pb52

No worries, all my data sits on my Synology NAS. All I need to do is recreate the sync task after the rebuild and the data will flow down. All the data is also encrypted and backed up to the Synology Cloud. But I will do a full backup to my external HDD too. Can never have too many backup! I'm one of the fortunate ones whose PC is Win 11 compatible. Perhaps the upgrade will blow the cobwebs away. It may be a good time to sort this out. The problem is not crippling my PC and I know how to clear it (three fingered salute and then cancel) Big kudos to you for the assistance

Thank you. I really appreciate the effort you're putting into this for me. Way above and beyond! There is, of course, another ultimate nuclear option which is to do a complete system reset and rebuild it. That's not a drastic as it sounds because 90% of what I do is in the cloud. My laptop is 15 months old now so perhaps it's due for a reset. I need to think it through but blowing out all the cobwebs has a lot to recommend it!

I have read your instructions in more detail. There is a lot to take on board here and the basic process goes through a lot of incremental steps to isolate the cause. But right at the end you mention the nuclear option of essentially blowing away Chrome's settings and starting over. IAnd that might not sort the issue of the problem is caused by one of my other browser, FireFox or Edge. So I'm inclined to the implement the nuclear option on all three browsers and then rebuild them all. Overall I think that will be cleaner and quicker My passwords are all in a password manager and I don't care about cache, cookies, browsing history. I'm not sure what I need to do on My Android phone though,as that will be synvced. I think the root cause of this may well be Google's new profile facility. I had previously been running Chrome browser with my personal account as the default whilst also having three other accounts running for the charity I volunteer for. Several weeks ago things started to go pear shaped when I could no longer, for example, manage the mail account of the charity because Google suddenly insisted on logging me in as my personal account no matter how many times I told it to use the other. I got into a cycle that was hard to break out of. I think I probably need to set up multiple profiles and let Google have its way! It's hard to find any good guide on Google Profiles. How do I go about resetting Chrome, Firefox and Edge please? Regards Paul

Thanks for the clarifications. OK so this another task for tomorrow with a clearer head! Paul

Thanks so much for your reply. I have some reading to so! Can I just mention that when this freeze occurs, it effect the whole of Windows and all other apps and browsers, not just Chrome. Is that to be expected for the issue that you're describing? Paul

Here are the log files I had trouble running Malwarebytes at first. The scanner hung I closed and tried to open the program again and it would not open I tried to close the tray icon but that responded with a windows warning that the program was not responding. I closed it and reopened Malwarebytes with the Run as admin option It loaded, scanned and produced no adverse results Log Files.7z

Thanks. Tomorrow as it's late and I'm knackered - never a good combo for fault finding!

I'm not even sure the is a Malware related issue but I'd welcome any advice. Win 10 Pro 10.0.19042 Build 19042 Laptop with 2 x 2K external screens Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-10750H CPU @ 2.60GHz, 2592 Mhz, 6 Core(s), 12 Logical Processor(s) 32GB RAM / 18GB utilised Malwarebytes Pro F Secure Internet Security 18.0 My PC has developed a weird behaviour. intermittently at random intervals sometime separated by a few seconds, sometimes longer my browsers (FF, Chrome, Edge) and windows freeze. This is preceded by a click sound (not user generated) and a slightly different click sound accompanies the unfreeze. If a lengthy freeze happens. Alt+Ctrl+Del to reveal the Lock/Switch User/Logout/Task Manager options, followed by Cancel will unfreeze it. Soemtime teh click come in a quick series, other time I can go for 10's of minutes between events. I ran a Malwarebytes scan nothing found. Also ran an F-Secure scan, ditto. I tried to update Malwarebytes to make sure I had the latest signatures but it hung while searching for updates. I downloaded from the website and installed that, then ran a fresh scan. Still nothing found Has anyone seen anything like this? I have not. TIA Regards Paul