Member Avatar for wmc1956

I am having problems with our computer running in normal mode. It will allow you to click something once and then it takes a long time for it to respond or it might never respond. After that you cannot click on anything. The mouse moves around fine. It's just that when you try to click something, nothing happens. In safe mode it runs fine except there is no sound. Our security software tech has worked on it and found no viruses. Your help would be greatly appreciated!

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The symptom described by — mouse moves but clicks often don't register in Normal mode while Safe Mode runs fine — usually points at either third‑party software/drivers that hook the user interface, or intermittent disk I/O/hardware problems. Reinstalling Windows fixes the symptom, but a methodical, evidence‑first approach helps find the root cause so the problem does not reoccur.

  1. Collect evidence first: check Windows Event Viewer and the Reliability Monitor for application hangs, driver failures or disk errors at the times of the freeze. Those timestamps narrow the search.
  2. Isolate third‑party software with a clean‑boot style test: disable all non‑Microsoft services and startup items, then re-enable small groups until the freeze returns. Autoruns (Sysinternals) makes hidden entries visible if the culprit is obscure.
  3. Watch what hangs: use Resource Monitor or Process Explorer while reproducing the freeze. If the UI is blocked but CPU is low and disk queue/IO is high, that points to storage problems; if a process spikes CPU or threads, that process is the target.
  4. Check disk health and I/O: inspect SMART attributes for reallocated/pending sectors and run a full pre‑boot surface test if available. Drives with increasing reallocated sectors or pending sectors should be replaced.
  5. Scan offline for malware and repair system files: use a trusted bootable rescue scanner and run multiple engines from a fully updated environment; run system file checks to repair corrupted system binaries.
  6. Test memory and peripherals: run a multi‑pass RAM test and unplug nonessential USB/peripheral devices to rule out hung devices or drivers.
  7. Check shell/extensions and user profile: disable third‑party shell extensions and test with a fresh local user account to rule out profile corruption.

Avoid registry cleaners and defragmenting an SSD. If a reinstall is done again, image the disk first and preserve event logs and reliability history — those artifacts are often the only way to identify the underlying cause. This approach expands on points made by , and while emphasizing evidence collection so a single reinstall is not the only fix.

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Member Avatar for caperjack

in safe mode ,go to mycomputer ,right click on the hard drive icon/go properties/tools/click on to open error check , and check of the 2 boxes,click ok ,it will likely tell you cant check the volume now and to restart computer, it should then check the hard drive . good luck

Member Avatar for jingda

Try using other anti virus to do a scan again. Sometimes the anti virus software will fail and are often the cause of problem instead of the virus. Do you mean when you click on sometimes it will be very lag and take a long time to respons and sometimes not ( Normal Modem ) and when you start up in safe mode this problem does not happen? What is your ram and how many space you left on your hard disk.

Member Avatar for khakilang

Do a scan of your hard drive, cleaner your registries and defrag you hard drive. Maybe there is too many file or application that slow down the computer.

Member Avatar for Sunnyrepairs

Restart your PC and run last known good configurations...this will resolve the issue for sure.. other wise you have to run system restore...!

Member Avatar for happyguy142

Hop into safe mode- click start- then run.

Type in msconfig.

When the system configuration utility comes up- go into the services tab- check the box at the bottom that says hide all microsoft services. then click disable all on the bottom right.

Then go to the startup tab and disable all the startups. Click ok and let the computer restart. If it runs better in normal mode then there is something starting up when windows starts up. The next part is process of elimination, you will have to basically go back into msconfig and start checking things one at a time in the startup tab, rebooting the computer each time you check an item.

Eventually you should find what is causing the lcok up.

Another option is putting the list of startups in this thread so we can take a poke at it and maybe find out what could be casuing the lock up.

If disabling the startups does not stop the computer from locking up in normal mode then there will need to be some more digging.

Could potentially by your anti virus since I know there are some that no matte rhow hard you try you can never fully dsiable it.

Member Avatar for wmc1956

I finally had to reinstall windows.

Member Avatar for caperjack

I finally had to reinstall windows.

good that you got it working ,i have a question though ,did you ever get to run the"chkdsk /r" , i suggested first

Member Avatar for jingda

Good to hear that your problem is solved by reinstalling windows. But the problem is you still don't know what is causing it. The problem may come back maybe a few week or months later or in the future. You may never know. You can't just keep reinstalling your OS to solve the problem you have to try and find the root of the problem and end it there. So next time you have the same problem you will know what to do.

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