Windows 10 Need help troubleshooting randomly occurring unresponsiveness and locking up of PC

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[-Stefan-]

Hello community,


since roughly September 2020 I am experiencing a randomly occurring issue with my PC (Win 10 Pro 20H2, 19042.867, fully patched). Randomly occurring means in this case sometimes hours, sometimes days, sometimes weeks). Interestingly, this PC ran for roughly 2 years without any issue; it only started around September 2020.


Here is what's happening:

I am mostly using my PC at the moment for browsing the internet, working in MS Office and watching some Netflix shows. Rarely gaming these days.

However, sometimes, running programs such as Firefox, Windows, Excel, Outlook etc. become increasingly unresponsive, meaning at the beginning, I might even close a tab, or quit a program, but soon they do not react to clicking any buttons, can no longer be closed (neither by clicking the "X" nor by using the Task Manager).

At some point I can only use the Reset Switch as powering down also no longer works. I can use the Start Menu and click on "Restart", "Hibernate" etc, but nothing happens. If I happen to be lucky and start a new program (sometimes this works), I typically do not see an icon in the Task Bar; I can only see the lightblue "underline".


It seems the PC is -at some point- no longer remembering changes; example: I close some tabs on Firefox, PC locks up; I reboot, restart Firefox, but the recently closed tabs are back.

Also, when this issue happens, I can hear the fans of my AIO cooler turning up a little; it is like my control program is no longer working.


I really cannot pinpoint what exactly is causing the problem, as the Event Viewer does not show any issue; it only shows "Windows has shut down unexpectedly" (roughly translated from German).

The whole system has been reinstalled twice, once including all mainboard drivers, once only with the onboard drivers from Windows. No difference.


SFC /SCANNOW has been completed without issues. Same goes for the usual DISM commands. Memtest has completed without errors.

It would be great if you could lend me a hand here; I really have no idea where to start.

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