Windows Version 1703 (Build 15063.786) Crashes Sporadically

[CharlieG2017]

I have run a "CHKDSK c: /x /r /f" command in administrator mode. This command ran 5 stages. Stage 1 processed 578,048 file records with 10,929 large file records and 0 bad file records. Stage 2 processed 712,464 index entries with 0 unindexed files scanned and 0 unindexed files recovered. Stage 3 processed 67,209 data files to verify the security descriptors. Stage 3 also verified 2,552,816 USN bytes in the USN Journal. Stage 4 verified the file data of 578,032 files. Stage 5 looked for bad and free clusters and found 187,093,983 free clusters. Windows scanned the file system and found no problems. The chkdsk command completed and said that no further action is required. The final results were:

951711781 KB total disk space.

202375504 KB in 386326 files.

   279724 KB in 67210 indexes.

        0 KB in bad sectors.

   680621 KB in use by the system.

    65536 KB occupied by the log file.

748375932 KB available on disk.

I will reboot the system and see what happens.

[CharlieG2017]

I rebooted the laptop, and it crashed while displaying the "cave and two island rocks" picture prior to displaying the login box and prior to displaying the mouse cursor. After performing a hard reset, the laptop got further and let me log in, but the machine crashed before finishing loading Windows. For the second boot-up, Windows displayed my background picture, the mouse, the start menu task bar icon, and the task view task bar icon, but none of my application task bar icons (such as Microsoft Word, etc.). I know that the software crashed because the mouse and the task bar clock have been frozen for over 10 minutes.

Does anyone have any other ideas?  Thank you for your help.

[mdklassen]

> I ran the 4.5 hour hardware diagnostics system extensive test, and everything passed.

> The items that passed are the processor, memory (extensive check),

> hard drive (SMART, Short DST, Optimized DST, and Long DST checks),

> the battery, the wireless module, the system board, and video memory.

> So, there is no need to replace the hard drive because the hard drive is OK.

As that 'CHKDSK' and the above test has shown, the hard-drive seems physically capable of reading/writing, and the structure of the file-system is OK. So, "physically" the hard-drive is OK.

But, since Windows keeps crashing, something "logical" must be wrong with the contents of some of the files.

So, to repeat, swap-in a different disk-drive, and try to install Windows onto it.

But, first, disconnect from the Internet -- for the purposes of this "test", you don't need an Internet connection.

If Windows successfully installs, then this "temporary" disk-drive, plus the rest of your hardware, is OK.

This implies that the disk-drive that you removed is the problem.

[CharlieG2017]

I have decided to throw in the towel and re-install Windows and every other application installed on my laptop. To do so, I am trying to restore the laptop back to a known system restore point and then re-install Windows from the Settings-->Update & security-->Recovery-->Reset this PC menu/button option. This option cannot be run from Safe Mode. Outside of Safe Mode, Windows crashes. When I tried to do a system restore, each of the four available restore points also crashes. Is there another way to re-install Windows?

[CharlieG2017 · Accepted solution]

I downloaded the Media Creation Tool and using the tool downloaded Windows 10 installation media to a USB flash stick. I used the USB flash stick to reinstall Windows by inserting the flash stick into the laptop and then rebooting. I pressed ESC repeatedly at bootup to enter diagnostic mode. I selected USB as the boot device, and Windows then began the installation process. After installing Windows from scratch, Windows Update downloaded the latest build for version 1709. I reset the laptop and the installation for version 1709 (build 16299.192) finished. The laptop seems to be stable and does not appear to be crashing any more. Thank you for all your help.

[mdklassen]

Welcome to this forum.

You seem to have accepted the suggestion from a posting on 12-31-2017 on this thread, and then marked your own posting as the "solution".

To give credit to the ID who made the suggestion, use "Unmark As Solution" to your post, and use "Accept As Solution" for that helpful post.

[CharlieG2017]

The reason I marked my last post as the solution and not your post from 12-31 is because your 12-31 post also included ideas about the hard drive being physically unstable. I wanted to have the solution be clear without any confusion and to include all of the steps I used to fix the problem.