My computer has recently started struggling with basic programs like Steam, my browser, and Discord. Oddly, games run fine, but if I stop running a game for a couple of minutes, the screen freezes and the computer eventually crashes with a watchdog violation. Installing software seems to make the problem even worse. I temporarily changed some Secure Boot settings in the BIOS to play a game, but I changed them back afterward. Windows was reinstalled only a month or two ago, and the issue began about a week ago. What could be causing this, and how should I troubleshoot it?
1 Answer
Since Windows was reinstalled fairly recently, general OS age probably isn’t the cause. The sudden start suggests checking drivers, Windows updates, BIOS settings, and hardware stability instead. A watchdog violation can come from a faulty or conflicting driver, storage problems, memory instability, or BIOS settings. Try updating or reinstalling your chipset, graphics, and storage drivers, then run Windows Memory Diagnostic and a drive-health check. Also load the BIOS defaults again and make sure any overclocking or memory profile is disabled temporarily.
That makes sense—the problem only started about a week ago, so I’ll check the drivers and hardware before reinstalling Windows again.