventSourceName="Wininit" />
<EventID Qualifiers="16384">1001</EventID>
<Version>0</Version>
<Level>4</Level>
<Task>0</Task>
<Opcode>0</Opcode>
<Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime="2016-07-29T22:06:02.274813000Z" />
<EventRecordID>177544</EventRecordID>
<Correlation />
<Execution ProcessID="0" ThreadID="0" />
<Channel>Application</Channel>
<Computer>Negondeni-PC</Computer>
<Security />
</System>
<EventData>
<Data>

Checking file system on C:
The type of the file system is NTFS.
Volume label is Acer.

A disk check has been scheduled.
Windows will now check the disk.

Stage 1: Examining basic file system structure ...
424448 file records processed.

File verification completed.
11860 large file records processed.

0 bad file records processed.


Stage 2: Examining file name linkage ...
516248 index entries processed.

Index verification completed.
0 unindexed files scanned.

0 unindexed files recovered to lost and found.


Stage 3: Examining security descriptors ...
Cleaning up 23 unused index entries from index $SII of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 23 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 23 unused security descriptors.
Security descriptor verification completed.
45901 data files processed.

CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal...
3560592 USN bytes processed.

Usn Journal verification completed.

Stage 4: Looking for bad clusters in user file data ...
424432 files processed.

File data verification completed.

Stage 5: Looking for bad, free clusters ...
52356311 free clusters processed.

Free space verification is complete.

Windows has scanned the file system and found no problems.
No further action is required.

293592063 KB total disk space.
83496912 KB in 233420 files.
162592 KB in 45902 indexes.
0 KB in bad sectors.
507315 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
209425244 KB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
73398015 total allocation units on disk.
52356311 allocation units available on disk.

Internal Info:
00 7a 06 00 7f 42 04 00 7c 04 08 00 00 00 00 00 .z...B..|.......
53 1d 00 00 12 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 S...............

Windows has finished checking your disk.
Please wait while your computer restarts.
</Data>
</EventData>
</Event>"

 

[Trouble]

Looks good to me.
Now run defrag manually, reboot and run it again.
Start Button -> All Apps -> Windows Administrative Tools -> Defrag and Optimize

 

[Negonsie]

Looks good to me.
Now run defrag manually, reboot and run it again.
Start Button -> All Apps -> Windows Administrative Tools -> Defrag and Optimize

Hi Trouble

Thanks once more for the valuable information. As you suggested I ran the defrag, the reboot. But then when I was rebooting the machine froze while in the stage of loading drivers. I had to wait for +30mins for it to be responsive. From then on it was freezing now and then. The defrag seems not to have helped. At one stage I though it will not respond any more because the screen went black and it stayed for a long time without responding. I'm even thinking: Is it related to the BIOS, the current version in the machine is 0.7? I don't have much knowledge with this issue however I'm just giving a hint. Even when I'm responding to this thread it froze for 20 minutes. Just help me I'm getting frustrated with the machine.

regards,
Negonsie

 

[Trouble]

rebooting the machine froze while in the stage of loading drivers

How did you come by that understanding of what was happening. Are you booting into Safe Mode where perhaps you are seeing your drivers enumerated?
What is the name of the last driver you see being loaded?

As far as the "BIOS" question you'll need to check with Acer to see if they have anything available in the way of a firmware update for that exact machine.
Often if there is a BIOS update the vendor will explain what it addresses. So you may be able to tell if it will help with your issue(s).

 

[Negonsie]

How did you come by that understanding of what was happening. Are you booting into Safe Mode where perhaps you are seeing your drivers enumerated?
What is the name of the last driver you see being loaded?

As far as the "BIOS" question you'll need to check with Acer to see if they have anything available in the way of a firmware update for that exact machine.
Often if there is a BIOS update the vendor will explain what it addresses. So you may be able to tell if it will help with your issue(s).

No I wasn't booting into the Safe Mode. My understanding is that when the machine is switched on it loads drivers and programs that should enable it to be usable. So it is at that stage where it will be starting up and I'll not start pressing keys but wait for it to finish loading the startup programs.
As for the BIOS I also indicated that I'm just hinting on that, I'm not even sure if it is the cause of all the freezing that is taking place. However I'm ready for any assistance available to resolve this problem. Is there anything that I can do perhaps, as diagnostic step to try and find the exact problem?

 

[Trouble]

Try clean booting the system and see if that produces any relief. Run it like that for a day or two and check Windows Update manually in the interim to make sure everything is up to date.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/929135
Easily done and easily undone.
You're basically just disabling all Startup Items and all non-Microsoft services. Do no mess with the Microsoft services. Be sure to check the box to hide them before proceeding.

 

[BigFeet]

Looking at Acer's website, your model is not one they support for a Windows 10 upgrade. Most likely because they won't provide updated drivers, but may be because of some hardware incompatibility. Hard to tell what it is, but to me it sounds like hardware.

 

[Negonsie]

Try clean booting the system and see if that produces any relief. Run it like that for a day or two and check Windows Update manually in the interim to make sure everything is up to date.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/929135
Easily done and easily undone.
You're basically just disabling all Startup Items and all non-Microsoft services. Do no mess with the Microsoft services. Be sure to check the box to hide them before proceeding.

Thanks. I've followed all steps as detailed on how to clean reboot. As I'm responding to this thread I can't reboot because the System Configuration is not responding. I did all steps up to step 6 but then when I clicked OK in order to reboot the System Configuration can't respond. I don't know if it will respond. It's stuck on "Not Responding". What must I do?

 

[Negonsie]

Looking at Acer's website, your model is not one they support for a Windows 10 upgrade. Most likely because they won't provide updated drivers, but may be because of some hardware incompatibility. Hard to tell what it is, but to me it sounds like hardware.

But how can I solve the problem. If that's the case that there's hardware problem how do I go about fixing the freezing issue? Help!

 

[Negonsie]

Thanks. I've followed all steps as detailed on how to clean reboot. As I'm responding to this thread I can't reboot because the System Configuration is not responding. I did all steps up to step 6 but then when I clicked OK in order to reboot the System Configuration can't respond. I don't know if it will respond. It's stuck on "Not Responding". What must I do?

Hello Trouble

Since I wrote about the System Configuration not resonding, it's been like that. I've failed and I'm still failing to do clean reboot. I've tried four(4) times and every time I get to the last step in order to colse the System Configuration and restart the machine, the System Configuration indicates "Not Responding" and it won't close as long as I leave it. I tried restart while it still indicate the "Not Responding" message but with no success. It would just indicate "Restarting" but will remain like that for as long as no other key or button is pressed. I had to force shutdown by pressing the power button. Desperate to get solution to the problem I discovered something that I feel 'might' have to do with the freezing problem. When I open Control panel>>All Control Panel Items>>System under Windows edition I see Windows 10 Pro. When I continue to open Advanced Systems Settings (just on the left pane)>>System Properties>>Advanced tab>> under Start-up and Recovery>>Settings>>System Start-up>>Default operating system, only Windows 8 is listed. I wonder why there's no Windows 10. I see the same issue of the OS when I open System Configuration>> Boot tab>>, the only OS listed is Windows 8. I think this might be the cause of all the freezing taking place in this machine, unless I'm not so knowledgeable with this. My question is why are there two OS listed differently in the machine?

 

[Trouble]

When I open Control panel>>All Control Panel Items>>System under Windows edition I see Windows 10 Pro. When I continue to open Advanced Systems Settings (just on the left pane)>>System Properties>>Advanced tab>> under Start-up and Recovery>>Settings>>System Start-up>>Default operating system, only Windows 8 is listed. I wonder why there's no Windows 10. I see the same issue of the OS when I open System Configuration>> Boot tab>>, the only OS listed is Windows 8. I think this might be the cause of all the freezing taking place in this machine, unless I'm not so knowledgeable with this. My question is why are there two OS listed differently in the machine?

The short answer is .... I don't know. It sounds like the system is not aware that it has been upgraded to Windows 10 (completely).
When did this problem start happening. Was it immediately after you completed the upgrade from 8 to 10?
Have you tried restarting the machine in Safe Mode with Networking.
Hold the Shift Key on your keyboard while clicking Restart from the power menu.
Use the Advanced Troubleshooting options to get to Startup Settings and after you choose Restart, choose Safe mode with networking from the list (#5 I believe).
See what happens when you try that.

 

[Negonsie]

The short answer is .... I don't know. It sounds like the system is not aware that it has been upgraded to Windows 10 (completely).
When did this problem start happening. Was it immediately after you completed the upgrade from 8 to 10?
Have you tried restarting the machine in Safe Mode with Networking.
Hold the Shift Key on your keyboard while clicking Restart from the power menu.
Use the Advanced Troubleshooting options to get to Startup Settings and after you choose Restart, choose Safe mode with networking from the list (#5 I believe).
See what happens when you try that.

Hello Trouble

It sounds the machine its not aware really. This issue of OS I'm just discovering it today. But the issue of freezing started around May this year. I tried to find solutions by googling but with no success.

 

[Negonsie]

Hello Trouble

It sounds the machine its not aware really. This issue of OS I'm just discovering it today. But the issue of freezing started around May this year. I tried to find solutions by googling but with no success.

I've just rebooted on Safe Mode but then I get an error message: "This app can't open" and then "Get Started can't be opened using the Built-in Administrator account. Sign in with a different account and try again"

 

[Trouble]

Yes, just ignore those. They are just a couple Universal Apps that run at startup, that don't like Safe Mode
My interest was to investigate the overall behavior and performance of the computer, when operating in Safe Mode with Networking to see if it was still freezing.

 

[Negonsie]

Yes, just ignore those. They are just a couple Universal Apps that run at startup, that don't like Safe Mode
My interest was to investigate the overall behavior and performance of the computer, when operating in Safe Mode with Networking to see if it was still freezing.

OK, it doesn't freeze and it responds well. Even if I click and press quickly, it responds faster and we'll.

 

[Trouble]

Then it is time to reboot normally.
Use the Startup tab in Task Manager to disable all startup items.
IF you have any third party security suite other than the default Defender product and the native Windows Firewall. You need to uninstall it or them.
IF you have any USB peripherals attached you need to detach them, leaving only a monitor, usb wired mouse and usb wired keyboard. Not even a USB attached printer should be connected at this point.

 

[Negonsie]

Then it is time to reboot normally.
Use the Startup tab in Task Manager to disable all startup items.
IF you have any third party security suite other than the default Defender product and the native Windows Firewall. You need to uninstall it or them.
IF you have any USB peripherals attached you need to detach them, leaving only a monitor, usb wired mouse and usb wired keyboard. Not even a USB attached printer should be connected at this point.

I've restarted as you indicated. So far the first few minutes it's behaving well. I'll monitor it and see if it's OK. But the OS issue is surprising. Should I just ignore it or what can I do to rectify this?

 

[Trouble]

Well, I have no idea what version of Windows 10 you have currently installed, but if it was me, I would go immediately to Windows Update and see what might be out there.