Question How can I troubleshoot this freezing issue?

[sweetjazz]

Hello. I've exhausted my own knowledge and wasn't sure what to do so here I am. Over the last few months, my games have been crashing. This has been occurring over a variety of games that I never had an issue with before. To be entirely honest I am not sure if it is a GPU, RAM, CPU, or software issue. This crash seems to happen without rhyme or reason. Sometimes 10 minutes into play, other times a few hours. I have also noticed that it doesn't seem to happen at graphically intense or CPU heavy times. Most games just freeze (I can still hear audio most times), however, there are a few interesting exceptions. Warframe crashes but actually provides an error box, saying there is a GPU driver issue. in World of Warcraft the screen freeze for a few seconds but then actually resumes as normal. This error does not seem to occur when doing anything other than playing games. Here is what I have tried.

-Increased fan speeds and cooler room to help with thermals.
-Updated drivers with NVIDIA APP.
-Restore default drives through NVIDIA Control Panel.
-Ran an OCCT stability test on CPU/RAM (all stable).
-Ran a OC stability test with MSI Afterburner (said Unstable GPU)-->adjusted to recommended settings but still have problem
-Cleared the GPU cache

I am hoping it is just some sort of driver problem but I don't know how to clean slate the GPU. I have had this PC for years and haven't had any recurring issues like this. Please help. This is my first time posting here, so if I've broken and posting etiquette I apologize.

 

[Lutfij]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

Please list the specs to your build like so:
CPU:
CPU cooler:
Motherboard:
Ram:
SSD/HDD:
GPU:
PSU:
Chassis:
OS:
Monitor:
include the age of the PSU apart from it's make and model. BIOS version for your motherboard at this moment of time.

Did your issues start with an OS update? You might want to run memtest for 10 passes and see any errors come up.

Updated drivers with NVIDIA APP.
You should use DDU in Safe Mode to remove all GPU drivers(intel, AMD and Nvidia) then manually install the latest GPU driver sourced from Nvidia's support site in an elevated command, i.e, Right click installer>Run as Administrator.

 

[sweetjazz]

Thanks for the response. Here is my system info:

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600X
Fan: Corsair ICUE Link H100i Liquid AIO
Motherboard: MPG X570 Gaming Edge
RAM: (4x8) 32gb Corsair Vengeance DDR4 3600
GPU: NVIDIA Geforce RTC 3060 Ti
Storage:
2GB HD WD20EZAZ
1GB NVMe Internal SSD WDS100T2B0C
1GB NVMe Internal SSD Kingston SNVS
PSU? (unsure if this is it) Thermaltake PS-TTP-0600NNFAGU-1 600 W ATX12V 80 PLUS GOLD
OS: Windows 11
Monitor: ASUS VG27WQ
BIOS Version: American Megatrends Internation LLC 1.H2 3/16/2022
SMBIOS 2.8

All parts are 5 years old.
Honestly not sure when exactly it started. Its been a few months. I'll try what you suggested.

 

[MEMOFLEX]

Thanks for the response. Here is my system info:

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600X
Fan: Corsair ICUE Link H100i Liquid AIO
Motherboard: MPG X570 Gaming Edge
RAM: (4x8) 32gb Corsair Vengeance DDR4 3600
GPU: NVIDIA Geforce RTC 3060 Ti
Storage:
2GB HD WD20EZAZ
1GB NVMe Internal SSD WDS100T2B0C
1GB NVMe Internal SSD Kingston SNVS
PSU? (unsure if this is it) Thermaltake PS-TTP-0600NNFAGU-1 600 W ATX12V 80 PLUS GOLD
OS: Windows 11
Monitor: ASUS VG27WQ
BIOS Version: American Megatrends Internation LLC 1.H2 3/16/2022
SMBIOS 2.8

All parts are 5 years old.
Honestly not sure when exactly it started. Its been a few months. I'll try what you suggested.

Can you provide details of what temperatures you are experiencing for CPU and GPU with a monitoring tool such as HWINFO. Include GPU hotspot temp as well.

Have there been any changes to hardware or software of any significance around the time you started having issues? No windows 10 to windows 11 upgrade for example?

 

[Third-Eye]

Most games just freeze (I can still hear audio most times), however, there are a few interesting exceptions. Warframe crashes but actually provides an error box, saying there is a GPU driver issue. in World of Warcraft the screen freeze for a few seconds but then actually resumes as normal. This error does not seem to occur when doing anything other than playing games. Here is what I have tried.

-Ran a OC stability test with MSI Afterburner (said Unstable GPU)-->adjusted to recommended settings but still

This sounds like you started off with a clean Windows install, but with the crashing, it has corrupted Windows and needs to be repaired. It could also mean there is an issue with your SSD, but the crashing sounds more like it started from a likely overheating GPU that caused constant system shut downs and crashes that forced a hard shutdown/reset.

You should first run DISM commands and then SFC /Scannow to see if Windows is corrupted and needed repairs. I found this to be a decent guide to doing this. https://www.windowscentral.com/how-use-dism-command-line-utility-repair-windows-10-image

After all that is checked and or fixed, you should download and install GPU-Z, then enable sensor logging in the the Sensors tab. Run a game and see what the temepratures of the GPU and Hot spot are, and the fan RPM at those temperatures. The logging is for when the PC crashes, you will have data to look at.

TechPowerUp

GPU-Z is a lightweight system utility designed to provide vital information about your video card and graphics processor.

www.techpowerup.com