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OA47

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Joined: 11/04/2012
Location: Australia
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Posted: 04:54am 15 Feb 2026

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This weekend I have been trying to get back into some microcontroller projects but I have been held back by an unhappy workbench computer. The computer is running our favorite OS Windows and was running quiet happily in the previous location. The issue is that it boots and runs for a couple of minutes then the HDD LED comes on full time and the system virtually freezes. I have been launching Task Manager as soon as it boots but it does not give me any clues as to the cause although it does indicate 100% usage. I have disconnected all of the new peripherals added recently (wireless KB and Mouse as well as the wifi network). I have deleted any apps that I have loaded recently and have left the system to run overnight to see if it decides to rectify itself but it was still locked up in the morning. I have looked through the EVENT logs and cannot see any major issues listed.

The unit is old and basic i7 3.4Ghz, Asus MB, 16Gb RAM and WD 240Gb SSD

Hope someone can point me in the right direction to diagnose this problem.

OA47

TassyJim

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Joined: 07/08/2011
Location: Australia
Posts: 6509

Posted: 06:19am 15 Feb 2026

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First step:
Disable Windows Search Indexing
(Google how to do it.)

Jim

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MMedit

Mixtel90

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Joined: 05/10/2019
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 8774

Posted: 09:04am 15 Feb 2026

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Old and basic? Apart from the HDD being relatively smallish that's a modern high power gaming machine by my standards. lol

I agree. Windows indexing really slows things down.

Mick

Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini
Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs

Andy-g0poy
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Joined: 07/03/2023
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 85

Posted: 02:18pm 15 Feb 2026

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Indexing as others have said also:

I've seen this sort of behaviour when the PC is trying to reconnect to various on-line resources.

Why the person concerned kept god-knows how many social media application open all the time I do not know, but shutting the blasted things down restored normal operation.

Is the PC connected to a network and if so how ?

Potential bad news if connected by WiFi WiFi can be very very slow. Much better if by cable.

If any network extenders are in use then that's another issue. DHCP conflicts etc.
+

If you have a managed switch available and a second PC then you could set it up to mirror the offending PC's port and then look at what is going on with wireshark

Sorry I can't be more specific.

Andy

JohnS
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Joined: 18/11/2011
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Posted: 02:19pm 15 Feb 2026

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Yep, it's a high-powered machine with ample RAM for me!

John

OA47

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Joined: 11/04/2012
Location: Australia
Posts: 1050

Posted: 07:53pm 15 Feb 2026

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Quote First step:
Disable Windows Search Indexing
(Google how to do it.)

Jim, I did this some months ago after seeing some YT videos.

@ Andy, I connect to wifi via a USB dongle but I have removed this and tested but the issue is still there.

OA47

TassyJim

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Posted: 08:05pm 15 Feb 2026

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You might as well test the SSD
CrystalDiskInfo is free and there should be a WD specific tester available.

Jim

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OA47

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Joined: 11/04/2012
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Posted: 08:07pm 15 Feb 2026

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@ Mick

Quote Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3770 CPU @ 3.40GHz, 3401 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 8 Logical Processor(s)
BIOS Version/Date American Megatrends Inc. 1503, 17/03/2014
SMBIOS Version 2.7
Embedded Controller Version 255.255
BIOS Mode Legacy
BaseBoard Manufacturer ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC.
BaseBoard Product P8H77-M PRO

This system is a "hand me down" as you can see the BIOS date is 12 years ago and I only use the on-board HDMI video but it does support USB 3.

OA47

OA47

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Joined: 11/04/2012
Location: Australia
Posts: 1050

Posted: 08:12pm 15 Feb 2026

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Quote You might as well test the SSD
CrystalDiskInfo is free and there should be a WD specific tester available.

Jim, I did use the Windows Error check and it came up with no errors but I am pretty sure I have a WD SSD app on another PC, I will have a hunt for it.

OA47

OA47

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Joined: 11/04/2012
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Posted: 06:54am 24 Apr 2026

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After replacing the SSD with a new 480Gb unit, I still have the 100% disk usage issue appearing so I thought about upgrading the WIN10 to WIN11 as I have too much Windows based software to consider LINUX and I would like to see if I can rid this PC of the affliction. As the hardware is not compliant with the WIN11 recommendations, I am trying to use TINY11 as the new operating system because the documentation reads as a leaner, version suitable for older hardware.

Quote If you want to give new life to your old PCs, Tiny11 is for you. It makes them faster and work smoothly. PCs with just 4 GB of RAM work 25 to 35% faster. It is lighter because it avoids the heavy AI features of normal Windows 11. A large online community trusts it and uses it, as it is free, easy to customize, and much faster. Many people also use it for gaming or dual-boot setups, etc.

I have downloaded and tried more than 3 versions of TINY11 but they all halt at the hardware test even though the documentation implies that this test is bypassed.

Has anyone had any success installing TINY11 on older hardware?

OA47
Edited 2026-04-24 16:56 by OA47

EDNEDN
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Joined: 18/02/2023
Location: United States
Posts: 289

Posted: 05:55pm 24 Apr 2026

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OA47 said After replacing the SSD with a new 480Gb unit, I still have the 100% disk usage issue appearing so I thought about upgrading the WIN10 to WIN11 as I have too much Windows based software to consider LINUX and I would like to see if I can rid this PC of the affliction.

You may want to turn off and disable all virus scanning for a while just to see if that is at the root of your issues. For what ever reason, my systems insist on doing a full virus scan any time they boot up. And the disk goes to 100% usage for the first 30 minutes after a boot up.

Pretty much... the system is unusable when it is slamming the disk that hard. As a result, I avoid ever turning my computer off just because I don't want to go through the reboot/restart headaches.

After the virus scan completes everything goes back to normal and the system behaves as it should.

OA47

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Joined: 11/04/2012
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Posts: 1050

Posted: 02:08am 25 Apr 2026

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Quote After the virus scan completes everything goes back to normal and the system behaves as it should

Unfortunately disabling the AV does not help the problem. When the OS decides to go into 100% disk usage it stays there and I have left it for days to see if it would self heal to no avail. A power cycle is the only way to re-establish communication.

OA47

robert.rozee
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Joined: 31/12/2012
Location: New Zealand
Posts: 2508

Posted: 03:57am 25 Apr 2026

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have you tried booting the system from a Linux USB flash drive and leaving it running from that for a while. this will enable you to (sort of) determine if the problem is related to win11 or to the PC's hardware.

you should also look to see if an updated BIOS is available for the motherboard, and enable UEFI booting (with secure boot turned OFF) rather than legacy.

cheers,
rob :-)

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