Question PC randomly freezes/crashes, audio sometimes continues, requires manual reset to start working again ?

[Dejan121]

Hello everyone , be warned this is gonna be a long thread but help would be GREATLY appreciated since i am starting to lose my sanity over this.

Basically what the title says.
My pc would sometimes randomly freeze without any indications and sometimes the audio from the videos/discord calls would continue playing but if i am ingame the game will freeze and become non responsive, i can alt tab and click around but the PC becomes less responsive with every second. I can "try" to open task manager but when i do the button shows on the screen like its fried into it, it will open task manager altho nothing will work.
If i try to close applications during this time , lets say browser ( chrome ) it will just do the same thing it does to the task manager button. if i try to restart the pc the normal way it will just freeze up and not restart resulting in nothing working and having to manually restart from the button.
Now the tricky part comes that makes me lose my mind.
This problem started occuring to me around november 2024 and it sometimes happens few times per day sometimes doesnt happen in days ( max i've been without a problem was a week and a half ).

I had done stress tests as memtest , furmark , cinebench. Stress tested the GPU, RAM , CPU piece by piece and nothing gave me any errors everything worked prefectly fine.
Had the same pc for over 7 years and i never experience these sort of problems.

The pc specs were

Motherboard: MSI b450m a-pro max
CPU : Ryzen 5 2600x
GPU: RX 580 xfx gts xxx 8gb
RAM : 2x8gb Kingston HyperX 3200mhz XMP ( tried without XMP aswell )
PSU was some 500W ( Not sure of the brand )
Storage 500gb kingston nvme m.2 / 1tb Seagate HDD ( windows installed on the m2 ofcourse )
Win 10 latest build for that time.

I have tried everything at that point updating every driver to the newest version reinstalling windows couple of times nothing worked. Then i started to suspect it is hardware related and i decided its time for an upgrade.
Now the funny part comes , fast forward to first week of January this year ( 2025 ) i have built another pc

The specs are :

Motherboard: Gigabyte b550m ds3h rev 1.7
CPU : Ryzen 7 5700x3d
GPU : Gigabyte GeForce RTX 4060 Ti EAGLE 8GB GDDR6 WINDFORCE 3X
RAM : 2x8gb Kingston HyperX 3200mhz XMP ( Started with the same ones from my old pc, later on i ended up switching to different RAM sticks both were 2x8gb kingston 2333 mhz XMP not enabled, results were the same)
PSU : Cooler Master GX III Gold 750W ATX3.0 Full Modular Power Supply
Storage : Ended up starting with the old storage , after some time i tried using only the 500gb m2 kingston without the 1tb HDD , pc kept doing the same freezes, later on i went and replaced the kingston m2 with different disk ( ADATA 512gb m.2 , results were still the same )
Still using Windows 10 latest updates , at the moment when i type winver in windows search it says the version is : Version 22H2 ( OS Build 19045.5440)
Tried the ram sticks on 1 and 3 slots and on 2 and 4 slot and it was the same.

Installed all the latest chipset drivers 5.11.02.217
Installed the latest gpu drivers, version 572.16 released 30th january.

Pc keeps on doing the exact same thing and its driving me insane , so i went on thinking about being it software problem, so i've scoured the internet of everything i can find.
At the moment i cannot even remember all the things i've tried , few things i can remember are :
I have disabled Hardware accelerated gpu scheduling ,
Using the balanced power plan.
Have done the sfc /scannow
Have scanned multiple times for malware / viruses all those things , ( it found some malwares on the kingston m2 but not on the ADATA m2 and i deleted them ) but the problem keeps persisting when using either drive.

I have always been monitoring the temperatures of the GPU/CPU via HwMonitor/MSI Afterburner (overlay enabled when ingame) and the temps never reach alarming states , some of the freezes happened when cpu was around 45 degrees , gpu 35-40. I was able to see this because as i said i can alt tab for quite time when the freeze happens.
I have started leaving Task manager open to see if CPU or GPU gets to 100% usage when it freezes but it does not.
I have tried looking at event viewer after i manually restart the pc and the only errors im getting is that the pc has shut down unexpectedly, nothing else as i understand. ( can provide pictures next time it happens if needed )
I even went crazy today thinking its somehow related to Google Chrome so i switched to Microsoft Edge for few hours and then it happened again.

So tl;dr : PC kept freezing and becoming less responsive by the second while i could talk on discord/hear youtube/twitch, built a new pc reinstalled OS few times even on different storage and the problem still persists, at some point ALL parts were different but the problem kept on showing up. At this point the only thing in common the old and new pc have is the user ( me lol ) my mouse/keyboard/monitor and the windows account i use.

I am sure i missed some of the steps i've taken and you guys can help me out suggesting what to do and if i have done that i will remember.

But i am BEGGING for some help as this is driving me insane , i finally decided to make this thread today after PC did the same thing 2 times.

Sorry the post is very long,
Any help is appreciated.

 

[beyondlogic]

Hello everyone , be warned this is gonna be a long thread but help would be GREATLY appreciated since i am starting to lose my sanity over this.

Basically what the title says.
My pc would sometimes randomly freeze without any indications and sometimes the audio from the videos/discord calls would continue playing but if i am ingame the game will freeze and become non responsive, i can alt tab and click around but the PC becomes less responsive with every second. I can "try" to open task manager but when i do the button shows on the screen like its fried into it, it will open task manager altho nothing will work.
If i try to close applications during this time , lets say browser ( chrome ) it will just do the same thing it does to the task manager button. if i try to restart the pc the normal way it will just freeze up and not restart resulting in nothing working and having to manually restart from the button.
Now the tricky part comes that makes me lose my mind.
This problem started occuring to me around november 2024 and it sometimes happens few times per day sometimes doesnt happen in days ( max i've been without a problem was a week and a half ).

I had done stress tests as memtest , furmark , cinebench. Stress tested the GPU, RAM , CPU piece by piece and nothing gave me any errors everything worked prefectly fine.
Had the same pc for over 7 years and i never experience these sort of problems.

The pc specs were

Motherboard: MSI b450m a-pro max
CPU : Ryzen 5 2600x
GPU: RX 580 xfx gts xxx 8gb
RAM : 2x8gb Kingston HyperX 3200mhz XMP ( tried without XMP aswell )
PSU was some 500W ( Not sure of the brand )
Storage 500gb kingston nvme m.2 / 1tb Seagate HDD ( windows installed on the m2 ofcourse )
Win 10 latest build for that time.

I have tried everything at that point updating every driver to the newest version reinstalling windows couple of times nothing worked. Then i started to suspect it is hardware related and i decided its time for an upgrade.
Now the funny part comes , fast forward to first week of January this year ( 2025 ) i have built another pc

The specs are :

Motherboard: Gigabyte b550m ds3h rev 1.7
CPU : Ryzen 7 5700x3d
GPU : Gigabyte GeForce RTX 4060 Ti EAGLE 8GB GDDR6 WINDFORCE 3X
RAM : 2x8gb Kingston HyperX 3200mhz XMP ( Started with the same ones from my old pc, later on i ended up switching to different RAM sticks both were 2x8gb kingston 2333 mhz XMP not enabled, results were the same)
PSU : Cooler Master GX III Gold 750W ATX3.0 Full Modular Power Supply
Storage : Ended up starting with the old storage , after some time i tried using only the 500gb m2 kingston without the 1tb HDD , pc kept doing the same freezes, later on i went and replaced the kingston m2 with different disk ( ADATA 512gb m.2 , results were still the same )
Still using Windows 10 latest updates , at the moment when i type winver in windows search it says the version is : Version 22H2 ( OS Build 19045.5440)
Tried the ram sticks on 1 and 3 slots and on 2 and 4 slot and it was the same.

Installed all the latest chipset drivers 5.11.02.217
Installed the latest gpu drivers, version 572.16 released 30th january.

Pc keeps on doing the exact same thing and its driving me insane , so i went on thinking about being it software problem, so i've scoured the internet of everything i can find.
At the moment i cannot even remember all the things i've tried , few things i can remember are :
I have disabled Hardware accelerated gpu scheduling ,
Using the balanced power plan.
Have done the sfc /scannow
Have scanned multiple times for malware / viruses all those things , ( it found some malwares on the kingston m2 but not on the ADATA m2 and i deleted them ) but the problem keeps persisting when using either drive.

I have always been monitoring the temperatures of the GPU/CPU via HwMonitor/MSI Afterburner (overlay enabled when ingame) and the temps never reach alarming states , some of the freezes happened when cpu was around 45 degrees , gpu 35-40. I was able to see this because as i said i can alt tab for quite time when the freeze happens.
I have started leaving Task manager open to see if CPU or GPU gets to 100% usage when it freezes but it does not.
I have tried looking at event viewer after i manually restart the pc and the only errors im getting is that the pc has shut down unexpectedly, nothing else as i understand. ( can provide pictures next time it happens if needed )
I even went crazy today thinking its somehow related to Google Chrome so i switched to Microsoft Edge for few hours and then it happened again.

So tl;dr : PC kept freezing and becoming less responsive by the second while i could talk on discord/hear youtube/twitch, built a new pc reinstalled OS few times even on different storage and the problem still persists, at some point ALL parts were different but the problem kept on showing up. At this point the only thing in common the old and new pc have is the user ( me lol ) my mouse/keyboard/monitor and the windows account i use.

I am sure i missed some of the steps i've taken and you guys can help me out suggesting what to do and if i have done that i will remember.

But i am BEGGING for some help as this is driving me insane , i finally decided to make this thread today after PC did the same thing 2 times.

Sorry the post is very long,
Any help is appreciated.

Try turning of hardware GPU scheduling graphics found under display graphics.

To disable hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling in Windows, you can:

1. Open Settings
2. Select System
3. Select the Display tab
4. Click Graphics settings
5. Toggle off the Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling switch
6. Restart your computer.

It can have conflicts with games.

If it's PCI gen 4 nvme it must have a heatsink or it will overheat and freeze.

 

[Dejan121]

Try turning of hardware GPU scheduling graphics found under display graphics.

To disable hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling in Windows, you can:

1. Open Settings
2. Select System
3. Select the Display tab
4. Click Graphics settings
5. Toggle off the Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling switch
6. Restart your computer.

It can have conflicts with games.

If it's PCI gen 4 nvme it must have a heatsink or it will overheat and freeze.

Hi ,
Thanks for the reply, i have disabled hardware -accelerate GPU scheduling but the problem kept on appeearing. Freezes also happen out of gaming , it can be watching youtube/twitch or not even having browser open.

Also the Storage temps are always around :
Assembly : 30-35c
Sensor 1 : 55-58c
Sensor2 : 31-34c According to HwMonitor
And according to Kingston SSD Manager the temperature is 30c.

 

[JayGau]

Did you change the case too? If you changed everything but the case, you could have some bad cables or shorts from the case to the mb, causing crashes when temperature goes up and the material expansion triggers unwanted connections.

Another hypothesis would be bad waveform from your home electric that would make the power supply delivering faulty voltages to some vital components, causing the freezes and crashes. That's pretty stretched but at this point, you changed everything and it still does it so you have to think of an external cause.

 

[beyondlogic]

Hi ,
Thanks for the reply, i have disabled hardware -accelerate GPU scheduling but the problem kept on appeearing. Freezes also happen out of gaming , it can be watching youtube/twitch or not even having browser open.

Also the Storage temps are always around :
Assembly : 30-35c
Sensor 1 : 55-58c
Sensor2 : 31-34c According to HwMonitor
And according to Kingston SSD Manager the temperature is 30c.

As jaygau said if you changed cases at all check for connections but also any extra stand offs under the board can cause a short and freezing.

When you installed the os did you do so with media tool ? In other words a fresh install no keeping files. Cause that can cause driver conflicts there's also usually a option when making a usb for this pc that has to be no tick in that box as it's a fresh install. I would still have a heatsink on nvme it as it may not record a temp spike when it freezes up.

 

[Dejan121]

Did you change the case too? If you changed everything but the case, you could have some bad cables or shorts from the case to the mb, causing crashes when temperature goes up and the material expansion triggers unwanted connections.

Another hypothesis would be bad waveform from your home electric that would make the power supply delivering faulty voltages to some vital components, causing the freezes and crashes. That's pretty stretched but at this point, you changed everything and it still does it so you have to think of an external cause

Yes, i forgot to mention i've changed the case aswell , same as the place where my PC was , before it was under my desk now its above it.
And when i was reinstalling OS it was always fresh install , deleted everything from the m2 , but kept the stuff on the HDD , so when the freezes kept happening i removed the HDD for a few days hoping it would stop but it still didnt.

 

[Dejan121]

Update:

Since yesterday i have reseated the gpu , cleaned dust from the case , updated the LAN drivers and the Audio ( even tho they were the latest version ). went back to my old Microsoft Account i was using previously , disabled fast boot, disabled news and interests from the taskbar for whatever reason, it wasnt updating all the time automaticly so i thought why not turn it off. Im not sure if i missed something.
I started the pc today and in less than 10 mins it did the same thing while i was watching a youtube video, except this time everything became unresponsive instantly , i couldnt alt tab or anything.
Event viewer shows this ;
Second error from bottom up says : The Secure Boot update failed to update a Secure Boot variable with error Secure Boot is not enabled on this machine.. For more information, please see https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=2169931
Third error from bottom up says :
The System Guard Runtime Monitor Broker service terminated with the following error:
%%3489660935
Critical says : The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly.
Error above it : The previous system shutdown at 1:00:26 PM on ‎2/‎4/‎2025 was unexpected.
Error above it : Audit events have been dropped by the transport. 0
And the last one is
The AMDRyzenMasterDriverV27 service failed to start due to the following error:
The system cannot find the path specified.

Im honestly dont know what to do anymore.