Computer freezes during gaming, requires hard restart. Can't figure if software or hardware problem.

Midnight013 · Aug 6, 2015

Recently during gaming, my computer will completely freeze (cant alt tab or open task manager) and will require a hard restart in order to get working again. At first, I thought it was an overheating problem so I cleaned out all the dust out of my pc but the freezing problem persisted.

I can't figure out if the freezing is the result of a software or hardware issue. The freezing started happening after I upgraded from windows 7 to windows 10. However, the freezing only occurs during gaming which points to a hardware problem; possibly the graphics card, motherboard, or power supply.

I also want to note that my computer does run a little hotter than normal. My motherboard and graphics card can go upward past 60 degrees Celsius when gaming (39 degrees Celsius when idle). All my fans are working and spinning in the right direction (plus I cleaned out all the dust) so I don't know what could cause the high temperature. I have the tower in an elevated position on my drawer, none of the vents are blocked. My CPU runs within acceptable parameters even when gaming so I don't believe the issue is there.

Maybe the overheating is causing the freezing but I don't know what is causing the overheating. Or could it be due to upgrading to windows 10?

In the end, I have no idea where to start or what to do and is looking for any advice anyone can give me.

Thank you.

PC specs
Operating system: Windows 10 Home 64-bit
CPU: AMD FX-6300
Ram: 8GB Dual Channel DDR3
Motherboard: MSI 970A-G46
Graphics: ATI AMD Radeon HD 9600 series (Gigabyte)

monstron · Aug 8, 2015

The first suspect is the os update. As it was something you did lately.. and the new os is expected to have bugs/compatibility issues. Try to completely uninstall the gpu's driver and reinstall the latest one(which should support the new os).

If it's not a software problem which im leaning more towards to, it might be a hardware one. It doesn't seem your temperatures go that high, gpus can go 70+ without problems(mine works at 75 when on load without a problem).

In your case i would start by checking the ram, try memtest (make a bootable flash with it and let it pass once, if you find errors try to check the sticks one by one). You can also check your hdd, the rest of the hardware has less chance of creating a problem(MB, PSU) in my opinion ofc.

Good luck finding the problem, i think you can revert the windows 10 upgrade as a last solution also.

renz496 · Aug 9, 2015

Sounds like power supply issue. What is the exact model of your gpu?

ArAnd0mPers0n · Aug 13, 2015

Midnight013 :

Recently during gaming, my computer will completely freeze (cant alt tab or open task manager) and will require a hard restart in order to get working again. At first, I thought it was an overheating problem so I cleaned out all the dust out of my pc but the freezing problem persisted.

I can't figure out if the freezing is the result of a software or hardware issue. The freezing started happening after I upgraded from windows 7 to windows 10. However, the freezing only occurs during gaming which points to a hardware problem; possibly the graphics card, motherboard, or power supply.

I also want to note that my computer does run a little hotter than normal. My motherboard and graphics card can go upward past 60 degrees Celsius when gaming (39 degrees Celsius when idle). All my fans are working and spinning in the right direction (plus I cleaned out all the dust) so I don't know what could cause the high temperature. I have the tower in an elevated position on my drawer, none of the vents are blocked. My CPU runs within acceptable parameters even when gaming so I don't believe the issue is there.

Maybe the overheating is causing the freezing but I don't know what is causing the overheating. Or could it be due to upgrading to windows 10?

In the end, I have no idea where to start or what to do and is looking for any advice anyone can give me.

Thank you.

PC specs
Operating system: Windows 10 Home 64-bit
CPU: AMD FX-6300
Ram: 8GB Dual Channel DDR3
Motherboard: MSI 970A-G46
Graphics: ATI AMD Radeon HD 9600 series (Gigabyte)

What game where you playing? i came across something similar when playing spore which since i had 2 monitors i simply opened task manager on the other monitor and killed SporeApp.exe

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Computer freezes during gaming, requires hard restart. Can't figure if software or hardware problem.

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