Windows 10 freezes during gameplay after update

[Null Override]

I have recently updated my PC to the Windows 10 October 4/5 update version. The update itself took several tries to finally install properly, and since then I'll play a game and after less than half an hour it will freeze the computer completely. Sometimes it will come back to life but usually I have to do a hard reset.

I've looked in the event logs, and some google search led me to believe it may be the RSS feed scheduled task screwing things up, but I disabled that task and the lockup is still happening. This is not a blue screen. The symptoms are: all the video stops moving (including mouse cursor) and the audio stutters a certain tone that is not a distinguishable note in the music of the game. The Windows operating system is the only major update on the PC and multiple games have caused this.

To try to resolve I have updated the sound drivers, AMD chipset drivers, and completely cleaned out and reinstalled the video drivers according to the guide on TomsHardware.com. Result: the stuttering sound was different and after I did the hard reboot chkdisk automatically ran on the C: drive.

A similar version of this problem would happen from time-to-time before the update, but at that time I could usually mash some keys (I focused on ESC and other left-hand keys) and everything would return to normal. Now no key mashing does any good.

*UPDATE* after a Windows Update on 10/17, key mashing seems to help at least some of the time, but not as much as it had before.

Windows config from CPU-Z:

Processor (CPU)
CPU Name	AMD FX™-6300 Six-Core Processor
Threading	1 CPU - 6 Core - 6 Threads
Frequency	3495.43 MHz (17.5 * 199.74 MHz) - Uncore: 1997.4 MHz
Multiplier	Current: 17.5 / Min: 7 / Max: 20.5
Architecture	Vishera / OR-C0-Step (32 nm)
Cpuid / Ext.	F.2.0 / 15.2
IA Extensions	MMX(+), SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, SSE4A, x86-64, AES, AVX, XOP, FMA3, FMA4
Caches	L1D : 16 KB / L2 : 2048 KB / L3 : 8192 KB
Caches Assoc.	L1D : 4-way / L2 : 16-way / L3 : 64-way
TDP / Vcore	94.99 Watts / 1.28 Volts
Temperature	43.3 °C / 110 °F
Type	Retail (Stock Frequency : 3500 MHz)
Motherboard
Model	MSI 970A-G46 (MS-7693)
Socket	Socket AM3+ (942)
North Bridge	AMD RD9x0 rev 02
South Bridge	AMD SB910/950 rev 40
BIOS	American Megatrends Inc. V2.6 (10/08/2013)
Memory (RAM)
Total Size	16384 MB
Type	Dual Channel (128 bit) DDR3-SDRAM
Frequency	799 MHz - Ratio 1:4
Timings	9-9-9-24-33 (tCAS-tRC-tRP-tRAS-tCS)
Slot #1 Module	Team Group Inc. 8192 MB (DDR3-1337) - XMP 1.3 - P/N: Vulcan-1600
Slot #2 Module	Team Group Inc. 8192 MB (DDR3-1337) - XMP 1.3 - P/N: Vulcan-1600
Graphic Card (GPU)
GPU Type	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 Ti (GM107) @ 135 MHz
GPU Brand	EVGA Corp.
GPU Specs	GM107-400 / Process: 28nm / Transistors: 1870M / Die Size: 148 mm² / TDP: 55W
GPU Units	Shader Units: 640 / Texture Units (TMU): 40 / Render Units (ROP): 16
GPU VRAM	2048 MB GDDR5 128 bit @ 405 MHz
GPU APIs	DirectX 12.0 / OpenGL 4.5 / OpenCL 1.2 / Vulkan N/A
Storage (HDD/SSD)
Model #1	Seagate ST3500410AS
Capacity #1	500 GB
Model #2	Western Digital WDC WD2500SD-01KCC0
Capacity #2	250 GB
Model #3	Corsair Force GS
Capacity #3	128 GB
Display
Screen #1	Dell Computer DELL 1907FP (DEL4015)
Screen #1 Spec	19.1 inches (48.5 cm) / 1280 x 1024 pixels @ 56-76 Hz
Screen #2	VH226 (ACI22F2)
Screen #2 Spec	21.7 inches (55.1 cm) / 1920 x 1080 pixels @ 50-76 Hz
Miscellaneous
Windows Version	Microsoft Windows 10 (10.0) Professional 64-bit
Windows Subver.	Build 14393
CPU-Z Version	1.77.0 (64 bit)

 

[Null Override]

I will say I found advice that resolved my issue in other threads in this forum. It turns out that this motherboard and processor combination was not friendly to Windows 10. A new ASUS board, also recommended in this forum, resolved my issue nicely. I have played many hours of games since updating without issue.

I was also able to find a guide for swapping out a motherboard without completely reinstalling the operating system. I did have to reactivate but that was it.