Windows 10: Windows 10 PC locks up/freezes when gaming. I have to hard restart.

Since I built my PC back in 2016 I have had a reccuring problem in which when I'm playing certain high-performance video games, my PC will suddenly freeze/lock up. I then have to hard reset it to get it going again. Because of the hard reset, I am not getting a BSOD and of course that means no dump files to analyse which makes things so much harder to pinpoint.


Between 2016 and now, I have gotten a new CPU, GPU, Memory, SSD, HDD and WiFi adapter. I feel its safe to rule those components out due the problem still persisting after all those changes. I've done numerous memory/disk scans along with stress tests which all come back as good. I've tried disabling services that I don't need along with updating chipsets, BIOS, drivers and Windows updates.


This problem used to happen with another high performance game until I upgraded my GPU which solved the issue for that game. I have noticed that my CPU is reaching up to 90 degrees in game, not sure why thats happening as the CPU's fan is connected properly and there is the right amound of thermal paste applied.


Specs

Windows 10 Home 64-bit version 2004

Intel Core i7 7700K @ 4.20GHz
16.0GB RAM
Gigabyte B150M-D3H-CF
GTX 1070 4095MB
SSD: Apacer AS340
HDD: WD 1863GB

PSU: HEXA 500

:)

 

Hard drive/ OS issue

a guy suggested :

• shutdown
• unhooked HDD
• restarted
• yay !!
• reconnected HDD
• restarted
• yay !!

also , try method 3
How do I unlock the drive where Windows 10 is installed?

 

Windows 10 Tweaks

Pressing “Windows+Pause Break” (it’s up there next to scroll lock) opens the “System” Window.

Windows 10: In the new version of Windows, Explorer has a section called Quick Access. This includes your frequent folders and recent files. Explorer defaults to opening this page when you open a new window. If you’d rather open the usual This PC, with links to your drives and library folders, follow these steps:

• Open a new Explorer window.
• Click View in the ribbon.
• Click Options.
• Under General, next to “Open File Explorer to:” choose “This PC.”
• Click OK

credit to Lifehacker.

 

GPU-Z (driver?) causes Windows 10 PC to hard lock (freeze)

Yes, I know Windows 10 Insider Preview is not 100% stable by default.
However, it seems even with RTM/Release version of Windows 10 this one PC of mine - only it, the others are fine - still has issues.

My other PCs - 3 of them - run and get Windows Insider Preview updates and can reset/restart/etc without any such reboot stalling issues.
There is something specific to this 1 PC that fails, but I do not know what it is, nor do I need help with that here.
IF I needed help with this, I would post to the proper forum section, i.e. not this one.

The section here discusses GPU-Z and I only ask for help - such a fix or maybe giving some more info GPU-Z maker may need from me to identify the issue/etc - with that hard lock issue and not my booting issue.