PC freezes shortly after startup

The fact that it doesn't freeze while you're in Safe Mode is actually the best news possible. It heavily implies your core hardware, CPU, motherboard, and RAM is physically fine. If it were a hardware failure or a dead liquid cooling pump, it would crash in Safe Mode too.

You mentioned OneDrive is completely full. When Windows boots normally, OneDrive instantly launches and tries to sync a massive backlog of files, metadata, and local changes. If it's maxed out or a database file is corrupted, OneDrive can enter an aggressive sync loop that pins your CPU or disk usage to 100%, causing a total system lockup within a few minutes.

While you are in Safe Mode, open your File Explorer. Right-click the OneDrive icon/folder, go to Settings, and unlink your PC or disable it from starting up with Windows. Alternatively, go to Task Manager, Startup apps, and disable OneDrive completely. Reboot normally and see if the 5-minute freeze goes away.

How are your CPU temps when you're not in safe mode?

Open an ai chat and have it run some command line tests before it crashes. Bet it will track it down.

Since you don’t have time to type passwords or log in look at the bottom right corner of the screen for the Power icon. Hold down the Shift key on your keyboard, and while holding it, click Restart. Keep holding Shift until the screen changes to a blue menu that says "Choose an option."

If you successfully get to this blue screen go to Troubleshoot > Advanced options > Startup Settings > Restart. When it reboots, press 4 to select Safe Mode.

Safe Mode loads absolutely zero startup programs, third-party drivers, or internet connections. If it stays stable here, your hardware is fine, and you just need to uninstall a recent update or driver.

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I also can't get online in safe mode.

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Do you see an option titled Safe Mode with Networking?

You need that to get online in safe mode

If you can get it into Safe Mode with Networking,

Run DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

Then run the sfc /scannow again.

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got it into Safe Mode and tried running sfc/scannow, updated GPU driver, and ran Windows memory diagnostic. All these suggestions came from Google btw. Only other issue is OneDrive is full. Any guesses on what to try next?

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I remember having a similar issues years ago. It had something to do with a background service for the Microsoft app store. I'm trying to remember the name of the service. But it basically would rev up disk usage to freeze the computer

I had to disable it on startup I believe. Not really sure why it started causing the issues

Let me see if I can find the app store service

ETA I believe it was the wsappx service

Let this serve as a gentle reminder to refresh or create your USB recovery key

Check the Application and System logs in the Event Viewer on the next startup after the freeze to see if anything stands out. Sometimes there will be a warning or error message in there giving clues to the source.

I got it from Google.

This is now a constant problem for me. I can't update without it freezing and some updates happen automatically. I'm think about doing a system restore and just go back a few weeks, plus turn off automatic updates. Also my pc is now 10 years old. Maybe I'll just get a new one.