Computer freezing when attempting to save game

[Mangraz]

Hello guys,

I'd never have thought that it would come this far, but I finally encountered a problem neither Google nor a support worker could fix. So I finally got my lazy self up to write a report of my problem and what I tried to fix it so far.

The problem I have is the following: Whenever I try to save in a game, and sometimes when I try to exit the program, Windows freezes and in most cases will stay unresponsible for longer than my patience lasts (about 5 min). This first started in The Witcher 3 GOTY, which nearly always froze Windows when I saved or it auto-saved. Performancewise it works like a charm: ~60fps on Ultra 2560p.
As Witcher 3 is known for casuing problems I tried to fix the game by implementing tweaks and such. After I went through all possible tweaks I could find, I finally started suspecting Windows or my hardware to be faulty.

So I started testing benchmarks and other games I own. I tested

Spoiler

• 
  -Unigine Heaven and Valley
  -Hitman 2016
  -3DMark

Only 3DMark run without freezing my PC, even though ot was either unable to read my graphics drivers or my system specs as a whole. Both Unigine Benchmarks caused freezing when I tried to save the results, or - and this is unique and new - restarted my system to UEFI randomly during the benchmark. Hitman suffers from the same problem as The Witcher: 60fps performance on Ultra settings, but freezing my system when I try to save or quit the game.
All games run from my HDD, saving to my SSD-

Here now, are my specs, it's basically a upgraded Medion E2225, about 1 year old:

Spoiler

• 
  - OS: Windows 10 x64 Home
  - Mainboard: Medion H81H3-EM2 (called E2225 2397 on Userbenchmark)
  - CPU: Intel i5-4590
  - GPU: Sapphire Radeon RX470 Nitro+ 8GB
  - RAM: HyperX Fury 1866Mhz 8GB (KHX1866C10D38G)
  - PSU: Thermaltake Hamburg 530W
  - SSD: Samsung MZ5PA064HMCD-01000 64GB (from my old notebook, system is on this)
  - HDD: Seagate Barracuda ST1000DM003-1ER162 1TB

I will now list my unsuccessful tries of tackling this plaguing issue.
I started with defragmenting and checking my disk using the Windows Explorer. After that I installed CrystalDisk, HDDScan, and the official Seagate programSeatools. The S.M.A.R.T. didn't show any errors and checks by HDDScan and Seatools didn't bring up anything either. No bad segments on any drive.
Then, I used SiSoftware Sandra to take a look at my system but I didn't find anything suspicious, apart from my RAM running only at 1333Mhz, but that's probably due to the MoBo.
I then resetted Windows using the Windows Settings, which left me with nothing but work.
So I decided to take a look at Antivirus programs, downloaded Avast and run a smartscan, a quickscan and a custom scan on my whole SSD and a couple of folders on my HDD.
I also checked if I have full authority over the save folders of the games, meaning my profile can read/write. It has full authority. And, of course, I tried running the games at lower grpahics settings, even though it seemed kinda pointless anyway as I'm having very good performance except for those save freezes.
Finally I run the System File Checker via /scannow and looked into Windows eventlogs. The File Check turned up nothing, whereas the eventlogs contains 2 suspicious errors:

Spoiler

+ System

- Provider

[ Name] Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-PnP
[ Guid] {9C205A39-1250-487D-ABD7-E831C6290539}

EventID 219

Version 0

Level 3

Task 212

Opcode 0

Keywords 0x8000000000000000

- TimeCreated

[ SystemTime] 2017-02-22T18:30:12.150863400Z

EventRecordID 1530

Correlation

- Execution

[ ProcessID] 4
[ ThreadID] 164

Channel System

Computer DESKTOP-QD2HP39

- Security

[ UserID] S-1-5-18


- EventData

DriverNameLength 128
DriverName SWD\WPDBUSENUM\_??_USBSTOR#Disk&Ven_Generic-&Prod_Multi-Card&Rev_1.00#20071114173400000&0#{53f56307-b6bf-11d0-94f2-00a0c91efb8b}
Status 3221226341
FailureNameLength 14
FailureName \Driver\WudfRd
Version 0

(Error when loading the driver \Driver\WudfRd für das Gerät SWD\WPDBUSENUM\_??_USBSTOR#Disk&Ven_Generic-&Prod_Multi-Card&Rev_1.00#20071114173400000&0#{53f56307-b6bf-11d0-94f2-00a0c91efb8b}.)(translated from German)

Spoiler

+ System

- Provider

[ Name] Microsoft-Windows-DistributedCOM
[ Guid] {1B562E86-B7AA-4131-BADC-B6F3A001407E}
[ EventSourceName] DCOM

- EventID 10016

[ Qualifiers] 0

Version 0

Level 2

Task 0

Opcode 0

Keywords 0x8080000000000000

- TimeCreated

[ SystemTime] 2017-02-22T18:30:56.247373800Z

EventRecordID 1537

Correlation

- Execution

[ ProcessID] 864
[ ThreadID] 908

Channel System

Computer DESKTOP-QD2HP39

- Security

[ UserID] S-1-5-18


- EventData

param1 Anwendungsspezifisch
param2 Lokal
param3 Aktivierung
param4 {8D8F4F83-3594-4F07-8369-FC3C3CAE4919}
param5 {F72671A9-012C-4725-9D2F-2A4D32D65169}
param6 NT-AUTORITÄT
param7 SYSTEM
param8 S-1-5-18
param9 LocalHost (unter Verwendung von LRPC)
param10 Nicht verfügbar
param11 Nicht verfügbar


Durch die Berechtigungseinstellungen für "Anwendungsspezifisch" wird dem Benutzer "NT-AUTORITÄT\SYSTEM" (SID: S-1-5-18) unter der Adresse "LocalHost (unter Verwendung von LRPC)" keine Berechtigung vom Typ "Lokal Aktivierung" für die COM-Serveranwendung mit der CLSID
{8D8F4F83-3594-4F07-8369-FC3C3CAE4919}
und der APPID
{F72671A9-012C-4725-9D2F-2A4D32D65169}
im Anwendungscontainer "Nicht verfügbar" (SID: Nicht verfügbar) gewährt. Die Sicherheitsberechtigung kann mit dem Verwaltungstool für Komponentendienste geändert werden. (No clue about the exact english translation, if necessary I'll try to provide it)

at the time of freeze. Unfortunately, Google couldn't help me there, so I have no clue on what to do now. The latter on always shows right on freezing time. The first often some minutes earlier.

So this is I've done so far. Tomorrow I will reassemble my PC, but as hope is starting to leave me, I am calling you for help. Do you have any idea what's causing this and how I could fix it? I hope the eventlog helps.
Huge Thank You to everyone who even read until this point, I look forward to your answers!

 

[Mangraz]

Man, this was hard work. Hope anybody's gonna read through this monster of thread.

 

[CropEditPaste]

It sounds like a hard drive problem, but it may be the communication between the CPU/Motherboard/RAM/HDD. Try saving the game to the HDD and see if the problem persists. Make sure all connections on the motherboard are free of dust, and try swapping SATA cables between hard drives. Reseat the RAM. Take out the CPU and make sure nothing is scratched/bent/dusty.

 

[DRagor]

Well, did read the post
You wrote, that games are on HDD, but save to SSD. Plus SSD is only 64 GB.
Most likely your SSD is out of space, and crashes when trying to save. During gaming, some of SSD space that normally is supposed to be free, will be used.
Try deleting some unnecessary things from SSD to free some more space and see if that helps.

 

[Mangraz]

It sounds like a hard drive problem, but it may be the communication between the CPU/Motherboard/RAM/HDD. Try saving the game to the HDD and see if the problem persists. Make sure all connections on the motherboard are free of dust, and try swapping SATA cables between hard drives. Reseat the RAM. Take out the CPU and make sure nothing is scratched/bent/dusty.

Thanks for your fast answer!
I too suspect a hard drive problem, although every check I run says everything's fine. I will try making the games save to the HDD, although I don't (yet) know how to do it. Will research tomorrow. I'll then follow your other steps as I want to check my components tomorrow anyway.
I'll let you know if something changed!

Well, did read the post
You wrote, that games are on HDD, but save to SSD. Plus SSD is only 64 GB.
Most likely your SSD is out of space, and crashes when trying to save. During gaming, some of SSD space that normally is supposed to be free, will be used.
Try deleting some unnecessary things from SSD to free some more space and see if that helps.

Glad to hear
Too bad I missed to mention something: The SSD has still 20GB free space, which should suffice. I'll delete some stuff anyway, just to be sure. Thx four your answer!

 

[Mangraz]

It sounds like a hard drive problem, but it may be the communication between the CPU/Motherboard/RAM/HDD. Try saving the game to the HDD and see if the problem persists. Make sure all connections on the motherboard are free of dust, and try swapping SATA cables between hard drives. Reseat the RAM. Take out the CPU and make sure nothing is scratched/bent/dusty.

So, today I rearranged my computer a little. I reaseated the RAM, optimized the cable management, because the SATA cables were a little bent. This seemed to have done the trick, as I was able to play for an hour with saving and autosaving without problems. Thanks for your help!

 

[CropEditPaste]

It sounds like a hard drive problem, but it may be the communication between the CPU/Motherboard/RAM/HDD. Try saving the game to the HDD and see if the problem persists. Make sure all connections on the motherboard are free of dust, and try swapping SATA cables between hard drives. Reseat the RAM. Take out the CPU and make sure nothing is scratched/bent/dusty.

So, today I rearranged my computer a little. I reaseated the RAM, optimized the cable management, because the SATA cables were a little bent. This seemed to have done the trick, as I was able to play for an hour with saving and autosaving without problems. Thanks for your help!

No problem! Happy to help!