[SOLVED] Random lock-ups and "Failure to display security and shut down options"

S

shura

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Joined
Feb 2, 2014
Posts
100
I've had some good experience with this forum in the past and it looks like possibly the most challenging computer issue I've ever faced, so here goes...

Random massive slowdowns: no way to open new programs or use those that are open. Ctrl+Alt+Del produces no response, but in a few minutes you can get a "Failure to display security and shut down options" box on black background. Works after hardware shutdown, happens maybe once or twice a week. I noticed that so far it only happened on weekends, when I use it more, but no pattern or any particular software as culprit. First time it happened was Nov 19, I think. Then on Nov 20, and today. Did not install any new software or hardware. Nothing meaningful in the event viewer, unless you tell me there's something in particular I need to look for.

Here's what I've done so far:

1. After the second occurrence on Nov 21, restored the system to mid Nov checkpoint prior to some windows update. This killed Windows Update (permanent hang), so I undid the restore.
2. Did some googling, reset winsock in elevated cmd -- no result.
3. Kaspersky rescue disk scan -- clean.

Currently running chkdsk on the system drive, but from the results so far looks like the everything is peachy. Will update if that changes. Planned: sfc /scannow and memtest
I saw online posts about BSODs accompanying this -- I've got no BSODs. Some posts described antivirus software as culprits -- I don't have it. Other posts mentioned some graphics-related issues, like an active mini display port to DVI adapter instead of passive, which solved the problem. I am not using any adapters.


The PC is from here: https://www.sysnative.com/forums/bs...s-7-x64-random-shutdowns-usually-no-bsod.html
so i'll just copy/paste the info:

OS: Win 7 Home x64 (original OEM by Dell, no reinstallations)
Age: 3-4 years
CPU: Core i5-3450 @ 3.1 GHz
Video card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 by Gigabyte
Motherboard: Dell
Power Supply: Dell, 460W (or so Dell claims)
Manufacturer and Model: Dell XPS 8500

Please help. Thank you!
 
MichaelB said:
Hi,

random hangs and slowdowns are mostly or often the product of unwanted Software.

run this first
ToolsLib - Downloads - AdwCleaner

then
Malwarebytes | Wir schutzen Sie vor gefahrlichen Bedrohungen, <br/>die von Antivirenprogrammen nicht erkannt werden.
Click to expand...
Thanks for responding. I scanned with Malwarebytes in safe mode and after normal boot, nothing found. Will try the AdvCleaner.

When I do manage to open task manager during the slowdown, the CPU usage is pretty much zero. Also, I saw some posts online about overheating and was able to pull up temperature monitor (CPU, GPU, HDD) during this whole mess -- all temperatures normal (assuming that utility isn't lying). Yet, the system becomes either nonresponsive, or near-nonresponsive.
 
Another question.
Soon after I posted yesterday, the computer locked up again when I decided to back up ~35GB of data to an external USB drive. I managed to properly restart the machine, disable Microsoft Security Essentials (this is the only antivirus I ever used on this PC) and do the back up successfully. Are we aware of this kind of crap caused by MSE? I reinstalled it for good measure.
 
shura said:
Another question.
Soon after I posted yesterday, the computer locked up again when I decided to back up ~35GB of data to an external USB drive. I managed to properly restart the machine, disable Microsoft Security Essentials (this is the only antivirus I ever used on this PC) and do the back up successfully. Are we aware of this kind of crap caused by MSE? I reinstalled it for good measure.
Click to expand...

usually MSE behaves fine except when cluttered updates.
Acronis is a nightmare, your Dell isn't a Workstation which needs a otherwise unchanged prof. Licence, Acronis failed her the reason i dropped them in 2010 and changed to O&O.
The latter also fails in supporting there diskimage 11 & BlueCon in a prof. way; the reason i re-engineered and build my own BlueCon just like Bart-CD with parts of O&O.

all is marketing, most support is useless because of less knowledge in Win & their own products :(
 
MichaelB said:
shura said:
Another question.
Soon after I posted yesterday, the computer locked up again when I decided to back up ~35GB of data to an external USB drive. I managed to properly restart the machine, disable Microsoft Security Essentials (this is the only antivirus I ever used on this PC) and do the back up successfully. Are we aware of this kind of crap caused by MSE? I reinstalled it for good measure.
Click to expand...

usually MSE behaves fine except when cluttered updates.
Acronis is a nightmare, your Dell isn't a Workstation which needs a otherwise unchanged prof. Licence, Acronis failed her the reason i dropped them in 2010 and changed to O&O.
The latter also fails in supporting there diskimage 11 & BlueCon in a prof. way; the reason i re-engineered and build my own BlueCon just like Bart-CD with parts of O&O.

all is marketing, most support is useless because of less knowledge in Win & their own products :(
Click to expand...
Not really sure why we're on the topic of Acronis -- I never mentioned it here. Are you confusing this with some other thread? I just copied/pasted a lot of data, no partition backups or anything like that...
 
MichaelB said:
sch........................t you are right :D
Click to expand...
Hehe that's fine.:)
AdwCleaner found 37 entries, all in the registry -- cleaned. I also seem to have some dust and almost sticky grease all over the two giant fans on my graphics card. I am not sure a fan getting stuck would cause such symptoms. Anyway, will take it out and try to clean. Fingers crossed.
 
> AdwCleaner found 37 entries, all in the registry -- cleaned.

ok, and the result?
run malwarebytes again, thats the order to run i told first.
 
MichaelB said:
ok, and the result?
run malwarebytes again, thats the order to run i told first.
Click to expand...
Malwarebytes finds zero threats. Not a single freeze since the initial post, but they kind of happen weekly, so I'll be waiting. Might be too early to tag this as "solved." I'll keep the thread updated.
 
Just a quick update, since there have been no hangs for over a week... I really think in my case this had to do with MSE that gets bogged down with updates. Reinstalling MSE was the only significant change to the system since the start of this thread. Today, my machine froze for a quick moment and right about the same time there Event Viewer got filled information notes about MSE updates. When I checked the hangs from a week ago, they were accompanied by events about MSE crashing. Pretty circumstantial, but may be useful to someone. Will be back with more info.
Another antivirus? What's good and light and fast these days? I don't mind paying.
 
Hi,
as this is the BSOD-Part here and MSE did not work as expected for you, any free AV-Scanner might do what you want or not.

No Dump or Report you are pretty alone, we need something to bite and no speculation :noidea:
 
MichaelB said:
Hi,
No Dump or Report you are pretty alone, we need something to bite and no speculation :noidea:
Click to expand...
I understand, but no dumps here. Well, yesterday night I got back home and found my computer shut down instead of sleeping (this never happened before) -- for a second I started checking for memory dumps, but all that was was my gorgeous UPS, which nicely shut down the machine after utility power loss. :)
So, back to the initial problem. I think, given that it's been two weeks, it's fair to suggest that whatever we did here worked. To be helpful to someone googling their symptoms, for me it was reinstalling MSE and cleaning the system with AdwCleaner.
 

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