PC freezing after starting game but not after restart

Muzerie · Jun 7, 2016

Hi,
I've been having a strange problem ever since building this PC in November. When I start up a game, it will run fine for a few seconds to a few minutes, and then the PC freezes. The screen freezes at the screen it's at and the sound stops or glitches. I can't do anything to stop this so I press the reset button. After doing this and restarting the game runs fine until I start the next gaming session later that day or the next day. Then the same thing happens, the PC freezing after a short while of playing a game and doing fine after I press the reset button. It happens with a range from Hearthstone to Battlefield 4 to Overwatch to easy to handle games for the pc like the hidden: source (CS: Source mod). So basically everything. Do you have any ideas?

Here are my parts:
CPU: AMD Athlon 860K (stock cooler)
GPU: Powercolor 280X
M/B: ASRock FM2A68M-HD+
PSU: Seasonic M12II 520W
Storage: Samsung ssd and barracuda HDD
Case: Bitfenix prodigy M
RAM: crucuial ballistix 8 gig set (2x4gb)
And Windows 10 64bit

If you need any more info just ask
Any help is greatly appreciated

Blas · Jun 7, 2016

It could be that temperatures are too high when the PC is under load (after launching a game), and hence freezes: have you checked the temps? Is there any overclocked component in your PC?

Just to be sure i understand: so you launch a game, then after a variable amount of time the PC freezes, and you have to hard-reset it. And after the reset, can you then play normally for long times?

Muzerie · Jun 7, 2016

Blas :

I have checked the cpu and gpu temps and cpu temps stayed around the 8C thermal margin mark. No overclocked components. First thing I thought was temps as well but now I don't think so.

What you say is correct. After the hard reset I can play normally for long times. This also leads me to think it's not the temperature that causes the freezes.

Blas · Jun 7, 2016

Strange indeed. Considering that a reboot of the operating system kind of fixes the problem, i would say the problem might come from some glitch in the software, though i really couldn't be sure. It's hard to recommend anything, as i have no clue what the problem might be. Maybe an OS re-install will fix it, and maybe not. As i suspect it's software related, I would try removing all drivers, and re-installing the latest versions. If that doesn't fix the issue, look into your hardware's firmware (the mobo, mainly), to make sure it's updated. And if that doesn't solve it, i would re-install.

Did you update from windows 7 or 8(.1) to windows 10? there are some driver incompatibilities, for example i was using a Gigabyte mouse in windows 7 and when i updated to windows 10, at startup the mouse pointer would literally fall to the bottom of the screen and i couldn't lift it, that was funny... Maybe there's some glitch like that hapenning to you, so a clean install could be the solution. But then again, i'm really unsure whether it will help or not, it might all just be a waste of time...

Muzerie · Jun 7, 2016

Blas :

Thanks for your suggestions.
Could you please tell me how exactly to uninstall and reinstall drivers? Especially for the GPU. I'm afraid I'll uninstall the driver and the screen would go blank because I 'removed' the GPU. Also, what to reinstall? MB, GPU, and then what? I can't think of anything else tbh.

Blas · Jun 7, 2016

First, proceed step by step. Uninstall one driver, reboot, search the internet for the latest one, install and reboot. Don't do these with all drivers, do it one by one, and check whether the problem is solved. If not, next step. If it is, enjoy the game

The GPU will be the easiest: press the windows key, type "control" and you should see a link to the Control Panel in the start button menu: click on it, and then under the "Programs" icon there should be a "Uninstall programs" shortcut (i don't have Windows in English, so the exact wordings might be slightly different, i'm just translating). Click it and a window will appear with the list of all installed programs. Scroll down until you find something called "AMD Install manager", select it and click "uninstall or modify". Continue the uninstall wizard until the end. Your screen may flicker, but don't worry. Even if you don't have a driver for the GPU, windows has standard drivers to speak to any GPU, so don't worry, you won't be facing a black monitor

Once it's uninstalled, reboot and then open a browser, type "AMD drivers" and download from AMD's repository the latest drivers, install them, reboot.

MB: that's a little trickier, because i have no clue what drivers you may have installed or not. So unless you know which entries in the programs' lists correspond to the drivers, i wouldn't touch them.

Any other peripherals you might have, like mouses, cameras, external drives or what not: that too may be the cause, so proceed to uninstall and the rest.

Download only windows 10 drivers, don't try using those for windows 7 or 8.

If none of this works, either seek more help or do a clean install of windows 10 (you can go to some microsoft page and download the latest ISO: even if you had updated from some previous windows version, it will let you install and activate).

Good luck!

Muzerie · Jun 7, 2016

Blas :

First, proceed step by step. Uninstall one driver, reboot, search the internet for the latest one, install and reboot. Don't do these with all drivers, do it one by one, and check whether the problem is solved. If not, next step. If it is, enjoy the game

The GPU will be the easiest: press the windows key, type "control" and you should see a link to the Control Panel in the start button menu: click on it, and then under the "Programs" icon there should be a "Uninstall programs" shortcut (i don't have Windows in English, so the exact wordings might be slightly different, i'm just translating). Click it and a window will appear with the list of all installed programs. Scroll down until you find something called "AMD Install manager", select it and click "uninstall or modify". Continue the uninstall wizard until the end. Your screen may flicker, but don't worry. Even if you don't have a driver for the GPU, windows has standard drivers to speak to any GPU, so don't worry, you won't be facing a black monitor

Once it's uninstalled, reboot and then open a browser, type "AMD drivers" and download from AMD's repository the latest drivers, install them, reboot.

MB: that's a little trickier, because i have no clue what drivers you may have installed or not. So unless you know which entries in the programs' lists correspond to the drivers, i wouldn't touch them.

Any other peripherals you might have, like mouses, cameras, external drives or what not: that too may be the cause, so proceed to uninstall and the rest.

Download only windows 10 drivers, don't try using those for windows 7 or 8.

If none of this works, either seek more help or do a clean install of windows 10 (you can go to some microsoft page and download the latest ISO: even if you had updated from some previous windows version, it will let you install and activate).

Good luck!

Thanks for the elaborate explaination, I will update this thread after updating the drivers

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