Question Windows 11 Freezes - No apparent reason

[rlreese74]

Hello,

I have a custom windows PC built in late 2019 with a few upgrades that have been done over time. The issue of the PC freezing all well after the upgrades occurred, so I am unsure if they are related.

Issue: Since late February early March I have been experiencing a number of instances where Windows essentially becomes unresponsive. It starts like its simply hung on a process like explorer is stuck, so I can open and close open windows but nothing more. Then it gets progressively worse to the point where I cannot get any action from the open windows. I cannot even get Task manager open at this time to see if there is an issue or stop a task. Most often, the mouse still moves, but sometimes it stops completely. Computer never actually gets to BSOD, it just becomes unusable and the only way to get back to work is a hard reset. This does include waiting for several minutes to see if it does BSOD.

The odd part is that this error generally occurs under very routine work conditions like a few open windows folders and a few open Chrome browsers. It also can happen back to back multiple times upon repeated restarts. It has also occurred once a few times when monitors have gone to sleep, when PC is essentially in idle) so that I cannot even get it to respond to see what is going on. In contradiction, when running video editing software (Powerdirector and Davinci Resolve) the PC has not hung up like this.

PC Specs
CPU: AMD 5900X (upgraded from AMD 2700X October 2024)
CPU cooler: Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 Dual tower (upgraded from AMD Wraith Prism cooler October 2024)
Motherboard: Asus Tuf Gaming X570-Plus (Wifi); Upgraded BIOS to 4805 months before upgrading CPU - 5900X
Ram: 32 GB (4 x 8) of DDR4 3200mhz - Patriot Viper (originally 2X8, with second set added sometime before October 2024)
SSD/HDD: Multiple, see below
- M.2 NVME WD-Black SN750 500 GB SSD; OS and Programs
- Two SATA Samsung 860 EVO 1 TB SSDs; Storage
- M.2 NVME Fanxiang S660 4 TB SSD; Storage (added in 2022 to second NVME slot on MB)
GPU: MSI MECH Radeon RX 5700XT
PSU: EVGA Supernova 750 G+ (750 watt)
Chassis: Thermaltake Versa J23 (I think)
Case Fans - 6 Antec Storm 120mm (three intake, 3 exhaust) (upgraded from stock case fans October 2024)
OS: Windows 11 Pro (upgraded from Windows 10 Pro, some time ago)
Monitor: Asus Proart PA279CV 4K Monitor (main), 28" Samsung 4K monitor (secondary), both running from display ports

Trouble Shooting done:
- SFC /Scannow - found an issue, and stated it repaired it. When rechecked no errors found.
- dism clean up was done, and also came back clear.
- Friend who helped build this and do upgrades did the following: Removed all drives and installed a clean boot drive with Windows only. PC appeared to work flawlessly. Ran several PC stress tests with this drive (BurnInTest) and had no issues and did not crash. With it installed, RAM timing/power was adjusted due to slight variation in the sets used). Reran stress tests and saw slightly better results. Does not appear to be one of the main components. Returned to original OS drive, ran some tests and looked good. Could not hang it up on a few windows. Then reinstalled all drives.

Since the troubleshooting, I have not used the PC much. First time was Sunday, and I again had the same issue of it hanging up. At the time I was transferring files from an SD card to my PC or an external drive for back up. So a few explorer windows at most. Opened one Chrome window to look something up and PC became unresponsive.

Rebooted and was able to complete my file transfers. I then did some light photo editing without issue. After that I tried to see if I could get it to crash by opening several chrome tabs. I did not count the first time, but second was 40+ tabs. And right now since typing this I have also not seen an issue. (3 chrome open and one file explorer).

Unsure if its resolved but would like to know what you think the next steps might be if it continues.

 

[Lutfij]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

PSU: EVGA Supernova 750 G+ (750 watt)
How old is the PSU in your build? 6 years?

The issue of the PC freezing all well after the upgrades occurred, so I am unsure if they are related.
If removing the upgrades from your build helps alleviate the issue, then yes the upgrades are the problem. Actually, I'm suspecting either the motherboard(BIOS) or your ram to be the issue.

Motherboard: Asus Tuf Gaming X570-Plus (Wifi); Upgraded BIOS with 5900X to 4805 October 2024
That BIOS doesn't show up here;
https://www.asus.com/bd/motherboard...helpdesk_bios?model2Name=TUF-GAMING-X570-PLUS
which would mean that the BIOS was removed due to instability issues, the closest BIOS version being 4802 or 5003. That being said, I'd update the BIOS to version 5031 but make sure you're on the latest chipset drivers for your platform(sourced from AMD's support site), then flash the BIOS and then clear the CMOS for good measure.

As for the ram, it's probable that the IC's on the two ram kits you have which were purchased 5 years apart, might be what's causing instability issues.

CPU: AMD 5900X (upgraded from AMD 2700X October 2024)
Did you encounter a reset fTPM message after POST?

Opened one Chrome window to look something up and PC became unresponsive.
Try disabling hardware acceleration in Chrome, if enabled.

 

[NanoSuit3]

It could be power. Sometimes a system like this could use some extra power with at least an 800 - 850 Watt PSU for extra leg room. A system like your draws almost 700 Watts with that 50 Watt Leg room whereas it should be at least 100+. Not only that too but your Mobo after the 4805 BIOS update had 3 other ones after with latest being 5021 on 11/4/2024 so go check that out too. Food for thoughts.........................................

 

[rlreese74]

Thank you Lutfij and NanoSuit3 for the suggestions. I have some more details below to what you posted.

PSU: EVGA Supernova 750 G+ (750 watt)
Yes, this is the original power supply from the build. As far as draw, PCPartpicker lists my draw as only 500W, so I should have clearance.
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/df9JXR

Motherboard: Asus Tuf Gaming X570-Plus (Wifi); Upgraded BIOS with 5900X to 4805 October 2024
Sorry if this was unclear. BIOS was done well before the upgrade to the CPU to have that done. Took a while before my friend could help me with installing the new CPU and Cooler and fans.
As far as version, I did confirm it in windows before I posted, and confirmed in the BIOS itself after seeing your response about the version not listed.
C:\Users\XXXX>wmic bios get smbiosbiosversion
SMBIOSBIOSVersion
4805
Please note that there appear to be three differnt Asus Tuf X570 boards. I have the PLUS WIFI version which does have 4805 listed as a BIOS. There do appear to be a few updates since this was made.

TUF GAMING X570-PLUS (WI-FI) - Support

www.asus.com

PC was stable with this and the 2700X for close to a year probably, and 6 months or so with the 5900X before issues started. So could a windows update be causing problems with an older BIOS?

As for the ram, it's probable that the IC's on the two ram kits you have which were purchased 5 years apart, might be what's causing instability issues.
Ram was purchased 2 years apart, but the second kit was not installed for some time after. I know it was before the CPU was done, but honestly don't recall the exact timeline. I would day it was probably early 2024 that I put them in. There are some timing differences in them. They have run at full speed for times when first added, but I saw some stability issues with an actual BSOD. So I dropped them to lower speeds and that corrected it. When the CPU was updated in October 2024, my friend reenabled them to full speed. Again no issues with that at the time so I left it there. When the issues started in March 2025 I dropped the speeds, still have issues. On the most recent troubleshooting, the CL timing was looked at more closely., and some additional changes were made. Still seem to have issues as I am posting in this forum.

Did you encounter a reset fTPM message after POST?
I don't know and not sure my friend would recall. Should we have seen this? And if we did not see it, why would the issue creep in months later.

Try disabling hardware acceleration in Chrome, if enabled.
It was enabled. I took it off and it made the PC incredibly slow... and still crashed... twice. So its back on and it crashed again.

I guess what I still don't understand is why windows only crashes for any of these potential issues under a very low workload versus when its being stressed. Like, literally I cam run Davinci in the background doing nothing and the PC has not crashed for hours.

 

[rlreese74]

Follow up - Updated BIOS to 5102 last week after that was suggested above, but due to some other commitments was unable to spend much time with my PC after the update to see if issue was resolved. Unfortunately I am still seeing the same pattern/issues.

Upon fresh start up, PC was working fine for probably 10 minutes. I had a few tabs of Chrome open within two windows. Then it froze and became unresponsive. Hard restart, loaded chrome to post here and it froze mid response. Third reboot froze trying to start Chrome.

On the forth reboot, went to stress test the PC using HeavyLoad. Ran for 10 + minutes with no issues with the current overclocks that were reenabled after BIOS update and had been stress tested before. Per Task manager while this was running the CPU is at 4.2 ghz and 100%, 32 gb RAM at 3200 mhz (per the OC). Added stress test for GPU and noticed that the test may have a flaw. PEr task manager had VRAM at 1 GB on an 8 GB graphics card. Test video was a bit choppy both as a solo GPU stress and with the CPU and RAM versions of the test. Both tests showed 14-15 fps. This lead me to be concerned its my GPU.

Loaded Davinci to test GPU usage since HeavyLoad and Task manager seem to only show partial use of the cards VRAM. With Davinci open the task manager showed 2.5 gb at idle and 3.2 at scrubbing timeline on color corrected 1080p footage.

While typing this response I also exported the video file and watched task manager. CPU usage was 6% of less, RAM at about 9.5 gb, and GPU averaged 3.8 for the 45 minute video exported at 1080p and took less than 10 minutes , which is about the average I have with videos of that size and scope.

Closed project, but have Davinci open and running idle in background.

Any suggestions for a next step would be appreciated.