Windows 10: PC occasionally freezes on black screen while gaming

I recently built a computer back in July which had some kinks that I thought I worked through, but now my PC has been freezing only while gaming with this black screen where some of the colours are distorted. Looks like this I've looked through the minidump files in effort to help figure out what might be the cause of my PC issues, but I honestly have no idea how to read any of this. If anyone could get me figure out what is wrong with my pc, that would be greatly appreciated!I'll post my minidump files in the comments if someone wants to take a look.

:)

 

PC Freezing Up Occasionally

Hi！



Welcome to Microsoft Community and thank you for sharing your concern with us today.

Your problem is PC Freezing Up Occasionally. It may be that your computer is a bit old and is not compatible with the Windows system, so occasionally a black screen will appear.

We suggest that you try the following steps:

Workaround 1: Turn Off Link State Power Management

Virtual memory is a combination of your RAM and a portion of your hard drive. It is mainly used to extend your computer's physical memory. When your computer runs out of RAM, Windows uses virtual memory for temporary file storage. In case that it is the insufficient RAM brings Windows 10 freezes randomly issue, you can adjust the virtual memory.

Step 1. Right-click "This PC" and choose "Properties". Then select "Advanced system settings" from the left panel.





Step 2. Go to "Advanced" tab and click "Settings".



Step 3. Go to "Advanced" tab again and choose "Change…" under Virtual memory section.



Step 4. Ensure the "Automatically manage paging file size for all drives" is NOT checked. Then select the partition that has Windows installed (usually, it is C and enter an Initial size and Maximum size for your virtual memory:

• Initial size: This value varies on different computers. If you're not sure what value to use, just enter the recommended size.
  
• Maximum size: Don't set this value too high. It is recommended to enter 1.5 times the size of your physical RAM.
  

Once you've configured your virtual memory values, click "Set" and then "OK" to continue.



If PC keeps freezing, try the next solution.

Workaround 2: Turn Off Fast Startup

Turn Off Link State Power Management

Link State Power Management is a power saving mechanism. It is said that disabling Link State Power Management is effective in Windows 10 freezing fix especially where NVIDIA/AMD Graphic Cards were being used.

Here is how you can do it:

Step 1. Press Win + R keys to open the Run box.

Step 2. Type "powercfg.cpl" and then hit "OK".

Step 3. Find your power plan and then click "Change plan settings".



Step 4. Choose "Change advanced power settings".



Step 5. Locate the "PCI Express" category and then expand it, change the setting of "Link State Power Management" to "Off".



Step 6. Click "OK" and then "Apply".



Feel free to post back if you need further assistance.





Best Regards

Rebecca | Microsoft Community Support Specialist

 

Windows Issue: Random crashes, black screens, PC freezing

Hello,

I'm currently facing the occasional random crashes. I also find myself with a black screen in a middle of a game requiring a reboot and from time to time the PC just locks/freezes. General performance issues are also a problem too. For example loading up task-manager or excessive frame drops during games.

I would like help on figuring out the possible causes. Let me know if you require more information and I will gladly get them for you. Most of my PC specs are already in my profile.

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Windows 10 Version: 19043.1110


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Many thanks!

 

Occasional PC freeze

In the past 2 days my PC has frozen a couple of times each day.

Brief system spec.:

• Windows 10 Pro V.1909 (Build 18363.900). Reverted from 2004 10 days ago, suspected Macrium Reflect problem (not the case)
• AV: Kaspersky Free
• Motherboard: Gigabyte P55-USB3 (Socket 1156)
• RAM: 8GB Corsair Vengeance Ram
• CPU: Intel i5 760 2.80GHz
• Graphice: NVIDIA GeForce GT 430
• C: drive - Samsung SSD 850 PRO 512GB ATA
• D: drive - Western Digital 2TB black
• E: drive - (USB) Western Digital 2TB My Passport

Yesterday:

• Some 20 minutes after booting it froze. Mouse LED went out, screen stayed showing whatever it had been. No keyboard response (forgot to see if keyboard lights were on).
• Restarted. After 10 minutes or so the same again.
• Restarted. No problems for the several hours it was on. I kept Speccy running to keep an eye on various temperatures, nothing out of the ordinary.

Today

• Some 8-10 minutes after booting it froze. Same signs & symptoms as yesterday.
• Restarted. Part way through booting, may have still been in BIOS it stopped and restarted.
• No problems in the >6 hours since.

Speccy continues to show no unusual temperatures.

Running Crystal Disk Info appears to be all ok








Crystal Disk Mark also show no problems for the D: drive
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 7.0.0 x64 (C) 2007-2019 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World: Crystal Dew World
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* MB/s = 1,000,000 bytes/s [SATA/600 = 600,000,000 bytes/s]
* KB = 1000 bytes, KiB = 1024 bytes
[Read]
Sequential 1MiB (Q= 8, T= 1): 174.927 MB/s [ 166.8 IOPS] < 47698.76 us>
Sequential 1MiB (Q= 1, T= 1): 171.960 MB/s [ 164.0 IOPS] < 6094.14 us>
Random 4KiB (Q= 32, T=16): 0.876 MB/s [ 213.9 IOPS] <644905.04 us>
Random 4KiB (Q= 1, T= 1): 0.747 MB/s [ 182.4 IOPS] < 5464.75 us>

[Write]
Sequential 1MiB (Q= 8, T= 1): 169.451 MB/s [ 161.6 IOPS] < 49138.10 us>
Sequential 1MiB (Q= 1, T= 1): 169.462 MB/s [ 161.6 IOPS] < 6180.67 us>
Random 4KiB (Q= 32, T=16): 2.166 MB/s [ 528.8 IOPS] <399412.65 us>
Random 4KiB (Q= 1, T= 1): 2.153 MB/s [ 525.6 IOPS] < 1899.61 us>

Profile: Default
Test: 1 GiB (x5) [Interval: 5 sec] <DefaultAffinity=DISABLED>
Date: 2020/06/21 14:29:59 OS: Windows 10 Professional [10.0 Build 18363] (x64)
Nothing showing in the Event Log apart from during restart a message that the system had closed down unexpectedly, no other information.

One other thing I noticed when digging around I ran msinfo32. It showedInstalled Physical Memory (RAM) 8.00 GBTotal Physical Memory 3.99 GB
Wondering if this suggested a RAM issue I rebooted into BIOS setup to see if there was anything odd. All looked ok so exited without saving any inadvertent changes. On restarting the Total Physical Memory is showing 7.99GB. While the Available Physical Memory will fluctuate depending on system activity, I wouldn't have expected the Total Physical Memory to be anything other than 8GB (near enough).
It occurs to me that seeing that on both days the freezes occurred soon after the morning boot whether there's some system activity that is causing the problem.

I'm not sure where to look further. Any ideas?