Microsoft recently released a Windows 8.1 as a free update to address shortcoming of Windows 8 and also introduces new features to make it looks more attractive and adaptable for end users. Sometimes, user complaining about this latest released OS that it crashes frequently, reboots or just hangs at mid after doing updates, installing applications or doing some minor system settings modifications.
Although, Windows 8.1 is designed to perform robustly regardless the hardware or software combination you’re using. Sometimes, the situation just goes wired and your computer might start behaving abnormally. Windows 8.1 may hangs, freezes or reboots abruptly and there are several reasons which could this and investing for the exact cause might saves bunch of time / countless efforts.
Below are the possible scenarios behind such problems and relevant solution that you could follow to resolve immediately.
Hardware related problems
It’s always recommended to have all the hardware requirements successfully met for running Windows 8.1 and to avoid future troubles. If such requirements aren't met properly, your computer will start behaving strange and gives problematic situations mentioned earlier.
It is also important to check the health status of all the hardware equipment such as Motherboard, GPU, overheating etc. You can also use tools to check your PC for failing hardware and replace them to fix issues with your computer.
Disable third party or malicious programs
Perform a thorough audit of your system to check for faulty programs or programs from not a trusted source. Open ‘Task Manager’ from the taskbar and carefully look for currently running programs. To close any programs immediately, right click on it and choose ‘Disable’.
Avoid using multiple programs to run at startup as it can significantly increase the total time taken to start your PC and reduces overall performance. Moreover, programs from unauthorized source may prevents Windows to complete required operations normally.
Use System Maintenance
System Maintenance is an inbuilt utility provided from Microsoft and located under Control Panel > System and Security > Action Center > Troubleshooting > Run Maintenance Tasks. To access Control Panel from your Windows 8.1 PC, simply navigate cursor to lower left corner of the screen and right click.
Be sure to run the system maintenance tasks using administrative privileges which ultimately increase the chances of getting your computer problem fixed easily.
P.S. On the system maintenance wizard screen, click on ‘Advanced’ option to make ‘Run as Administrator’ option visible.
Outdated or faulty drivers
Hardware manufacturers provide updates to their hardware driver frequently or occasionally. These updates will help your PC to perform faster, consume less energy and work in accordance with the latest application requirements. It’s recommended to check for driver updates at least once in a week, if you can’t do it regularly. Manufacturer website and third party tools can be used to check latest driver updates as well as install them immediately.
The dark side is, if this isn’t done since long ago and there are multiple versions of driver has been released from manufacturer, you might found your computer giving freezes or hangs and prevents you to use it normally as you use it before. In worst cases, system may start rebooting in loop or throws black screen just after passing the Window booting screen.
This problem looks obvious but once took place, you might face system inaccessibility and needs to address the issue first before using it any further. I’d recommend you to perform the following activities and see if it can fix the issue:
- Start Windows update from Control panel and install all the updates. It’ll automatically scans hardware for driver updates and install it immediately.
- If the problem persists even after successfully installing all the available Windows updates, the second place you should see is the manufacturer website and carefully look if they’ve any recent updates for the particular driver. If so, download and install it manually without wasting a second. Device Manager is also used to check for driver updates.
- If the problem is surfaced after updating the driver to new version, you can press rollback from the device manager which brings in an earlier stable version of that particular driver.
Every time your PC crashes or any event occurs, it maintains record that will includes the reasons, time and exact location where error took place. These record is known as Event logs aka minidump files, and can be found under C: /Windows/ Minidump Files. If you find no record in that location, most probably your system isn’t configured to store minidump files. You can configure your computer to store minidump files after every failure occurs on your PC.
These record will help analyzing the exact problem behind crashes so could you could address it, if possible. As the record contains all the details pros needed to suggest possible solutions, you’ll need to provide them at first.
Hopefully, these solutions are capable enough to resolve errors behind Windows 8.1 crashes. If the problem keeps occurring again and again please post your situation in the comment form below and we’ll provide solution ASAP.
If you’ve already faced this problem and addressed the issue using different solution/tricks that isn’t mentioned here, feel free to share it with our readers.