Windows 10 freezes every time 5 minutes after startup

Hi Rodo,

Thanks for your post. I understand your frustration and I'm here to help you.

About What Windows is doing at that 5‑minute mark, Windows initializes device drivers (including network adapters) and networking services during normal startup. Safe Mode loads only a limited set of drivers, which explains why network‑related freezes often do not occur there. When Windows is connected to the internet, it may also perform background driver and connectivity checks through Windows Update. If a network driver fails or hangs during initialization, the system can appear frozen even though the desktop remains visible. For reference:

• Specifying Driver Load Order
• Windows Startup Settings
• Automatically get recommended and updated hardware drivers

For Troubleshootings, please try the following in order:

Step 1 – Clean reinstall the network driver (not update)

1. Boot Windows with the internet disconnected
2. Open “Device Manager”
3. Expand “Network adapters”
4. Right‑click your Wi‑Fi or Ethernet adapter → “Uninstall device”
5. Check “Delete the driver software for this device” if available
6. Restart the PC (still offline)

Then download and install the latest network driver directly from your PC manufacturer’s support site (not Windows Update).

Step 2 – Test with Windows fast startup disabled

1. Open “Control Panel” → “Power Options”
2. Select “Choose what the power buttons do”
3. Click “Change settings that are currently unavailable”
4. Uncheck “Turn on fast startup”
5. Restart and test

Fast Startup can reuse problematic driver states between boots.

Step 3 – Check for a recent Windows update rollback (optional)

If this started suddenly and recently:

1. Go to “Settings” → “Windows Update” → “Update history”
2. Select “Uninstall updates”
3. Temporarily remove the most recent quality update (not feature update)

Note: This is a test step only. If there’s no change, reinstall the update afterward.

About rolling back Windows or system files:

• Rolling back Windows versions is not recommended unless a specific update is confirmed as the cause
• There is no supported way to identify a single “Windows system file” causing this type of freeze
• The evidence points to network driver behavior, not core OS damage

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Solved my issue by uninstalling the most recent windows update.

System freezes are very hard to diagnose, if disabling the network seems to resolve the problem and you indicate the iqvw64e.sys driver may be a contributory cause, that is the Intel Network Diagnostics driver, then the best first option would be to go to the support page for your PC on the manufacturers website, then from there, download and manually reinstall (not update) the Intel network drivers.

SORRY, I do NOT have an answer, but, I wish I did. My problem started on 13 June 2026, first noticed the mouse and keyboard unresponsive and thought batteries needed to be replaced. But, that did not help, so, then suspected the last update and tried to remove it. It said it was unsuccessful, BUT, the computer started working again until Sunday night 14 June 2026 and I got another update notification, which, I do NOT think they are working correctly, I see too many different messages of percent completed, restart etc. But, I said YES and of course the computer started locking up again after 5 minutes. I, then tried to remove the update and that time it said successful, but, it is still locking up after 5 minutes. I think the update was KB094127. I did just try someone's suggestion of disconnecting the internet and maybe I did it too soon. But, that did NOT work for me.