The Unexplained Case of the Freezing HP AIO When Using a Windows Profile

The HP AIO 24 k1305st (Intel® Core™ i5-11500T) I am troubleshooting experiences random freezing issues, ranging from 1 to several days with normal usage. Interestingly, the system reliably freezes when playing YouTube videos for an extended period. After conducting thorough tests, including ensuring the CPU is not overheating and passing the Memtest, as well as having all HP and NVIDIA GEFORCE drivers updated, the problem persists.

The system runs Windows 11, which is updated, on the original NVME SSD, and no BSOD occurs during the freezes. When booting to Ubuntu 24 from a new USB live flash drive and running YouTube videos without issues, it suggests a potential problem with the Windows OS. Consequently, I backed up the user's profile using FABS AutoBackup 7 Pro, installed a new Samsung NVME, and reloaded Windows 11 using the HP Cloud Recovery Tool. However, the freezing issue persisted even after reloading the user's profile, prompting further investigation.

I decided to try a different NVME drive, formatted it, and loaded a fresh copy of Windows 11, only allowing essential drivers to be installed. Despite not transferring any user profiles, the freezing reoccurred when playing YouTube videos. This ruled out the possibility of a corrupt user profile or specific software driver causing the problem.

After booting from Hiren's Win 10 PE thumb drive and running the system without freezing, I wiped the NVME drive containing Windows 11 with a user profile and installed Windows 10 with a local account. The system has been running smoothly since then, suggesting that the freezing issue may be related to profiles associated with Microsoft accounts.

In conclusion, the freezing problem seems to be tied to specific user profiles, particularly those linked to Microsoft accounts. Running the system on a clean OS without such profiles eliminates the freezing behavior, indicating a unique issue related to profile configurations.