My computer has recently started freezing for about 3–7 seconds whenever I open another browser tab, move the mouse around, or run more than one or two applications. The screen then goes black briefly, and when it returns, games and programs have usually crashed, shown an error, or become unresponsive. Sometimes I have to power-cycle the monitor or restart the computer.
The biggest clue I've noticed is that GPU usage jumps from around 10% to 100% right before the freeze. Device Manager lists both AMD Radeon integrated graphics and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070, so I'm wondering whether the graphics drivers or the two adapters are conflicting. This problem appeared suddenly.
My hardware is an AMD Ryzen 5 7600X, 16GB of DDR5 memory, an RTX 4070, and a Dell P2422H monitor connected over HDMI. What troubleshooting steps should I try, and what other information would be useful?
3 Answers
When the screen goes black, press Ctrl+Shift+Windows+B. Windows will restart the graphics driver, and you may hear a short beep or see the display flicker. If that brings the picture back without rebooting, it strongly points toward a display-driver or GPU stability problem. Also check Event Viewer for display-driver errors around the time of the crash, and consider whether a recent Windows or driver update coincided with the issue.
Because the Ryzen 5 7600X system also exposes integrated Radeon graphics, the two adapters could be causing a configuration or driver problem. As a test, disable the integrated AMD graphics adapter in Device Manager and make sure the monitor is plugged into the RTX 4070 rather than the motherboard video output. Also check GPU temperatures and power connections while reproducing the issue.
This sounds very much like a graphics-driver crash. I’d use Display Driver Uninstaller in Safe Mode to remove the existing AMD and NVIDIA display drivers, then install a fresh driver for the RTX 4070. A clean reinstall is more reliable than simply installing over the current driver.
I’ll check which port the monitor is using and try disabling the integrated adapter temporarily. I’ll also monitor temperatures during a crash.