Question Major Game Issues After Unplugging and Moving PC – Freezes, Lag, and No Game Launch

[ViktorLU]

Hi everyone,

Yesterday I moved my PC to a new desk and since then, I’ve been experiencing serious issues when launching games.

After plugging everything back in, I noticed that some games are extremely laggy – like trying to run a modern game on a 15-year-old PC. Call of Duty freezes on the loading screen, and afterwards, the whole system becomes unresponsive and needs a hard reboot.

Here’s what I’ve tried so far:

• Stress-tested both GPU and CPU – no crashes or throttling.
• Checked and re-seated all cables and components on the motherboard – nothing appears loose or damaged.
• Reinstalled Windows 11 from scratch – no improvement.
• Ran Windows Memory Diagnostic – no errors.
• Updated all drivers – graphics, chipset, etc.

Outside of games, the PC behaves completely normally. No crashes, no lag – just the gaming issue.

It seems like too much of a coincidence that this started right after I moved the PC. It was laying on a bed for a couple of hours before setup – could the PSU have been affected somehow? It seems to deliver power fine (no reboots, stress tests passed), but I’m out of ideas.

Has anyone experienced something similar or have suggestions for further testing? Any help would be appreciated!

I also ran the following command line tools to check system integrity:

• sfc /scannow – found no issues
• DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth – completed successfully

Still no improvement.

 

[Lutfij]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

Has anyone experienced something similar or have suggestions for further testing? Any help would be appreciated!
Did you inspect your parts for anything that might've knocked out a component on the board or your devices?

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.

Reinstalled Windows 11 from scratch – no improvement.
You're advised to recreate your bootable USB installer for the OS, disconnect all drives except for the one you wish to install the OS onto, then install the OS in offline mode, manually install all necessary drivers while in offline mode, in an elevated command.