Windows 10 screen sometimes stops working immediately after you log in.
Windows 10 screen sometimes stops working immediately after you log in.
Hey everyone, I’m dealing with a rather odd problem with my Windows 10 setup. Over the last few months, the desktop has been acting up intermittently—sometimes daily, other times just once a week. When this happens, a few programs (like ESET Internet Security, Spotify, Discord, etc.) launch, showing their icons in the notification area and opening a window. Usually, Discord is the first to freeze, making it hard to click buttons or switch servers. After that, even running Spotify works fine. The Task Manager freezes instantly when I open it, and I can’t restart the system in any way—whether via Start menu, shutdown command prompt, or pressing Alt+F4. I can still use other apps, and I’m able to play music without issues. However, rebooting with the physical button is necessary.
I suspect Discord might be the culprit, but disabling autorun didn’t help. I also noticed that the AMD Adrenalin icon doesn’t appear in the notification area during these episodes, so I reinstalled the latest drivers (after a factory reset using AMD’s tool), but it didn’t resolve anything.
The issue seems to start around a few days before I updated my BIOS on my Asus Prime B550-Plus motherboard to version v3607. A couple of days prior, Windows installed KB5001716, which apparently triggered the warning about upgrading to Windows 11. I also found an article suggesting problems with DOCP profiles for that BIOS version, but a later update (v3611) was already installed and didn’t fix it.
I’ve tried many troubleshooting steps: running SFC, DISM, repairing apps, refreshing the install (keeping everything intact), updating GPU and chipset drivers, turning off Quick Boot and Fast Boot, disabling driver verification, even running a full system self-test. Mem tests, SMART checks, and self-tests came back normal. Once the system is running, everything works smoothly—no crashes, BSODs, or slowdowns. I can play games, run stress tests, and even complete Cinebench R23 without issues.
But when I power off or reboot, the desktop often freezes and needs a reset. I’m leaning toward upgrading to Windows 11, though I’m not sure if that’s the right move. Reinstalling Win10 feels redundant since a fresh install would be better, especially if the problem persists. There’s also a chance the issue is linked to an event viewer error, like “Shell Experience Host” or “Explorer.exe” stuck in “Application Hang,” which the Performance Monitor reports. Explorer.exe itself isn’t responding during these events.
Anyone else have experienced this? Any suggestions or patterns I might be missing?
Best,
Peter
Hey there! Glad you got the reply. I have a folder on the desktop with about 6 GB of random files and around 25 shortcuts. I'm testing your suggestion and will let you know in a few days if it worked! Thanks again!
Hey everyone, if anyone else encounters this problem, I believe I've discovered a fix. It's been roughly a month since the issue started after logging in. I spotted another error in the system logs: "Game Input Service" stopped on every startup. I found a Reddit discussion about this service, and it seems there are two versions—one from 2023 and a newer, regularly updated one. The version that was failing was an old leftover from a previous system update, and you'll need to remove it manually if it causes problems. My system worked fine for a few days before that. I also installed a new AMD driver, which included an update for the chipset. Since then, everything is smooth. Although the problem sometimes disappeared for days, I'm not entirely sure if removing the faulty Game Input Service or updating the drivers resolved it, but either way, it worked.