Windows 10: My Window 10 computer completely freezes after playing games for after around 10-15 minutes

Hi, I have a gaming computer which i use to play games on a 3 monitor setup, and VR. After a while the games will crash, causing a black screen where the computer compltely freezes. Ctrl + alt + delete does not work, so i have to hold down the power button to crash it. This has been a progressing issue. It begin with just a few games, and then most. I reinstalled windows 10 using installation media, and that temporarily fixed the problem, but it has now progressed again. My computers specifications are: AMD 3400G, Nvidia GTX 1660 SUPER, 16GB RAM. The games i try to play range in graphical inte

:)

 

Borderlands freezes and thaws

I'm positive the steps I took above fixed it. I went through 10 rounds in the underdome (well over an hour of gameplay) without a single freeze. Previously, I couldn't play 15 minutes without at least one freeze.

 

Can't play Hit It Rich game and system freezes

Hi carmenstanley1,

Thank you for your response.

I can understand how frustrating it would be. This issue might be due to corrupted profile or if the game is not installed completely. I suggest you to follow these steps and let us know if it works.

Could you please help me with the below questions:

• Are you aware of any changes happened on the computer prior to this issue?
  
• Have you tried playing this game on other browser (Google chrome or Mozilla) and check for the issue?
  

Step 1: Uninstall or Repair the game.

1. Press Windows and
   R key together on your Keyboard.
2. Type appwiz.cpl and hit enter.
   
3. Right click on the Hit it Rich app > Select Repair or uninstall it.
4. Reinstall the application and check for the issue.
   

Step 2: Create a new local account.

The reason might be due to user account corruption, so I would suggest you to ‘Create
a local user or administrator account’ and check if the issue persists.

Note: You will not see all your files under your default file location.
So your data will be saved under C:\Users\User_name.

If you are facing issues with freezing, I would suggest you to follow the troubleshooting steps on
Tips to improve PC performance in Windows
10.

Hope it helps.

Roohi Taj S

Microsoft Community - Moderator

 

Weird Freezing/System lockup about 10-15 minutes after boot.

[What was happening]
So for a few weeks/months now I'd been experiencing fairly slow boot times with my kingston hyperx 128gb ssd (it was fine when I first got it, after a firmware fix) I decided to try fix it yesterday and updated the firmware again.

I started getting blue screens of death not long into using the computer, it didn't seem to matter whether I was playing a game or not. (Screens with IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL) I have phone photos of a few of them, but I'm not sure they're relevant anymore as that's no longer my problem.

I rolled back the ssd firmware update figuring there must be something wrong with either the firmware or the ssd, so that was the first suspect. I considered it could possibly be the motherboard too, and as such, cleared the cmos, and updated the bios (uefi) firmware, and then cleared cmos again, before checking to make my settings right.

The minidumps I had from the recent bsod's that did actually log had atikmpag.sys to blame, another reason to think it was the gpu causing that..

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[What is happening now]
I spent hours intermittently toying with this so I can't remember every detail, but I got the bsod's to stop. However I would find maybe half an hour after boot, I was playing a game and there'd be a graphical glitch, the system would lock up, and I'd have to hard reset, and so my third suspect became the gpu.

It happened again another 2 or 3 times like this, and as such, instead tried looking around support forums and whatnot.

Interestingly, it still happened without being in a game. It seemed the only requirement to replicate it was to have the computer on for 10-15 minutes. The screen was freezing up and the mouse/keyboard were becoming unresponsive. Again, more looking round and some people suggested hard drive corruption, some suggested bad ram, some suggested the gpu's didn't like having both crossfire bridges connected after the most recent drivers (which I did)
some suggested the psu wasn't pulling it's weight and more.

I found it could've been corrupt usb3 drivers, where both my usb and mouse were plugged in, so after restarting I'd plugged them back into usb2 and went to update the drivers from my mobo site. It still happened, and I noticed a windows waiting logo (the spinning wheel) was still spinning when I froze up. This told me it wasn't graphical, and so the next time while searching for problems, I ran a video in the background. Interestingly, this time, it did freeze up when the computer did.

I couldn't change keyboard profile with the buttons, I didn't hear any response from the computer through audio if I tried certain shortcuts, and if I tried replugging the usb's back in, they no longer connected at all. This told me it was whole system lockup, and it was consistently happening about 10-15 minutes after boot.

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Is it the psu?
The psu still doesn't make sense to me as a possibility, ocz zx 1000w 80+ gold and not a problem with it so far till I started doing stuff yesterday. Personally, I rule it out, the computer is still staying on for the crash.

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Is it the gpu?
Tried things such as turning off crossfire, wiping drivers and installing new, wiping drivers and going back to ones that definitely worked. They weren't overheating and not even getting close to it.

I'd also pulled the second crossfire bridge out, but that didn't seem to help.

Still a possibility but again, seems odd it only started freezing up yesterday after my toying with it.

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Is it the cpu?

Temps and fans are absolutely fine, (like sub 40c when the crashes are happening) It's not under stress, and it's one of the things I haven't been changing when the bsod's/crashes started yesterday, which tells me changing it won't fix the root of the problem..

I'd rule it out.

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Is it the ram?
I pulled one set of sticks out, knowing it'd be strange for the ram to suddenly go corrupt on the day I'm trying to fix it, so I doubt it, but I did consider the new uefi firmware has screwed up the timings, since I had two different ramkits, I'd had a computer get confused before when It tried allocating the same voltages/timings to both kits.

So I pulled one kit out and left the 2x4gb in, and checked I had the timings and stuff set right. It still happened 15 minutes later.
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So what in the hell is it?
I ran checkdisk from windows, no problems, I ran sfc /scannow overnight which verified/had no problems. Changing the ram and having the timings correct didn't seem to fix it.
So when I woke up It was still happening. Ironically, I got a paragraph through this post before it happened again, and had to retype it on my laptop.

I'm now running memtest86 on the desktop, but again, I'm highly doubting it's the memory, as it was all fine before yesterday except for the slow boot times.

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Tl;Dr Computer has slow boot times, I try fix them, start getting bsods, which I fix, but instead start getting computer locking up consistently about 10-15 minutes after bootup.
After trying various things, I don't know what's to blame or what to fix.