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 Post Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2019 10:11 am 
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I am currently running Windows 10, version 1809, and my computer stays on 24/7. Occasionally my computer will lockup such that both the keyboard and mouse are useless. This requires that I power down and then power back up. These lockups (or freezes) never occur when I am using the computer....they always occur when I am away from the computer. Then when I return, the lockup has occurred.

I am totally perplexed as to the cause of these lockups. I am now wondering if the Windows Automatic Maintenance process might be causing my problem, so I am thinking about turning this feature off to see what happens.

Any thoughts or recommendations would be appreciated. Thanks in advance....

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 Post Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2019 10:39 am 
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I have experienced the same thing and in order to not have the computer lock up, I normally run SETI 24/7, I changed my setting to never shut down (sleep) the display. It seems to work for me as I have not had a lockup in months now. For me it was about some things going to sleep and not waking up as they are supposed to.

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 Post Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2019 11:54 am 
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Thanks for the response, Bill. I had both Screen and PC set to NEVER for sleep, so that shouldn't be my problem. I do have a screen saver that rotates through some of my many animal photos....I'm hoping that's not my problem.

Two questions:
(1) What is SETI (search for extraterrestrial intelligence?)
(2) Do you run the Windows Automatic Maintenance utility, or have you turned it off?

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 Post Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2019 3:18 pm 
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Keep in mind that the automatic maintenance does things such as your automatic malware and performance scans. If disabled I believe you would also lose anything set up via the Task Scheduler. Not really that big of a deal as long as you do manual security scans.

Yes, S.E.T.I. is search for extraterrestrial intelligence. You can install software that basically joins your system to a network. Each system is sent samples that are then processed and returned to S.E.T.I.. It is like having a super computer that is spread out all over the world to do the processing. The networking is called SETI@HOME.
http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/

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 Post Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2019 5:42 pm 
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Jay told you what SETI is. I have been a member doing calculations on my computers since 2001, not quite the very beginning. I run one 16 core Ryzen with 3 video cards(for the faster GPU processing) as part of my 4 computer "farm". It is known as distributed processing.

Answer to the second question, yes, I run with WAM on.

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 Post Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2019 8:07 pm 
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BillG wrote:
....lI run one 16 core Ryzen with 3 video cards(for the faster GPU processing) as part of my 4 computer "farm".

WOW Bill, and I thought I had a strong system with my Ryzen 1800X 8-core, Radeon R9 380 series video and 32GB RAM.

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 Post Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2019 9:48 pm 
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jaylach wrote:
Keep in mind that the automatic maintenance does things such as your automatic malware and performance scans. If disabled I believe you would also lose anything set up via the Task Scheduler. Not really that big of a deal as long as you do manual security scans.


Jay, I'm a little confused here. I thought MBAM Premium took care of my automatic malware scans and that Windows Security took care of virus, threats, network, etc. security scans. So why do I need WAM for these activities? I'm anxious to see if WAM is causing my random lockups, but not if disabling WAM jeopardizes my security. Just asking....

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 Post Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2019 11:22 pm 
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Automatic Maintenance does more than just security scans, should be doing things like disk cleanup, defragging/optimization of drives, etc.


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 Post Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2019 11:45 pm 
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I can't say whether MBAM would be affected or not. I was referring to Defender as to WAM handling stuff. In either case I don't believe there would be any affect on real time protection. I was referring to automatic system scans.

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 Post Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2019 12:31 am 
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bbarry wrote:
Jay, I'm a little confused here. I thought MBAM Premium took care of my automatic malware scans and that Windows Security took care of virus, threats, network, etc. security scans.

If you are using MBAM Premium, it is your antivirus/antimalware protection and scanner. Defender (Windows Security on Windows 10 is Windows Defender Security Center that allows you to manage Defender, reports on the status of other elements of security of the system, and system health) will still perform limited periodic scans, but it is no longer your primary protection -- that is provided by MBAM Premium and scans would be scheduled within MBAM. Defender scans cannot be scheduled (well, they can, but not directly -- we won't go there as it's an advanced option using Scheduled Tasks)
Automatic Maintenance is accessed via All Control Panel items in Windows 10. You can get there by typing Automatic Maintenance in the Search box/Cortana.
Attachment:
Capture.JPG
Capture.JPG [ 40.49 KiB | Viewed 6429 times ]


Diagnosing what is causing your lockups is probably going to be tough. I doubt that it's Automatic Maintenance. I suspect it is a memory leak of some sort. It could also be a display driver problem.

Have you spent any time being totally perplexed by the entirely too detailed, yet insanely confusing Event Viewer? You may be able to scroll through the entries to see what the last few entries were prior to the forced reboot. That may provide a clue to the cause. Unfortunately, it may not provide any useful information, but rather show lots and lots of innocuous "errors" being logged that really aren't problematic...

-steve

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 Post Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2019 1:18 am 
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@ Steve: Something keeps bugging me about this Steve. Do you remember way back when the issue I had on my second system where I'd lose the right click context menu functionality?
http://www.computerhaven.com/forum/view ... =14&t=1786

There is a bit of a similarity here. While BB is using a slide show as a screen saver and I was using a slide show as a wallpaper both involved slide shows. I agree that it could be a memory leak and, also, admit that there are differences in the situation. The difference is that I didn't actually crash and could re-start normally but the slide show was used in a bit of a different manner. Do you see any possibility that the slide show could be the culprit?

@ BB: How much memory (RAM) is in the system? I ask due to the slim possibility that there could be common ground between your system and my second system. My second system has 8GB.

Have you done the fall 2018 build upgrade yet? I forced it manually and saw a drastic improvement on my second system. Instead of having to restart every 2-3 days it went to having to restart ever 5-6 days. It would seem that the fall upgrade does some changes to memory management.

Another similarity as to issues is that this would only happen on my second system when it was idle. If I can come up with a workable scheduled task I may do an experiment and give it a try to prevent the system from going idle for an extended time. The problem is that there is the system being idle and then there is the system being idle. Not all processes see the system being idle as the same thing. For instance, since SETI@HOME came up earlier, I have it set to suspend if the system is active yet SETI@HOME continues to run during such scheduled tasks as system images and security scans. I just don't think that I know how to set up the experiment. The problem is what defines the system being idle. In some cases it is if a mouse and/or keyboard change has happened. In other cases it can be a usage level of the CPU or, even, the GPU.

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 Post Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2019 12:26 pm 
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Thanks to all for the input. I will be gone for remainder of day, but tonight I will respond with answers/comments to your questions.

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 Post Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2019 4:36 pm 
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jaylach wrote:
@ Steve: Something keeps bugging me about this Steve. Do you remember way back when the issue I had on my second system where I'd lose the right click context menu functionality?

I remember and yes, something about the way the photos are accessed and displayed could be a factor in consuming memory to the point of collapse.
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 Post Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2019 5:05 pm 
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Hmmm, I have 722 images involved in the slideshow and 8GB RAM. The total of all the images is 306MB. Even if the slideshow system were to load all the images into RAM I don't see 306MB being an impact on 8GB. Still, if I can find one, I may see if a free third party version might cause a difference.

Personally I just do a reboot now and then. Shoot, I do that on my main system even though I don't have issues. I just think that a system should be rebooted now and then.

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 Post Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2019 9:01 pm 
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I want to try to answer all your questions in pursuit of why my system randomly locks up. And sure enough, it locked up again today while I was gone.

@David: I was not aware that WAM did all of those things regarding my disks. I just could never find a good writeup of what all WAM did do. So I now better understand its value.

@Jay: In regard to my Win 10 OS, I am on version 1809, Build 17763.253, installed on 12/16/18....I assume that is the fall 2018 upgrade. Like you, I have 8GB of RAM. My screen saver slideshow contains 138 images, 172MB in size. But as you know, in addition to my screen saver slideshow of JPEG images, I also utilize four IP security cameras that stream live video to my computer....if there is any action within the video (e.g., deer walks across yard), the video is also recorded on my computer using a program called Blue Iris. I can then later use Blue Iris to observe and/or save the action video. Blue Iris typically consumes about 0.85GB of RAM.

@Steve: Yes, I struggle to understand the contents of Event Viewer, but I do try. For example, an error was reported at 10:45am this morning while I was gone and my system locked up. A snip photo is attached. I also look at the Maintenance Reliability History for critical events, which often shows Application failures...I get many 'Microsoft Edge Content Process Stopped Working' notices, and I don't even use Edge....go figure??? You mentioned the possibility of memory leaks. How would I check for these?

@All: Thanks again for your responses to my request for help/guidance. I know that I put a lot of performance requirements on my computer with all my animal photos/videos. I also know that, like Jay, I can always recover by doing a reboot. But I would still like to figure out why my computer locks up only when I'm not there....it's almost as if the components say "OK, he's gone....let's mess with his brain a little for when he returns".


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 Post Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2019 9:26 pm 
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BB, this is just a hunch but is edge your default browser? If so change to IE or install Firefox and set to default. Between IE and Firefox I suggest Firefox as IE support on pages is declining.

I may be totally off base but my thinking is that your camera software is likely using your default browser for downloading videos and Edge shows an error in your screenshot which shows an error on the content DLL. To me 'content' means something coming in. Your cameras send and something needs to bring it in. It is likely that the 'thing' that brings it in is your default browser.

It is possible that the crash only happens when you are away is due to how the system acts when it is either idle or active. Between the two many system performance specs change. A system that considers itself in an idle state just does not operate the same as a system that is actively in use.

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 Post Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2019 11:46 pm 
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Jay, IE 11 is my default browser and always has been. I absolutely do not like Edge, and I have never really tried Firefly. When I do want to use something different, I play with Vivaldi (which I am really beginning to like).

It makes sense that my system operates differently in the idle state. But what is happening in this state to cause my computer to lock up? In my mind, three things are happening in the idle state: (1) I am not operating my keyboard or mouse, (2) my screen saver slideshow activates, and (3) Windows Automatic Maintenance does its thing (scheduled for at 2:00am). Are any or all of these things causing my lock ups?

Jay, just to clarify a point. We are both using the term screen saver, but on my computer my slideshow is actually activated via the Personalization Background Setting, and my screen saver is actually turned off.

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 Post Posted: Fri Feb 01, 2019 12:18 am 
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At this time I can only take time to respond to one point. Thank you for saying that the slideshow was a desktop wallpaper and not a screensaver. This makes it more certain that our issues may be related. Initially you said that the slideshow was a screensaver.

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 Post Posted: Fri Feb 01, 2019 12:35 pm 
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Even though Edge is not your default browser, it is hooked into other apps and processes within Windows 10.
Have a look at this article, but proceed through the steps with caution. Most will not apply to you.
https://www.howto-connect.com/microsoft ... indows-10/

A "hit it with a hammer" approach would be to perform a refresh (not a reset) of the PC, but it will require you to reinstall programs if you go this route.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/hel ... h-reset-pc

You could wait for the next Windows 10 upgrade (19H1 - a few months away) and hope that the problem goes away, but it does appear that the problem is related to Edge in some manner.

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 Post Posted: Fri Feb 01, 2019 2:45 pm 
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Steve, thanks for the info. I especially like the 'howto-connect' article, and I will investigate each of those steps....probably in the morning after my first cup of coffee.

I don't relish the idea of reinstalling programs, at least at this point. I think I had rather simply reboot when necessary. So I am not going to try the 'hammer' approach. Maybe the next upgrade will solve my problem.

In the interim, I am going to experiment with turning off my IP cameras and temporarily stopping my wallpaper slideshow, just to see what happens. And then maybe even disabling WAM for awhile.

I am also going to hang close with Jay in hopes he finds a solution to what may be our common problem.

I will keep you posted on what I find out. Thanks again...…..

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 Post Posted: Fri Feb 01, 2019 3:47 pm 
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Hate to say that, so far, I have not found a free theme manager. LOL! Plenty of free themes but no managers. I probably will find one eventually.

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 Post Posted: Fri Feb 01, 2019 4:21 pm 
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You're very welcome, bb. I know you'll keep us posted. :-)

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 Post Posted: Fri Feb 01, 2019 9:01 pm 
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@ Jay, I owe you another apology. :oops: I have 16GB of RAM (not 8GB) on my Win 10 computer. I really fell asleep at the wheel this week regarding RAM, screensaver, etc. My sister is visiting from Georgia and I guess she has me all discombobulated, lol.

@Steve: One of the first paragraphs in the Edge 'howto-connect' article said this:
Why Microsoft Edge Content Process uses lots of memory?

Before we start exploring ways to solve this particular issue, let us first clear why this happens. Cortana often tracks your browsing behavior and sends it to Microsoft. There is a specific process that directs Cortana to track certain info and posts to Microsoft, even if Edge is not active. So, these activities that take place at the backdrop drains excess memory and leads to the poor performance of the system.


So it looks like Cortana drains memory even if I don't use Edge (and I don't use Cortana either). I still plan on looking at the article's steps for dealing with this issue.

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 Post Posted: Fri Feb 01, 2019 9:08 pm 
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Yes, I saw that Cortana reference. I'm not sure that's the cause of your issue, but it is worth looking at.

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 Post Posted: Sat Feb 02, 2019 1:11 am 
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I found the 'Howto' article of interest also but could not find some of the stated settings. I guess it is for an earlier build or I'm just too silly tonight to properly follow. :mrgreen: Since the article was published in January of 2019 my guess is that it is just me. ;)

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