Question The whole PC freezes if I Tab out from Rust and click on a window or on the Taskbar ?

[Zhedish]

This only happens with Rust and it doesn't happen with any other game.
So I am playing Rust and after a while when I tab out and click on another window or use the taskbar to access another window it all freezes and the error "The application is not responding. The program may respond again if you wait. Do you want to end this process?" and then from there no matter what I do it just stays the same, can't access task manager, cant ctrl+alt+delete, the only way I get out of it is to restart the PC.

I can't check Task Manager when it happens to figure out the problem until it happens and it doesn't happen with any other game.

I've tried reinstalling the game, optimizing settings in-game and out of the game, resetting my PC, updating drivers, and updating BIOS. The whole 9 yards.

Does anyone have a clue of what else I could do?

Here are my specs:
Processor 12th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-12700F, 2100 Mhz, 12 Core(s), 20 Logical Processor(s)
Graphics Card NVIDIA RTX 3070
16 GB RAM
Storage SSD and plenty

 

[popatim]

That usually happens when you are playing full screen. I found this solution for Rust since I dont recall it having a Windowed mode:

1. Right-click on the game title under the Library in Steam and select Properties.
2. Under the General tab click the Set launch options... button. Enter the option bellow (including the hyphen)
   -popupwindow
3. Close the game's Properties window and launch the game.
4. On the Rust Configuration window, mark the option "Windowed"

 

[Master_Shifu]

Ssounds like an overheating issue or maybe a memory problem.

Try checking temps with MSI Afterburner and run a memory test. Also, make sure your drivers are up-to-date. If that doesn't work, verify game files and see if that helps.

 

[Zhedish]

Ssounds like an overheating issue or maybe a memory problem.

Try checking temps with MSI Afterburner and run a memory test. Also, make sure your drivers are up-to-date. If that doesn't work, verify game files and see if that helps.

After being able to run a few diagnostics, you are correct, it may be a memory problem