I bought a Powerspec G529 from Micro Center in March and it had worked perfectly for months. Yesterday I installed Starfield, verified that my system met the requirements, and played for a while before the game crashed. After launching it again and playing longer, it crashed a second time and left the computer on a black screen for several minutes, so I shut the PC down with the power button.
Since restarting, the entire system has been extremely sluggish. My live wallpaper stutters badly, and even low-demand games such as Farming Simulator, SWTOR, and similar titles are practically unusable. Some games stutter before the menu loads, and mouse clicks can take over a minute to register. I have uninstalled Starfield and several other large games, installed Windows updates, restarted repeatedly, and defragmented the drive before realizing that probably was not necessary.
Windows reported that my AMD graphics driver needed an update, but the update failed with an error saying that AMD detected a hardware issue. Device Manager also shows an error related to the AMD driver. When the stuttering happens, the fans do not get louder and the computer does not seem to be under unusually heavy load, although Farming Simulator pushes CPU usage close to 100%.
Could a game crash really cause this, or is it more likely a corrupted driver or failing graphics card? I do not have a restore point available. What troubleshooting steps should I try, and should I take the PC back to Micro Center for service or warranty testing?
4 Answers
Heat is possible, but it is not the first explanation here, especially since the fans are staying quiet and the issue began with a graphics crash. Starfield may simply have been the first demanding workload to reveal an existing problem. A temperature check is still worthwhile, but persistent stuttering across several games and an AMD hardware warning point more toward a driver or graphics-card fault than the game itself.
The AMD driver error makes a corrupted graphics installation a strong possibility. Download the correct AMD driver and Display Driver Uninstaller first, but do not run the AMD installer yet. Boot into Safe Mode, use DDU to completely remove the existing AMD display drivers, and prevent Windows Update from automatically installing a replacement during the process. Then restart normally and install the fresh driver. This often fixes severe stuttering and black-screen crashes caused by a broken driver installation.
The high CPU usage by itself does not prove the GPU is dead. If the graphics driver has crashed or the system has fallen back to a basic display mode, games may shift more work to the CPU and become extremely slow. Check Device Manager for the exact error code and confirm that the monitor is connected to the graphics card rather than the motherboard. If DDU and a fresh driver do not resolve it, stop stressing the system and let Micro Center check the GPU, power supply, temperatures, and motherboard.
A game is very unlikely to physically damage the computer, but the crash may have exposed a graphics-driver problem or a failing GPU. Start by returning any GPU overclock to stock settings, including software-based automatic overclocking. If a clean driver reinstall does not help, a fresh Windows installation can help separate a software problem from defective hardware. If the problem continues after that, have Micro Center test the graphics card under warranty.
Device Manager is also reporting an AMD driver error, so I am trying the clean-removal process now. I will check whether the GPU behaves normally after reinstalling the driver before assuming the hardware has failed.