- Feb 20, 2025
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In June of 2023 I bought a prebuilt computer from Skytech Gaming. About a few months ago I began getting random freezes (I describe it as a freeze as there is no black screen or otherwise, all audio cuts out but last frame rendered remains on screen. fans stay on) during a wide variety of different games. The computer can go days without freezing, and other times freeze 3-4 times in a session. Over the last few months I have tried the following:
CPU+RAM Stress Test: Crashed after 18 minutes, the first crash I've seen outside of a game.
CPU Only Stress Test: Ran for an hour, no problems
Memory Only: Ran for an hour, no problems
At this point, I'm running out of ideas. It doesn't feel like a normal CPU or GPU crash as there are no logs in event viewer and no blue or black screen, making it more of a "freeze" than a traditional crash. My first thought was it had to be something with the hard drive or PSU, but both have now been replaced with no change. My money is on something weird with the motherboard and a friend who repairs PCs for a living is beginning to believe the same but has suggested I try buying RAM on a whim as its a cheap fix and could be returned if the crashes persist. I'm completely turned off on the 13th Gen Intel processors because of the microcode issues many are having, and yet this doesn't really seem similar to the problems folks have had with those, and I also updated to the microcode update very early and the computer was not in use for very long before that.
An interesting tidbit is the crashes are incredibly sporadic and don't appear to be during what I'd imagine would be tremendous load during games, but it does feel like a reaction to things happening on screen like rendering a new environment or pulling up a menu. It's crashed during a wide variety of games such as Civ VI & VII, Helldivers 2, Avowed, and Indiana Jones.
Another tidbit is I did experience some issues with power outtages over the summer. My air conditioner was tripping the same breaker my computer was on and so the computer lost power quite a few times over the summer, so there is a fear that maybe some component got ruined because of it (which is also why I was quick to replace the PSU)
CPU: i5 13600k
Motherboard: MSI Pro Z690-A
Memory: Kingston 32GB DDR5-5200 (2600 MHz) RAM
GPU: RTX 4070 Ti
- monitored temp, normal temps preceding crash every time.
- checked eventviewer, no errors prior to reboot
- checked crash dumps, no crash dump
- Installed the microcode/bios update for 13th Gen Intel Processors
- updated all drivers including intel and nvidia drivers
- reseated all hardware
- checked for malware and paired down running software to essentials only
- ran sfc /scannow, which DID find corrupt files which it successfully repaired
- completely reinstalled windows on an alternate hard drive, and removed all other hard drives but the new drive
- ran windows memory diagnostic tool, nothing found
- replaced the power supply supply.
CPU+RAM Stress Test: Crashed after 18 minutes, the first crash I've seen outside of a game.
CPU Only Stress Test: Ran for an hour, no problems
Memory Only: Ran for an hour, no problems
At this point, I'm running out of ideas. It doesn't feel like a normal CPU or GPU crash as there are no logs in event viewer and no blue or black screen, making it more of a "freeze" than a traditional crash. My first thought was it had to be something with the hard drive or PSU, but both have now been replaced with no change. My money is on something weird with the motherboard and a friend who repairs PCs for a living is beginning to believe the same but has suggested I try buying RAM on a whim as its a cheap fix and could be returned if the crashes persist. I'm completely turned off on the 13th Gen Intel processors because of the microcode issues many are having, and yet this doesn't really seem similar to the problems folks have had with those, and I also updated to the microcode update very early and the computer was not in use for very long before that.
An interesting tidbit is the crashes are incredibly sporadic and don't appear to be during what I'd imagine would be tremendous load during games, but it does feel like a reaction to things happening on screen like rendering a new environment or pulling up a menu. It's crashed during a wide variety of games such as Civ VI & VII, Helldivers 2, Avowed, and Indiana Jones.
Another tidbit is I did experience some issues with power outtages over the summer. My air conditioner was tripping the same breaker my computer was on and so the computer lost power quite a few times over the summer, so there is a fear that maybe some component got ruined because of it (which is also why I was quick to replace the PSU)
CPU: i5 13600k
Motherboard: MSI Pro Z690-A
Memory: Kingston 32GB DDR5-5200 (2600 MHz) RAM
GPU: RTX 4070 Ti
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