I first noticed the issue when my computer, which had always run smoothly, began to freeze during startup. It was a regular Monday morning; I turned on my laptop, eager to dive into the week’s work, only to be met with an unresponsive screen. I tried restarting multiple times, but the freezing persisted. Frustration grew as I wondered if something had gone terribly wrong with my new Windows 11 update.
Determined to fix the problem, I began investigating the potential causes. Initially, I suspected a recent update or driver issue might be to blame. I had recently updated to Windows 11, and while the update promised improved performance and new features, it seemed to have introduced more problems than benefits. I started by checking the list of updates that had been installed recently. To do this, I accessed the settings through safe mode, which I managed to enter by repeatedly pressing F8 during startup until the Advanced Boot Options menu appeared. From there, I selected “Safe Mode” and once in, navigated to “Update & Security” and reviewed the update history.
It turned out that a cumulative update had been installed just before the freezing began. This made me wonder if this update was the culprit. To test this, I decided to uninstall the most recent update. In Safe Mode, I went to “View Update History” and clicked on “Uninstall Updates.” After selecting the latest update, I proceeded with the uninstallation. Once the update was removed, I restarted my computer to see if the issue was resolved. Unfortunately, the problem persisted.
Next, I turned my attention to potential driver issues. I recalled that I had installed new drivers for my graphics card shortly before the freezing started. Using Device Manager in Safe Mode, I located the graphics card under “Display adapters,” right-clicked it, and chose “Update driver.” I selected the option to search automatically for updated driver software. If that didn’t resolve the issue, I planned to roll back to a previous version of the driver or reinstall it.
Despite these efforts, the problem still wasn’t resolved. I started to delve deeper into system logs to identify any errors that might be causing the freeze. I accessed the Event Viewer, where I found multiple error messages and warnings related to system performance and hardware issues. One error particularly stood out, mentioning problems with the disk drive. I decided to run a disk check to see if there were any issues with my hard drive. In Command Prompt (accessible from Safe Mode), I used the command “chkdsk /f” to check and fix any disk errors. After the scan completed and any issues were resolved, I restarted my computer.
The freezing problem continued, leading me to consider whether there might be an issue with my system files. I decided to run a System File Checker scan to repair any corrupted system files. In Command Prompt, I used the “sfc /scannow” command, which initiated a scan and automatically repaired any corrupted files. This process took some time, and I had to wait patiently for it to complete. After the scan, I restarted my computer again.
When none of these steps worked, I began to suspect that the problem might be with the startup programs or services. Using the Task Manager in Safe Mode, I went to the “Startup” tab and disabled all non-essential startup programs. I then restarted the computer to see if the freezing issue was resolved. This did help improve startup times, but the freezing issue remained.
At this point, I decided to consider a more drastic measure: performing a system restore to revert my computer to a previous state before the issue began. I accessed the System Restore tool through the Control Panel, selected a restore point from before the freezing issue started, and initiated the restoration process. The system restored successfully, and after restarting, my computer booted up normally without freezing.
The issue was finally resolved. I was relieved to see my computer back to normal and learned several valuable lessons in the process. To prevent future problems, I made sure to regularly check for and install updates, be cautious with driver installations, and monitor system performance. I also ensured that I had a reliable backup strategy in place to avoid data loss in case of similar issues.
The process of troubleshooting the freezing issue was quite involved and required a mix of patience and technical knowledge. From uninstalling updates to checking drivers, running disk and system file scans, and finally performing a system restore, I navigated through various potential solutions. This comprehensive approach ultimately led to resolving the issue and getting my computer back to its optimal performance.