Windows 8 freezes and comes up with messages about programs not responding?

[Rae]

For the past three days my computer has been freezing at random times but normally when I am trying to do something like installing something for example. I have Windows 8 and a hp laptop which I bough almost exactly a year ago. Normally when these freezes happen my computer comes up with a windows message telling me that the thing I'm using has stopped responding. This ranges from firefox, to steam, to skype, Teamspeak and even windows itself.

After these freezes happen they normally return to normal after I chose to shut the thing down through the error message but sometimes the error message itself freezes and I am forced to shut down my computer. I have done a full system scan for viruses but none were found. I tried updating to windows 8.1 but after I installed it, it was asking me questions about my preferences but kept freezing, taking up to 20 minutes to respond and eventually froze completely so I am still on 8. I have plenty of free memory, I have only used about a 1/5 of it but I went through and uninstalled some programs I was no longer using but this made little diffrence and the freezing continued. I then looked on some help websites and tried to restore my windows version which was recomened on the windows help page however once I had gone through the long process of restarting my computer multipule times it came up with a message saying that it had not worked. I then disabled programs from running when I start up my computer and although this has made the start up quicker, it has done nothing to prevent the freezing.

I play a lot of video games and the freezing is preventing me from being able to install updates or play any of my games as they freeze also. Please help as this is irritating me greatly and also I am sorry for the poor spelling but my computer freezes when ever I use the spell check too.
I had to go to the suggestion by Geek squad and refreshed my windows as nothing else was working and my compeer continued to freeze and crash. But it was mentioned that it would show me a list of removed programs but this has not happened and only a few of my programs are left. Java has been removed and I can't acsse any of my libaries, when I try it comes up with a message saying that they can't be accessed and that they are safe to be deleted.

[Bazza]

You can restore the machine to an earlier date before the problem occurred. This will not affect any data or programs except any new programs you may have installed after the restore point. Go to Start and type Restore into the search box and it should ping up straightaway. I also recommend that you install Microsoft's free AV, just in case. See link.

[Gozob Adrian]

Try installing Windows 7, I recomend it and it is better than Windows 8.

[Geek Squad]

First i would check if you have any windows updates pending install. You can do this by accessing the settings menu by opening the charms menu with Windows Key + C, then click on settings, then click on power. If it says Update and Restart, click on that. Make sure your computer is plugged in, and it will run the windows update installs. Once it finishes, check the settings menu again for the Update and Restart message. If it just says restart, you're good. If you continue having the same problem, the next step would be a Refresh. You can access this in the same Settings menu as before. Go to PC settings at the bottom of the Settings menu. If you have Windows 8.1, go to Update and Recovery, then Recovery. If you have Windows 8, go to the General Tab. Scroll to the bottom and you'll have 2 options. Refresh your computer and Reset your computer. The Refresh option will reinstall Windows and remove any problem programs. It will list what programs it removed so you can reinstall them, but it won't delete any of your personal data such as pictures or documents. If the Refresh does not fix it, back up any personal data you do not want to lose, such as pictures or documents, music, videos, etc. Then go back to those two options (refresh and reset) and click on the Reset option. This will take several hours to finish, and make sure your computer is plugged in. Once that is finished, you should be having no issues. But if you are still having problems, it is more than likely a hardware issue, and i'd contact either your retailer if you are under their warranty, or the manufacturer if under their warranty. If not within any warranties, take it to your local computer shop for repair recommendations.

Geek Squad Agent Walter M
Badge # 52310
Consultation Agent
Geek Squad Social Media Team
21/DEC/2013