I’ve been a Windows loyalist for over a decade, and trust me—I’ve seen my share of nonsense. So when my Win10 rig started stalling unpredictably during startup, I had a sinking feeling I was in for another round of “fix-it-yourself” frustration from Microsoft’s latest half-baked update.
It started about a week ago. Every time I booted up, about 90 seconds in, the system would suddenly lock up. I’d be in the middle of opening a document or tinkering with settings and bam—my mouse would freeze, keyboard unresponsive, and eventually I’d be forced to hold down the power button for a hard reset. First, I suspected a driver conflict or a system file glitch. I ran sfc /scannow and DISM, and while nothing flagged as corrupt, the problem refused to go away. I even tried a rollback of recent Windows updates and fiddling with startup apps.
The usual online advice was all over the place: update graphics drivers, reset power options, try booting in Safe Mode to locate third-party software culprits, and even fiddle with Windows indexing. Nothing matched my experience. I eventually found an obscure forum thread hinting at a power management hiccup that manifested as a system “freeze” under certain conditions. Out of desperation, I toggled Fast Startup off in the control panel and reconfigured some BIOS settings, thinking the CPU might be throttling erratically due to power mismanagement.
But here’s where it got really maddening: after ruling out all the “official” wisdom and endless troubleshooting guides, I decided to pull the power supply unit (PSU) cables and check every connection just to be sure. Lo and behold, one of the PCI-E power cables wasn’t secured properly—it was loose enough to cause intermittent power drops under load. I haven’t seen (or cared for) such a trivial hardware oversight in ages, but what appeared to be an OS issue turned out to be as mundane as a loose cable.
Lesson learned: Before diving headlong into the labyrinth of Windows troubleshooting articles, don’t overlook the simplest steps. Physically inspect your hardware connections, especially if you’re getting erratic freezes that coincide with system load changes. Sometimes that “Windows bug” is just a case of poor cable management.
I know, it sounds painfully obvious now, and I question why the system didn’t provide a clearer diagnostic hint. But if you’re facing similar symptoms where your PC locks up after a short period of booting, give your hardware a once-over—sometimes the answer isn’t in the endless stream of online fixes but in a good old-fashioned physical check.
