Unidentifiable issue with my PC

[blokewhoknowsnothingabouttech]

Hi, there's something wrong with my PC and I have no idea what's causing it and I wondered if anyone could help.

The PC boots fine and I can log in fine. Then after a few seconds (normally when I open my internet browser) the PC suddenly freezes and the screen goes blank. Then, a few seconds later, the GPU fans go to warp speed, the screen comes back on and the fans go back to their normal speed. Then, seconds later, the whole thing starts again.

Interestingly, the issue does not occur in safe mode. This would suggest it is being caused by the drivers. However, I have uninstalled the drivers, booted back into normal mode and the issue still occurred!

What the hell is causing it? I am completely stumped!

 

[svan71]

Hi, there's something wrong with my PC and I have no idea what's causing it and I wondered if anyone could help.

The PC boots fine and I can log in fine. Then after a few seconds (normally when I open my internet browser) the PC suddenly freezes and the screen goes blank. Then, a few seconds later, the GPU fans go to warp speed, the screen comes back on and the fans go back to their normal speed. Then, seconds later, the whole thing starts again.

Interestingly, the issue does not occur in safe mode. This would suggest it is being caused by the drivers. However, I have uninstalled the drivers, booted back into normal mode and the issue still occurred!

What the hell is causing it? I am completely stumped!

 

[svan71]

My first idea, is try the onboard graphics if your cpu has it, if not try another video card.

 

[smashjohn]

sounds like a computer virus.. try downloading VIPRE Rescue to your desktop, boot in safe mode, and run it.

 

[blokewhoknowsnothingabouttech]

sounds like a computer virus.. try downloading VIPRE Rescue to your desktop, boot in safe mode, and run it.

What's VIPRE? Will malware bytes not do the job?

 

[smashjohn]

You can google search for "vipre rescue" and it will be the first link. Personally, I think it's one of the best AV companies on the market; lightweight and effective. It's a bonus that their emergency recovery software is free.

There's no way to know if malware bytes will detect and repair your system without running it. At this point, you don't even know if you have a virus. You'll have to scan and find out.

 

[blokewhoknowsnothingabouttech]

You can google search for "vipre rescue" and it will be the first link. Personally, I think it's one of the best AV companies on the market; lightweight and effective. It's a bonus that their emergency recovery software is free.

There's no way to know if malware bytes will detect and repair your system without running it. At this point, you don't even know if you have a virus. You'll have to scan and find out.

Ok, I'll try a malwarebytes scan first and then if that doesn't work I'll download vipre and see if that throws anything up. Also, I'll try to run the PC on my iGPU, Mr Svan71

PS: it'll be a few days until I can try any of that, maybe Friday

 

[aldan]

it is most definitely not a virus.it could indeed be the gpu as was earlier suggested.that is the advice i would try first before chasing an elusive or non existant "virus".

 

[smashjohn]

Slow down there bud. I don't know it is a virus (as I stated) and you don't know it's not. He can listen to any and all advice he wants.

Internet Explorer is notoriously vulnerable to exploits. So when someone's cpu or gpu jacks to 100% when IE is executed, it can be a symptom of an infection. It's worth checking out.

You are correct that it could be the GPU. And the suggestions about related to that are good suggestions. I've just never seen a GPU go nuts because someone launched IE.

 

[aldan]

i dont see a reference to ie in the ops first post.didnt mean to be confrontational but i can say with some certainty that this doesnt act like a virus.

 

[blokewhoknowsnothingabouttech]

Oooooookay. It may very well be an issue with the GPU but remember, the problem doesn't occur in safe mode, which would suggest that there's something up with the GPU drivers but then again, even with no drivers the PC still doesn't work properly in normal mode.

I must confess that I am not certain the issue occurs the moment I open my internet browser (Opera, if anyone's interested for some reason) because I have not left the PC idling long enough to test that. Silly I know (I'm not very patient.) Anyway, I will test that out.

It may be quite possible that there is no virus. However, it wouldn't hurt to do a scan, especially since I haven't done one in a while

Anyway, calm down everyone! It's not a matter of life and death. I don't want to start a fight!

 

[aldan]

just a shot in the dark here,try another browser like chrome,to see if it still does it.dont worry we wont kill one another.we dont even know each other.lol.

 

[blokewhoknowsnothingabouttech]

Right. Sorry for posting this a bit later than I said I would, I was busy testing out your suggestions yesterday and didn't get chance to post my finding on here. Anyway, I tried a virus scan and it found nothing so we can rule out that. The next part is where things get interesting -

I booted up the computer in normal mode and just decided to leave it idling to see what happens. Well, it was fine for about a minute up until the moment Spotify (I have it set to open on startup) finally warmed up and opened itself. That's when it froze and the screen went blank for a few seconds. However, when it came back on, there was a much longer amount of time before the screen went blank again.

I used this time to try other applications and it seems that anything even SLIGHTLY graphically intensive sends the GPU into a hissy fit.

while I was trying all this a notification popped up saying "Application has been blocked from accessing graphics hardware."

I've looked in the event log too and it appears that the GPU driver isn't responding

Thoughts?

 

[aldan]

Right. Sorry for posting this a bit later than I said I would, I was busy testing out your suggestions yesterday and didn't get chance to post my finding on here. Anyway, I tried a virus scan and it found nothing so we can rule out that. The next part is where things get interesting -

I booted up the computer in normal mode and just decided to leave it idling to see what happens. Well, it was fine for about a minute up until the moment Spotify (I have it set to open on startup) finally warmed up and opened itself. That's when it froze and the screen went blank for a few seconds. However, when it came back on, there was a much longer amount of time before the screen went blank again.

I used this time to try other applications and it seems that anything even SLIGHTLY graphically intensive sends the GPU into a hissy fit.

while I was trying all this a notification popped up saying "Application has been blocked from accessing graphics hardware."

I've looked in the event log too and it appears that the GPU driver isn't responding

Thoughts?

 

[aldan]

try booting into safemode and disabling your programs from starting with windows.if it boots up ok,enable programs on startup one at a time until this happens again.

 

[blokewhoknowsnothingabouttech]

try booting into safemode and disabling your programs from starting with windows.if it boots up ok,enable programs on startup one at a time until this happens again.

I've tried that, short of disabling programs that make windows work properly, I can't figure out what's causing it. I've been thinking about contacting Nvidia support and seeing what they say but I can't image they'd be much help