Why do games freeze the entire PC only while in fullscreen

[Blingbo]

It might be a dumb question, but then again I'm not a PC mastermind. You see I've been playing a game these past few days and every now and then the game freezes the entire PC. That means no alt+F4, no task manager, nothing, it just sits there until you restart the whole PC. 3 times this happens and all 3 times I've saved an hour before the freeze. Now this only happens while said thing is fullscreen, not windowed or borderless, why is that? Can you guys enlighten me?

 

[SoggyTissue]

without a list of your pc build, how can we tell?

maybe (as it only hapens in full screen mode) its a driver issue. update drivers.

 

[lumineZ]

Always list your full hardware spec (if a pre-built then list the name of the computer) with your questions.

 

[Blingbo]

This is not the only PC I've had this problem with. Jeez, here are the specs:
FX-8350
8GB RAM
MSI 970
1TB HDD
Win 10
Who hasn't had a problem like this? You make it windowed/bordeless and it doesn't "kill" your PC. Why? That's the question. I'm not looking to solve my specific issue, I'm looking for an answer to this question, what do you not get? My specs have no place on this thread

 

[lumineZ]

This is not the only PC I've had this problem with. Jeez, here are the specs:
FX-8350
8GB RAM
MSI 970
1TB HDD
Win 10
Who hasn't had a problem like this? You make it windowed/bordeless and it doesn't "kill" your PC. Why? That's the question. I'm not looking to solve my specific issue, I'm looking for an answer to this question, what do you not get? My specs have no place on this thread

Hmm... Well...

To be honest... With an attitude answer like that... I am done helping out.
Read the forum rules is my best advice.

Good luck.

 

[COLGeek]

Of course your hardware could be part of the problem and is why members asked you about it. There are also game optimization issues, software configurations, and a whole slew of possible problems. Members ask these questions to know what we are working with and to rule out obvious things.

Trolling those trying to help is a sure way to get no help. Please remember, be kind to and respectful of others.

BTW, this sounds like a possible heat and/or power issue. What is the make/model of your PSU? What specific game(s) are you having these issues with? Is Windows and your major drivers (like video, motherboard chipset, etc) fully up to date?

Also, are you still OCing the system?

http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-3544756/good-overclock-values.html

These are the types of things people will ask.

 

[Blingbo]

For all I know it's the RAM's fault. Nothing new or big runs smooth with 8GB anymore, unless you want ugly textures. I close my browser to play some games, cuz they need all my RAM. PSU is Corsair VS650 and no I'm not OCing. Subnautica was the latest game with this freezing, GTA & ARK also have a lot of stutter, even freeze sometimes. Can't remember other games right now. FL Studio also has done this. All drivers are up to date, they don't fix these things. If they did fix them, GTA or ARK should've stopped running so bad by now

 

[COLGeek]

Test your memory with memtest: http://www.memtest.org/

8GB of properly working memory should be fine for most users, even today. You didn't mention a SSD earlier, so you could have some issues with your virtual memory being on a relatively slow HDD. This can negatively impact games. Lowering the graphics quality can help with this in some cases.

What are your CPU and GPU operating temperatures at idle and under load?

 

[Blingbo]

Test your memory with memtest: http://www.memtest.org/

8GB of properly working memory should be fine for most users, even today. You didn't mention a SSD earlier, so you could have some issues with your virtual memory being on a relatively slow HDD. This can negatively impact games. Lowering the graphics quality can help with this in some cases.

What are your CPU and GPU operating temperatures at idle and under load?

Temps are between 20-50 for the CPU and 40-70 for the GPU (idle/load). And memtests are too slow, don't wanna do them while I'm using the PC and when I'm not I forget to run the test. My HDD is a SATA 3 7200rpm, that should be the fastest HDD type right?

 

[COLGeek]

Test your memory later then. That is up to you.

Your temps should be fine. The HDD is okay, but can still present an issue if you are using large amounts of virtual memory.

When you go "full screen" you put the heaviest load on your GPU, I assume you are gaming at 1080p or higher. That is one possible explanation for the issues you are experiencing.

 

[Blingbo]

Test your memory later then. That is up to you.

Your temps should be fine. The HDD is okay, but can still present an issue if you are using large amounts of virtual memory.

When you go "full screen" you put the heaviest load on your GPU, I assume you are gaming at 1080p or higher. That is one possible explanation for the issues you are experiencing.

Now I'm using an Ultrawide monitor 2560x1080. But before i played on a ~1440x990, so the monitor shouldn't be the culprit

 

[COLGeek]

Not the monitor, the resolution. The ultrawide monitor puts a heavy load on the GPU to manage all of those pixels, your CPU is dated (albeit good for its time) and will bottleneck the GPU a bit under heavy loads.

The previous resolution was more than manageable and indicates a different underlying issue affecting overall performance. Still seems to be mostly heat and/or power related if the same basic system was used at both resolutions and you experienced the same general issues.

BTW, what is the make/model of your motherboard?

 

[Blingbo]

Not the monitor, the resolution. The ultrawide monitor puts a heavy load on the GPU to manage all of those pixels, your CPU is dated (albeit good for its time) and will bottleneck the GPU a bit under heavy loads.

The previous resolution was more than manageable and indicates a different underlying issue affecting overall performance. Still seems to be mostly heat and/or power related if the same basic system was used at both resolutions and you experienced the same general issues.

BTW, what is the make/model of your motherboard?

The only non-budget thing is the GPU, the motherboard is Gigabyte ud3 or sth like that

 

[COLGeek]

The exact model is needed to assess its impact on system performance. You very well could be using a motherboard that has its own thermal limitations and could be the underlying issue all along.

 

[Karadjgne]

Windowed mode uses the DirectX driverset, so works well with Windows as DirectX is native. Full screen mode uses OpenGL drivers, which opens up possible conflicts with legacy lan and audio drivers on the mobo. While your nvidia and windows you say are up to date, have you also installed the latest motherboard drivers, lan and audio especially, as these can and do have issues with Win10CE, 64bit and 32bit driver compatibility. Nvidia has also had some issues with this, not limited to lag, stuttering, shutdowns, loss of fps etc in fullscreen mode.

 

[Blingbo]

Exact mobo model is gigabyte 990fxa-ud3 rev 3

 

[COLGeek]

That is a decent motherboard. Its thermal management capacity should not be an issue.

Karadjgne provided some good info as well.