How to Fix Windows 10 Random Crashes – 6 Solutions

Windows 10 is notoriously known for crashing randomly or freezing. Your PC may generally crash or freeze a couple of times and will stop doing it. However, it gets frustrating for some users when Windows 10 crashes randomly or Windows 10 freezes randomly, which keeps happening repeatedly. This may occur while you are in the middle of some critical work, and you may end up losing your progress. If you are a victim of Windows 10 random crashes, we will help you get out of this situation.

Why Does My Computer Keep Crashing?

You can never be sure about what might be causing your PC to freeze or crash all the time. It could be happening because of outdated Windows OS installed on your PC, some troublesome application, problematic system files, issues with the hard drive, outdated device drivers, or because of some hardware issues. Thus, it is necessary to carry out thorough troubleshooting on your PC until you find the issue and fix it.

Solutions to Fix Windows 10 Crashing / Freezing:

Let us check out solutions that will help you get rid of this issue. These include troubleshooting your PC’s operating system, its settings, as well as the hardware.

#1 – Make Sure there’s enough space on the System Disk

The System Disk is the partition on the hard drive where the operating system (Windows 10 in this case) is installed. It usually is the C: drive, and you can locate this in the This PC window.

To make sure that the system disk is not choked up, open This PC on your computer. Here, look for the C drive. If the C Drive is full, you will need to clean it up. If the space bar below the C drive is Red, it shows that you are soon going to run out of space.

If that is the case, here are a couple of things that you can try initially:

a) Empty Recycle Bin: It might be possible that your Recycle Bin is filled with files that you deleted earlier. The files in the Recycle Bin are stored in C Drive. So, make sure to check your Recycle Bin. If you see many files there, go ahead and click on the Empty Recycle Bin option.

b) Move Files to other Drives: Folders like Desktop, Downloads, Music, Pictures, Documents, and Videos store files in the C drive. So, if you see the C drive filling up, make sure to check these folders. Over time, many files can accumulate in these folders, causing the C drive or the system drive to choke up with files.

Go ahead and check out these folders on your PC. If you find a lot of files in them, transfer them to another drive on your PC. It is always a good idea to keep the System Disk as empty as you can.

c) Clean Junk Files: It might be possible that the junk files and temp files in your PC are occupying unnecessary space. So, make sure to perform a clean up now and then. Here are the steps involved in this process:

Step 1: Press Win + S keys on your keyboard. In the search panel, type disk cleanup, and from the search results, make a click on the Disk Cleanup option.

Step 2: A small Disk Cleanup window will open. Here, make sure the C option is selected in the Drives dropdown, then click on Ok.

Step 3: Here, in the Files to delete a section, select all the checkboxes, then click on the “Clean up system files” option.

After a successful cleanup, close the Disk cleanup utility.

After making sure of the points mentioned above, you will no longer find your Windows 10 PC freezing or crashing randomly. If this keeps happening, we suggest you try the next method.

#2 – Carry Out A Clean Boot

Clean Boot is a process in which you boot Windows 10 only with the essential Windows processes required for a startup. All the 3rd party and non-essential processes are stopped from booting with Windows. There are chances that your PC might be crashing or freezing because of troublesome 3rd party software.

Follow the steps for performing a clean boot:

Step 1: Open the System Configuration window. For this, press Win + R, then in the Run window that opens, type msconfig, and press the Enter key.

Step 2: In the System Configuration window, go to the Selective startup section and unselect the Load startup items option.

Step 3: Now, go to the Services tab in the System Configuration window. Here, select the option named Hide all Microsoft services, then select the Disable all button.

Step 4: Go to the Startup tab now. Here, select the text that reads Open Task Manager.

Step 5: Here, select each of the start-up items available in the list and click on the Disable button. When you are done disabling all the things, go ahead and close down the Task Manager window.

Step 6: You will be taken back to the System Configuration window now. Here, click on the Ok button to apply and save all the settings you made till now.

Exit the System Configuration window. Reboot your PC. After the reboot, see if the Windows 10 freezing or crashing issue persists.

#3 – Run SFC Scan

The SFC Scan in Windows is a command prompt utility. It is supposed to scan your PC for system files that are corrupt or having issues. When such file(s) are found, the utility repairs them for you automatically. Here’s how to run this scan in Windows 10:

Step 1: Press the Win + S keys together. The Search panel will open. Here, type cmd. In the search results, make a right-click on the Command Prompt option and select the Run as Administrator option.

Step 2: The Command Prompt window will open with Admin privileges. Here, type the following command and press the Enter key:

sfc /scannow

The scan may take some time to complete. Please wait for it. After the SFC scan has run successfully, close the Command Prompt window. Now, restart your PC. After the restart, check if the computer freezes or crashes.

#4 – Run DISM Command

Here’s another powerful command-line tool that scans your PC for issues and fixes them. To run this command, you will need to launch Command Prompt in admin mode, just like you did in the previous solution.

After Command Prompt is launched in Admin mode, go ahead and type the following commands in it and press the Enter key after each command:

Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth

Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth

Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

Unlike the SFC Scan, the DISM scan takes a lot more time to complete. So, wait while you do that, and do not interrupt the scan in progress.

When the scan is complete, make sure to reboot your computer.

#5 – Run the CHKDSK Command

The CHKDSK is another command-line utility that you can use to check your hard drive for issues.

To run this scan, launch Command Prompt in Admin Mode. For this, you can follow the steps provided in Solution #3. When the Command Prompt window is open, type the following command:

CHKDSK /f /r

After entering the above command, press Enter.

After this, you will be asked to confirm the scan. Press Y, then press the Enter key to confirm.

Now, restart your PC to begin the CHKDSK scan. Once the scan is complete, the Windows 10 crashing issue will be fixed if related to the hard drive.

#6 – Update Windows 10

Keeping Windows 10 updated is very important. An outdated version of Windows installed on your PC could cause compatibility issues, leading to problems like this.

Open the Settings app by pressing the Win + I keys. Here, select the Update & Security option. In the new window that will open, you will see an option on the right-hand side with the text Check for Updates. Select that option. If an update is found, apply in on your PC. Once the update is successful, see if the Windows 10 freezes or crashes again.