[SOLVED] Games Freezing/Crashing

[KIMBOF1]

I'm aware this will have been posted a million times and believe me I have tried my hardest to fix my issue but I've given in and frankly need some help.

System Specs:
OS: Windows 10 64-bit
Mobo: MSI MPG Z390 GAMING EDGE AC, Bought Christmas 2018
CPU: Intel i7 8700k (Christmas 2018 again)
GPU: MSI GTX 1070 GAMING X
RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2x8GB) 2133Mhz
PSU: Corsair RM1000i (New as well, fitted in May)
All my games are installed on the same 4TB HDD (E drive)

Games I've Tested:
-PUBG
-MORDHAU
-Squad
-Escape From Tarkov (EFT)

Notice how the first three games on this list are built upon unreal engine, these games are the first games that suffered from freezing/crashing so initially I thought it was maybe a problem with unreal but EFT is built on Unity so clearly not.

The Problem:
So this is happening to all of those games. Basically, I'll be playing and all of a sudden it will freeze but I'll be able to hear sound (in some games I can move around and hear sounds but the image is frozen) then 1-2 mins later it will crash to desktop. In some games I can't close the frozen program I can open task manager but not get to it cos this image is stuck on my screen so I have to force shut down the pc to close the game. Some games the crashes are more frequent and sometimes they happen within a minute of playing and sometimes 30 mins after I've launched it. That's all there is to it really. I have also noticed however that games are sometimes ever so slightly slower to load in maps/areas. Something else I've noticed is that discord will sometimes ask me to reload it like it has crashed and this started happening around the same time as the game problems.

What I've Tried:
- Uninstalling NVIDIA GPU drivers with DDU and then reinstalling drivers (also tried older drivers from MSI website)
-Selecting the debug mode in the NVIDIA control panel.
-Scanned HDD for problems with a tool I forgot the name of.
-Disabled CPU, GPU, and RAM overclocks.
-Updated every driver on my computer using Driver Boost 6 on Steam.
-Cleaned up my program list.
-Verified integrity of game files.
-Put in-game settings on lowest (tried this on mordhau and it completely fixed my issue) but it's not the ideal fix I'm looking for.

I've probably forgotten something here or maybe even not done one of these correctly.

Any help would be appreciated. Thank you so much in advance as this is such a headache I've been dealing with for a couple of weeks. This is my first post and I did it on mobile so it was complete suffering.

 

[Phaaze88]

This was a brand new build, or upgraded from an older one?
If it was from an older build, did you reinstall Windows after changing the motherboard? Otherwise, Windows is still optimized for your old setup.

How many sticks of ram? What is the total capacity?
If using more than one stick, is it of the same kit?

The slow map loading is usually due to the games being on a HDD - assuming it is working normally. An SSD would give faster load times, but a 4 TB SSD is hella expensive...
Did you check your drive health using CrystalDiskInfo? Site link: https://crystalmark.info/redirect.php?product=CrystalDiskInfoInstaller

I see use of Driver Boost 6 on 'things you've tried'. You may have some nasties hiding in your HDD.
Free download for adwcleaner: https://www.malwarebytes.com/adwcleaner/
Quarantine and delete everything it finds, including Driver Boost 6, because that'll likely get flagged too.

 

[KIMBOF1]

This was a brand new build, or upgraded from an older one?
If it was from an older build, did you reinstall Windows after changing the motherboard? Otherwise, Windows is still optimized for your old setup.

How many sticks of ram? What is the total capacity?
If using more than one stick, is it of the same kit?

The slow map loading is usually due to the games being on a HDD - assuming it is working normally. An SSD would give faster load times, but a 4 TB SSD is hella expensive...
Did you check your drive health using CrystalDiskInfo? Site link: https://crystalmark.info/redirect.php?product=CrystalDiskInfoInstaller

I see use of Driver Boost 6 on 'things you've tried'. You may have some nasties hiding in your HDD.
Free download for adwcleaner: https://www.malwarebytes.com/adwcleaner/
Quarantine and delete everything it finds, including Driver Boost 6, because that'll likely get flagged too.

Hi, I completely forgot to put RAM capacity into my specs. It was late when I made the question so please forgive me. I have updated the specs list to show more information about my RAM.

Before I bought the new Mobo and CPU I was running Windows 7 Pro 64-bit. I decided to upgrade to Windows 10 64-bit after I had fitted the new parts. So I took apart my whole pc since I was fitting a new Mobo and put it back together with the new CPU and CPU cooler I bought. Then I cloned my windows 7 ssd boot to another ssd in case anything went wrong. I ran into a lot of problems while trying to install windows 10 so I ended up taking my windows 7 ssd, putting it into another computer and upgrading to Windows 10 on there. Then I put it back in my own pc and voila it worked. I don't think this is causing the problem however because I've been running Windows 10 for 8 months now and the game freeze/crashing issues only started happening a couple week back.

I know that HDD's are slower to load than SSD's but what I mean is it seems slower now than it has ever been. I might be making this up but I seem to remember my HDD loading things faster than it is today. I'll be sure to check out my drive health thoroughly. I bought it for just over £100, it has a 5980RPM rotation rate.

I will also use that tool you sent to see if it helps.

Thanks for replying, I'll give everything you've said a shot and report back.

 

[KIMBOF1]

I downloaded CrystalDiskInfo but I'm not sure what I am looking for here. I selected the drive where all my games are installed. Hopefully, someone can offer some help.

 

[KIMBOF1]

SOLVED: I updated my BIOS and reinstalled Windows 10.