Windows 8.1 hanging whilst in use, maybe related to session manager?

[Anglerge]

Basically, I've noticed windows session manager constantly using ~25-30% of my CPU since this morning, and, roughly 5-30 minutes or so after I've booted up my computer, it has been hanging, requiring me to turn my computer off and back on again at the PSU to get it to unhang. This was not happening yesterday, however, since this morning, my computer has become pretty much unusable as a result. I suspect that the unusually high CPU usage of session manager may have something to do with it, however, that still doesn't change the fact that my computer is pretty much unusable right now, due to these constant hangs. When it hangs, I can still move the mouse, any currently playing audio/video (even live audio/video from a zoom webinar I had today) still works, but, when these happen, I still can't use the computer (not even open the start menu or use ctrl+alt+del). I have attempted to wait them out, however, after 20 minutes or so of a hang I just gave up.


In case this is relevant, when I first booted up my computer today, it gave me a BSOD complaining about a 'BAD_POOL_HEADER', however, the BSOD disappeared rather quickly so I'm not entirely sure if it did say that, this BSOD only happened once.


Additionally, over the past few days, my computer has been rather slow to boot, but it's been strangely fast today, so I don't know if that has anything to do with it.


I was able to restart my computer without it hanging when I restarted it pretty much instantly after booting it up, but the problem still persisted after then.


And yes, I have tried following the published guidance for how to fix this (and also I've included some other information

• https://support.microsoft.com/en-us...s-8-1-windows-8-or-windows-7-hangs-or-freezes
  • I attempted the DISM/SFC method, SFC reported no issues at the end of this (followed a few minutes later by a hang)
  • I did not install anything yesterday.
    • Since these hangs started, I have tried windows update to install a few 'optional' updates present there (as suggested), however, they don't appear to have actually been installed. I have attempted to repair windows update, but, after following the instructions on the microsoft website for doing that, it claimed to be working fine
    • I have installed new drivers for my graphics card, in case the fact that they weren't completely up-to-date was the problem, but that didn't fix it either
  • I have tried booting it without any USB peripherals plugged in, still hangs
    
  • I have attempted disabling a bunch of start-up things, still hangs
  • I have attempted to use my antivirus, but it appears that these hangs disrupt my antivirus scans too
    • It also doesn't appear that I'm able to scan my PC using windows defender in safe mode
• The session manager CPU load issues are still present in safe mode
  • It only hung in safe mode after I attempted to restart my computer from safe mode
• I have run the automatic maintenance/troubleshooting things in control panel, and those reported no issues either.
• It appears that when a program stops responding, this is promptly followed by a hang.
  • However, most of the hangs did not involve a program entering an unresponsive state, so I'm not sure if some of these hangs were prompted by the programs not responding, the program stopped responding as a result of the conditions leading to the hang, or if there's no correlation between these.
• I have not changed any bios settings or anything like that for a considerable amount of time
• My hardware drivers are all up-to-date (as far as I am aware)

And here are the specs of my computer in case they will be of any use.

• Custom build (made by me back in august 2016), haven't replaced any of the hardware since I first built it
• 8.1 pro 64-bit
• Intel i5-4690 4*3.50GHz
• 16GB RAM (forgot the manufacturer)
• MSI Z97 Gaming 5 motherboard
  
• MSI GeForce GTX 970 Gaming 4GB graphics card
• XFX XT 500 PSU (500W)

It's been working fine for years, but it's only recently started to stop co-operating with me.


Any advice/help/guidance/whatever would be much appreciated.


I have misplaced my installation media thing for my OS at some point since I first got this computer working, so a system refresh/wipe will be a bit tricky for me to do, and I'll only consider going down that route as a last resort.


I don't know if upgrading my entire OS to windows 10 will fix this problem or not either (and, if that somehow is the solution, some guidance for how to do it without sacrificing my entire C: drive and without it hanging on me mid-upgrade would be appreciated)


thanks in advance for any help you can provide, because I've just about given up working out what the hell is going on, and these problems might pose a few headaches when I have to get some online exams done next month.


so uhh yeah oman i am not good with computer pls to help

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