What brand PC?
Do you have an antivirus/firewall?
Load Control Panel (you can use windows search to find it on your machine) and go to uninstall program, then click at the top of the date column to sort by the install date of the programs on the list. Were any programs listed as installed around when you started having this problem? If so what is it?

If your file system's screwed up, it can cause these issues if it's NOT an infection. You need to run the system file checker. There's a post on how to do it here:
https://forums.tomshardware.com/faq/how-to-scan-windows-10-files-with-sfc-scannow.2498567/

Yeah, then I'd do the SFC next using the instructions at that link to see if your file system has been corrupted. If it has, that will fix it in most cases.

Also, what brand is the SSD? Some of the crap brands do not have a great record with length of uncorrupted service.

Try installing the free version of malwarebytes (downloaded direct from their site ONLY) and see if it finds anything. It often takes care of things antivirus misses.

Ugh. ADATA has a really bad failure record. They are a bottom-tier producer scraping nand seconds from manufacturers to make their drives.

You have a recent backup, right? If not, make one.

I'm not sure if crystal disk info works with SSDs, but you basically need to check out that drive's SMART data ASAP.

If that comes up clear, then I'd try the malwarebytes, but I wouldn't stress that drive any more than you have to until you know it's not failing.

That's a PDF to JPG converter that can serve adware or spy on you, making your system potentially unstable. "PUP" in malware-speak stands for "potentially unwanted program" which can be an actual program installed, or, in this case some plug-in or attachment to your browser, more likely.

I'd let it remove that, then reboot and see what you get.

You don't want the performance, you want the health. The main screen of CrystalDiskInfo tells you all the hard drive health stats.

(you can get a clean screen grab by clicking on the window you want to capture, then hitting ALT-PrtSc then opening MSPaint (if you don't have something better like photoshop) and hitting CTRL-V to paste it in, then save it as a jpg)

The CrystalDiskInfo page you're looking for is this - you see it when it boots up:
crystal-disk-info (resized).jpg

It's reading the drive's diagnostic block(s) when it opens. The drive keeps those stats all the time.

I don't see anything on that, but still suspicious of ADATA drives. Make SURE you keep a backup, because it could suddenly just stop completely.

Did you have MWB remove the PUP and reboot?

When was the last antivirus definition installed? Was it around the time the issue started?

Also, when this happens, try ALT-Tab to window switch through the open windows instead and see if the "freeze" is actually a message/alert window that's active off-screen. That would LOOK like a freeze, but not actually be one.

Also, you might want to try making an additional user login for your machine then logging off your existing one completely and logging into the new one you created and seeing if the problem persists.

Also, I forgot about Event Viewer. You can check out the internal events Windows logs to see if it give you a clue about what's happening internally. Use windows search to find the event viewer on your machine then check the logs around the times you had freezes.

Don't use Trend Micro, so I can't help there. Just trying to see if a definition or program update was installed around the time you noticed issues. Most decent AV have a log, but I don't know where that would be with TM.

What are the plug-ins installed on Chrome, and when were they installed?

Forget the warnings, what are the ones flagged as "Error"?

Is Chrome always open when this happens? (BTW, side point - Chrome and google products in general are bad. Google has gone full on evil with the spying in search of even more profits. Googleupdate and other modules behave like a virus now)

You're better off with Firefox and all Chrome, google earth, etc local to your machine uninstalled.

But that's a future concern.

Those ESENT errors in the log may be problem. Here's a microsoft site discussion about how to get rid of the errors:

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/event-viewer-erro-esent-455-since-update-1903/624a2548-06e5-47f4-bb99-76d6412895a0

The two largest number of actual errors are ESENT and App. The Esent link fix is above. For the app one, try the Win10 App troubleshooter:

Run the troubleshooter hit the Start button -> select Settings > Update & Security > Troubleshoot, and then from the list select Windows Store apps > Run the troubleshooter

Then try the ESENT Error fix.

Did you make a completely new user account for that machine (option is on the control panel under "users"), reboot and then log into the new user instead and see if the issue remains?

What processes are listed in your task manager process listing?

Also, does the problem happen if you boot into Win 10 Safe Mode (where it loads the bare minimum of drivers to function)?

Try turning off windows scratch disk telling it you have 0 disk available for memory cache. That way it will only use what's in RAM and eliminate the crappy ADATA if that's the core issue. You have to reboot after making the change, then go straight back into safe mode.

Not sure where it is on Windows 10 (I hate Win 10, so we're all using Win 7 still), but basically you want to get to advanced system settings->performance->advanced->virtual memory and set the paging file to off/0 then reboot. This isn't a permanent situation, but it will remove most of the disk activity from the equation so after testing, you need to put it back.

Also after you did the ESENT fix, did new errors stop happening in the log? If you did the fix right there should be no more errors.

CTRL-SHIFT-ESC is the fastest way to get to task manager.

I think there's enough uncertainty with that last Win10 update causing similar issues for other users too not to call it the SSD just yet (although ADATA is notoriously crappy), but turning off the cache will go a long way toward diagnosing it.

Does your event log still show you're getting ESENT errors after you did the fix?

I'd disable the virtual memory cache (set it to 0 and reboot) to eliminate drive caching from the equation and see if that eliminates it.

No that's not it. DO NOT DO THAT. That is specific to the DRIVE, not Windows10.

Here's how to get to the screen in Win10:

https://www.trishtech.com/2014/11/disable-virtual-memory-in-windows-10/

Alternate way:
Control Panel ->System and Security ->System ->Advanced system settings ->Performance ->Advanced ->Change
(Set to "No Paging File" then SET button, then close and reboot)

Yes. Hit the "Change" button, then set to no paging file, then click "SET" then close the windows and reboot. Double check it's off when you complete the reboot.

Also have you deleted all the files in your Windows->Temp directory?

I'd leave it for a bit and see if it happens again. Freeze at startup could just be a service not starting right.

Also, when were those NVidia drivers updated?

I'm out of obvious ideas. I doubt Geek Squad will do much better.

I'd delete your windows temp directory files
Check the Nvidia drivers for an update (if nothing newer, delete and roll back to the version before)
See if there's more info on the Win10 update that just happened causing the same issue with other users
Replace the ADATA with something much better like a Samsung Pro.

You just need to use something like clonezilla to clone the existing SSD to a new one. Easy.

But I'd investigate the NVidia drivers first since that update was around when you noticed this.

Do you HAVE system restore points still on your machine? If you have them, you can go back to one before this started...

Not really. I'd do that.

This is what I usually run into on other people's machines, you're not alone.

Did you try uninstalling and reverting the NVidia driver that was updated around the time your problems started?

It's really more common that you'd think. I've helped a LOT of people with PC issues here and more often than not there are zero restore points available.

However, he has a Carbonite backup service running according to the process list. I use Macrium locally, so I have no idea what features carbonite offers. Does that have incremental restores?

Is your carbonite backup incremental for the whole disc image, or just important files? If you have an image in the cloud, you could restore back to that if it's before the point with issues.

Did you roll back the NVIDIA driver yet?

But the driver that was re-installed was the version BEFORE you had problems, right, not the current version again?

But when Win10 rebooted, it didn't install the NVidia drivers again automatically?

As soon as Win7 support is sunsetted, our transition to Mac begins. Win10 isn't happening in my house. I have one laptop I use in the field with it, and I HATE it (plus all the spying telemetry all over the place you can't get rid of). The transition will suck, but long term is the only answer.

Also all decent PC antivirus is transitioning to the cloud, meaning your files will be sent to the cloud and many have rootkit VPN now or will have them soon, which is another do-not-want. So even if Windows was great, that antivirus change would push us to Macs sooner rather than later.

Did you try uninstalling trend micro and rebooting mentioned a while back? AV definition chances can do weird things, too. You can re-install if it didn't fix it.

I hope that takes care of it.

He has the current drive firmware.

No, no, no. Chrome is Google. Chromebook is Chrome. Google is bad. They've gone full-on evil in the last couple years in the search for ever more profits. Less Google in your life is better, not more. Google's drive for money has accelerated its job of knowing everything about you. Tracking everything you do (even when of questionable methods) online, reading all your gmail, listening to everything you say (if you have nest hub or newer nest thermostats, or god forbid google home), and if you have android, tracking who you call and where you go. And this despite what you may have told it not to do. There are loopholes on everything they do, privacy-wise.

If you're not into Win 10, your options are Mac first, then Linux distant second. Mac will be the most compatible and have the least amount of weird issues.

It's not an issue of what you have to hide, it's an issue of do you want to be manipulated in ways you can't even understand. They don't hire scores of psychologists at Google to make your mental health better, they hire them to learn how to exploit people more effectively in their everyday lives.

Open a Macbook from hibernate and it's ready to go in seconds and you don't have a fraction of the privacy problems you do with a Chromebook. I understand the choice you made, but I would never, EVER recommend Chrome anything now that Google has taken a hard turn into evil territory.

Apple isn't even in the same UNIVERSE as Google for privacy abuses because their sole business is not marketing you as a product to advertisers. It's the reason Google and Facebook are taking such a hard turn into full-on evil. Money. The fines are tiny compared to the money they make, so they break the rules and pay the fines and their stock goes up anyway.

Brave is Chromium. Chrome is bad, as are all offshoots. Open source or not. Google is trying to do bad things with the Internet and privacy and Chrome/Chromium are part of the plan.

Did you resolve this problem?

Did windows update download an update during that time? Given the problems other users were reporting similar to yours, they might have just pushed out a fix. You can look at the windows update history to see...