I built a gaming PC that worked normally for several days, but now it freezes shortly after I log into Windows. The BIOS is stable and loads correctly, and restoring the system didn't solve the issue. My drivers are current, disabling EXPO made no difference, and there doesn't seem to be a performance bottleneck.
Build:
- Gigabyte B650M D3HP AX
- AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D
- Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 9070 XT
- Corsair 32GB DDR5-6000 CL30
- Thermalright Peerless Assassin cooler
- Corsair RM750e PSU
- Crucial P310 PCIe 4.0 M.2 SSD
Safe Mode works without freezing. What should I check next, and would completely reinstalling the graphics driver or Windows likely fix it?
3 Answers
If the PC also froze in Safe Mode, I’d start investigating hardware by testing one memory stick at a time and running MemTest86. You could also temporarily disable EXPO in the BIOS, since memory instability can appear after a system initially seems stable. However, because Safe Mode is reliable, software is the more likely cause here.
Because the BIOS is stable and the freeze only happens once Windows finishes loading, this is most likely a Windows driver or startup-service problem. Since Safe Mode runs normally, check Task Manager’s startup programs and Device Manager, then use DDU from Safe Mode to remove the AMD graphics driver completely. After rebooting, install a fresh driver directly from AMD. It’s also worth checking Event Viewer for errors around the time of the freeze.
A clean graphics-driver reinstall is a better first step than wiping Windows. Safe Mode working strongly points to a normal-mode driver or startup application, and a corrupted GPU driver or recent Windows update could explain why the system worked for a few days before failing. If the problem continues after DDU and a fresh driver install, check the SSD’s health and Windows update history.
I tried Safe Mode and it worked fine. Would a clean Windows installation be the best next step?