Windows 8.1 Suddenly Lagging & Freezing. Can't find the problem. Plz Help?

I have a 2 terabyte drive and it is half full.

I have included a screenshot of what programs I have loaded at startup.

No, I have not tried booting in safe mood yet. The problems are not instant. They take time to build up before you notice them. So I don't know how safe mode works but I'd have to be able to do the same things I normally do (like try to open folders, play video, let the screen saver play for awhile, etc.) before I would be able to notice if there is any change. It takes about a half hour of use before things start to mess up. Except the icons on my desktop at startup are always slightly delayed as they each pop up. That never happened before. Before things started to act up, they were so instantly loaded that I never even noticed that they needed time to load.

I am not sure how to start in safe mode. :confused

And yes, I am back in Windows 8.1 I have not tried to restart since I was able to get back in tho. I'm afraid my pc will get stuck again during the chkdsk /r scan.

 

My computer finally finished running the chkdsk /r (it took ALL night long!) and this is the log from that event.

 

EnchantedDreams...

Thanks for the report. Chkdsk looks normal to me. I don't see any report of bad sectors. This causes me to wonder why Windows reported the bad sectors before. I think this is good news for your drive. It may be good after all.

OK...
In the Event Viewer, the system errors that said disk are all dated 10-21-14. How much of a chance that that is the date of the Twitter (Facebook? sorry can't recall which) incident with the pop ups?

The trouble I am having is understanding what exactly sfc /scannow is not fixing. If the file structure of Windows received damage from a virus (possibly Twitter/Facebook incident), sfc /scannow will many times restore full functionality. Well, usually with that utility, either the problem is fixed without the disk or the disk is requested and then the problem is fixed. Sometimes, sfc /scannow will report a problem that cannot be fixed, but this is sort of rare. That the case, MS' embedded/irretrievable key policy has me confused here. I just can't determine if MS has changed sfc /scannow for Windows 8, so that it no longer references an installation disk or if it's just a case where a disk wouldn't help with the problem, so it wasn't requested. Again, it's this new disk/key policy that has me confused. If they aren't allowing users to have a disk with this hidden key and all, could they have watered down sfc /scannow? I imagine they could have been thinking that a request for an installation disk from sfc /scannow could lead to a large number of requests from customers for the disks and for a way to retrieve the key. This would be very messy with the current key situation and policies. I guess I wouldn't be entirely surprised if it's true, however.

If sfc /scannow is watered down, maybe that's what system refresh and system reset are supposed to take care of...anything sfc /scannow now doesn't fix. Alot of speculation, sorry, but I don't know how much you need an installation disk. Nonetheless, in the past, sfc /scannow has not been a sure thing disk request or no to fix every file system problem. This leaves me wondering if the unrepairable problem in the CBS report you posted is one of these. Well, the next step with prior OSes (when sfc /scannow doesn't work) has been to run a repair installation. Well, guess what? To run a repair installation, one must have the installation disk. Again, maybe the system reset/system refresh are supposed to handle this and the some sfc fixes. I'm not sure. I do know that you cannot install Windows, which would be your final option to fixing slowing if you had a disk.

Anyway, all this leads me back to startup programs. When you get some time, please right click on the task bar and choose Task Manager. When TM comes up, click "More details" at the bottom if you see that. Then click on the startup tab and take a screenshot (PRNTSCRN) and save it and attach it to your next post. Make sure you get all of them. You may have to fullscreen Task Manager for them all to fit, or you may even need to take two screenshots.

Instructions:
http://winsupersite.com/windows-8/windows-8-tip-manage-startup-applications

If you have already done this, sorry, I have sort of lost track. I seem to recall getting to the point where booting into safe mode was the next step. That is to see if startups are causing the problem. Did you do all of this already?

Probably booting to safe mode/turning off some of your startups will be the next step to see if that brings back the speed of the PC (if you haven't tried this yet)...

 

Here's a shot of my startup programs.

No, the slow down problems and the choppy video and the folders not showing the contents right away (or at all sometimes) and the overall slow down of icons popping up ... and then all the online issues of things being slow (my speed test said I was almost at 52.23 Mbps so things online should be ZIPPING by but my videos barely buffer and they are choppy and they stick. Yet Netflix works perfectly. But everything else is slow. It doesn't make sense) all of these issues (plus a few more) started at the end of August and the beginning of September.

I have not tried rebooting in safe mode yet because I do not know how to do it yet. During safe mode, can I still get online to check how bad the video playback is? Will I be able to open folders to see if they still load slowly?

It's not that the entire system is slow, it's just certain things aren't working all of a sudden that are causing it to be slow at certain times.

 

ED...

I'll get back to you in a while, but I do have one thing I forgot to mention. I noticed in the event viewer errors labelled disk that the bad sectors have, apparently, been healed. That might explain why chkdsk /r didn't repair anything.

Here is how to boot into safe mode:

http://www.howtogeek.com/107511/how-to-boot-into-safe-mode-on-windows-8-the-easy-way/

Follow the instructions and then choose "Safe Mode with Networking" when you get to the black screen called "Advanced Boot Options". This will enable the internet for you.

I'm becoming more certain that you have a software problem, but it still could be RAM memory. For now, let's see how things are in Safe Mode, so use the PC as normal for awhile. Stay on safe sites as you have no anti-virus. Don't click on alot of links. You should be safe testing video at YouTube and very popular sites.

One site I recommend trying is Twitch.tv. They play games there and stream them live for viewers. Just watch out for the language...some of the streamers are quite vulgar to say the least, so you may want to turn your sound down. Anyway,at least there you could see how you are doing with live video. Also, probably a good idea to test Netflix.